The Truth about Stetsom amplifiers

[Grinder1989 5,000+ posts]

I have seen a Stetsom 10kd in person as well as the 2kd. They are weird looking, almost unconventional. But from what I understand and from what I can see (in the brief moments that I saw this amp) is that they build their amps with big, strong parts. Don't ask me what they are because I don't know. I think that they work only because of the quality of parts they put in their amps.

scarolinablazin,

You know absolutely nothing about amps and shouldn't be in this conversation. You can be admitted in this conversation once you actually fix a broken amp or by just simply pulling your thick head out of your ***.

 

[kmanian 5,000+ posts]

I have seen a Stetsom 10kd in person as well as the 2kd. They are weird looking, almost unconventional. But from what I understand and from what I can see (in the brief moments that I saw this amp) is that they build their amps with big, strong parts. Don't ask me what they are because I don't know. I think that they work only because of the quality of parts they put in their amps.
scarolinablazin,

You know absolutely nothing about amps and shouldn't be in this conversation. You can be admitted in this conversation once you actually fix a broken amp or by just simply pulling your thick head out of your ***.

I seriouslu just LOL:laugh:

 

[stetsom]

Not trying to hate on Stetsom, but I DO have a few questions regarding them as I have never had the oppurtunity to test one or work on one yet:

1. Which mosfets are you referring to that are 100 amp rather than 40 or 50A? The power supply fets or are you talking output FETs. I have never seen a 100 amp output mosfet that I can recall browsing through mosfets anyway? If you mean 100 amp mosfets in the power supply, most all, probably 90% of modern amplifiers use 100 amp mosfets in the power supply these days, if not 100 amp, then no less than 60-70 amp, the only amps I have ever seen with 40-50amp mosfets are the el-cheapos from years back and really old amps because they didn't make 100 amp mosfets back then. Also that being said, most modern amplifiers that use mosfets in the output stage use various, from 11A to 53A that I have seen. Please do give some info on this as I am dying to know what is in those things (the stetsom amps) as I do not understand the power/weight ratio of those amps, seems like they would just burn up if you run them more than 15 minutes at full power. Some amps use the 169amp or maybe even the new 200amp mosfets that IR is putting out.

2. Does the expensive wire for the output inductors become necessary for the great heat generated by the advertised output specs on these amps? Why such expensive wire?

3. I would think the amp would thermal easily running into a lowest rated impedance load in 100+degrees F. Do you remove the thermal protection for those tests?

4. You say american mosfets, but aren't all IR mosfets made in Mexico? Just wondering because all of them I have ever purchased say Origin: Mexico. Nothing wrong with that, as I believe IR is the best choice for mosfets.

5. Since 1989? Has it been called Stetsom all along? I thought I had heard the name before, as I have been into Car Audio since 1987.

Please don't get mad at me, just answer my questions, I am not hating, just curious, and since you posted this here I figured I would ask here.

Hi My Name is Hugo Mendonça and i`m the International Business guy (nice hey //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif)

I just want to state in relation to the questions made, that Stetsom is in a Market that`s all about power! we have guys over here running 100 Woofers 12" on a single truck using 25 10K amplifiers to play on party`s that go all day long in the sun with 90+ humidity and over 100F!!!

The reason why our amplifiers are so small is because our market has small cars like the Chevy Aveo or Honda Fit, so we have to engineer the amps to be able to fit in cars with high power applications.

On the D line we use on the channel 100AMP by 60V mosfets and the Power Supply uses 100AMP by 200V mosfets. this is on of the reasons why they get small, our heat sink was projected by us using a very good aluminum that dissipates allot of heat. today since we are getting bigger each day on power we are engineering a new heat sink that will dissipate even more heat, but unfortunately the amps will get bigger or on this case wider.

The Litz wire was a choice for the MID and HIGHS and of course a cleaner signal, our amplifiers are full range so thats why we are using litz.

On the 4 channel amplifiers we use regulated power supply`s with Bipolar transistors on the output`s (tip35 and tip36), on the power supply we use 4x100AMP mosfets, st 600.4 and st600.2 models.

as for the mosfet`s being from Mexico we don`t know the only thing I know is that we control our batch of components, why? because we had a bad experience buying from a "authorized distributor" a batch of fet`s and we had to make a recall on over 2500 amps to change them, why? because they were Chinese copycats and for the applications that we make we need original working and reliable parts that we can only find in the USA where we have Warranty on the batch`s of components, Micrometals=Torroidals, CI= Fairchield, Fuses=LittleFuse, Mosfets=International Rectifier. we do this because we are serious about our products, every product believe it or not is tested on by one even our little hybrid booster 2x60WRMS is tested one by one and we make over 20.000 per month. our total production per month is over 28.000 amplifiers.

We have over 300 Employees and several facility's were we make from copper terminals to plastic injection everything is made in house.

I`m not an engineer but if you guys have questions I`ll post them directly to the Engineering dpt. to answer them.

About STETSOM name its been like this from 20 years, and its similar to STETSON the company that sells hats and perfumes

Have a great day

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Sure send me one, there is one for sale on DIYMA I was told in a PM that I haven't had time to respond to yet because this thread grew to 5 pages in less than 1 hour it seems.... geeezzz think of how much bandwidth is wasted by Sundown Haters.... There should be a Sundown Hater Tax on their internet bills....

the BXi2607 is a 2000 watt amp IMO. I don't know why they rated it at 2600. It should do great at 2 ohms as well. The limiting factor is that in order for it to be more powerful (like 2600 watts for REAL) it would need a higher rail voltage to the output mosfets. Which would push them over their limits and be like some people are accusing Stetsom amps of doing, which I am still trying to figure that one out.... Just be happy with them. The price of the HiFonics Brutus line, especially the larger ones is a GREAT value. They will go bumpity bump just as good as amp in slightly higher price ranges, maybe not as good as all in higher price ranges but at least most. They are a "value" line. That is the way they were intended.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

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That's just insane... geeezz why?

 

[sqhertz 5,000+ posts]

im sure some people are with me on this and some arnt , but i cant justify spending an assload of money on an amp (even though it may be one of the best in the market) when i can snag something that is much cheaper and has been proven time after time.

just my $0.02.

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

That's just insane... geeezz why?

I'm following hoping I'll learn something, It's all over my head but some of it may sink in...

 

[infamous_e46 5,000+ posts]

the quality of the parts play a big role as well. if he's using American made parts they are going to be far superior to the chinese junk that companys like sundown etc use. therefore he is able to get better numbers. the fact that you have never even seen one also says they are better quality than others like sundown chinese crap.

wow you just took the title from kove //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[NewAgeKing 5,000+ posts]

That's just insane... geeezz why?

Good read for me. Ive been curious about stetsom amps for some time.

 

[sqhertz 5,000+ posts]

I'm following hoping I'll learn something, It's all over my head but some of it may sink in...

x2. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[Upzaw2000]

40.1's FTW!!!!!!!!! lol.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Hi My Name is Hugo Mendonça and i`m the International Business guy (nice hey //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif)
I just want to state in relation to the questions made, that Stetsom is in a Market that`s all about power! we have guys over here running 100 Woofers 12" on a single truck using 25 10K amplifiers to play on party`s that go all day long in the sun with 90+ humidity and over 100F!!!

The reason why our amplifiers are so small is because our market has small cars like the Chevy Aveo or Honda Fit, so we have to engineer the amps to be able to fit in cars with high power applications.

On the D line we use on the channel 100AMP by 60V mosfets and the Power Supply uses 100AMP by 200V mosfets. this is on of the reasons why they get small, our heat sink was projected by us using a very good aluminum that dissipates allot of heat. today since we are getting bigger each day on power we are engineering a new heat sink that will dissipate even more heat, but unfortunately the amps will get bigger or on this case wider.

The Litz wire was a choice for the MID and HIGHS and of course a cleaner signal, our amplifiers are full range so thats why we are using litz.

On the 4 channel amplifiers we use regulated power supply`s with Bipolar transistors on the output`s (tip35 and tip36), on the power supply we use 4x100AMP mosfets, st 600.4 and st600.2 models.

as for the mosfet`s being from Mexico we don`t know the only thing I know is that we control our batch of components, why? because we had a bad experience buying from a "authorized distributor" a batch of fet`s and we had to make a recall on over 2500 amps to change them, why? because they were Chinese copycats and for the applications that we make we need original working and reliable parts that we can only find in the USA where we have Warranty on the batch`s of components, Micrometals=Torroidals, CI= Fairchield, Fuses=LittleFuse, Mosfets=International Rectifier. we do this because we are serious about our products, every product believe it or not is tested on by one even our little hybrid booster 2x60WRMS is tested one by one and we make over 20.000 per month. our total production per month is over 28.000 amplifiers.

We have over 300 Employees and several facility's were we make from copper terminals to plastic injection everything is made in house.

I`m not an engineer but if you guys have questions I`ll post them directly to the Engineering dpt. to answer them.

About STETSOM name its been like this from 20 years, and its similar to STETSON the company that sells hats and perfumes

Have a great day

Thanks for the response!

Couple questions:

Part numbers of the mosfets used in your amps. Can you post those?

I did not know Stetsom were full range... how nice. How is the THD at full rated power into 1Khz?

I like the Tip35/36. Great outputs (25A rated) for full range class AB amps. Good choice. (EDIT most AB's use 15A output transistors so the TIP35/36C IS a better choice if the voltage handling limits allow them to be used, which in lots of modern amplifiers does not allow that...voltage too high)

That really sucks on the Mosfet problem.. I feel you on that one as we are a high volume repair shop and worry alot about copycat parts... bad news, expensive bad news... Yes, IR mosfets are made in Mexico to best of my knowledge.

Good to hear you are working on a new heatsink. Here's an idea. If you are marketing them in the US, our cars are BIGGER, use a bigger heatsink so we can beat the daylights (and night) out of the Stetsom amps without the need to worry about forcing the amp into thermal protect.

I have seen videos of the "partys" you are referring too. Amazing... Those guys with pickup truck beds full of speakers blasting out full range is LOUD! Glad my ears are not there. Seems like it would cause some permanent hearing damage similar to what we have here in america with our large muscial concerts... can be overwhelmingingly loud.

One other question. Are the Stetsom amps running the output mosfets at very close or above their rated voltage handling? I.E. the power rail voltage, is it exceeeding the ratings of the output mosfets?

Thanks for answering some of my questions, very interesting!

 

[stetsom]

Thanks for the response!
Couple questions:

Part numbers of the mosfets used in your amps. Can you post those?

I did not know Stetsom were full range... how nice. How is the THD at full rated power into 1Khz?

I like the Tip35/36. Great outputs (25A rated) for full range class AB amps. Good choice. (EDIT most AB's use 15A output transistors so the TIP35/36C IS a better choice if the voltage handling limits allow them to be used, which in lots of modern amplifiers does not allow that...voltage too high)

That really sucks on the Mosfet problem.. I feel you on that one as we are a high volume repair shop and worry alot about copycat parts... bad news, expensive bad news... Yes, IR mosfets are made in Mexico to best of my knowledge.

Good to hear you are working on a new heatsink. Here's an idea. If you are marketing them in the US, our cars are BIGGER, use a bigger heatsink so we can beat the daylights (and night) out of the Stetsom amps without the need to worry about forcing the amp into thermal protect.

I have seen videos of the "partys" you are referring too. Amazing... Those guys with pickup truck beds full of speakers blasting out full range is LOUD! Glad my ears are not there. Seems like it would cause some permanent hearing damage similar to what we have here in america with our large muscial concerts... can be overwhelmingingly loud.

One other question. Are the Stetsom amps running the output mosfets at very close or above their rated voltage handling? I.E. the power rail voltage, is it exceeeding the ratings of the output mosfets?

Thanks for answering some of my questions, very interesting!

You are welcome and I`m always glad to help!

About the questions, I`m needing more technical repair center`s do you want to apply, but you want see much of the new models for repair unless someone has done something really wrong with it? loll..

The THD on the 7K2D is rated @ 0,9% 1Khz @ 12.6V giving around 7200W RMS.

Our amplifiers have an average efficiency of 85% and up to 90% on some models.

I can`t tell you the part numbers over here but I`m sure you will find out as soon as you test one, we use copper rails on the inputs and outputs for higher efficiency on the high power products.

About thermal protection, i could challenge you to make on of the amps go into thermal before blowing up the speakers, they are very efficient that`s why they don't get hot.

Alan Dante at world finals playd Death match for 7 Minutes @ 173Db average and when it was all over the amps were still cold. Steve one of our guys in Maryland has an X-terra with 4 Stetsom 7KD`s the first models, he uses them as a daily banger on 2 DD 9915" and never shut them because of thermal protection, and I have never heard of them shutting of because of thermal issues, but we have the protection in case that happens //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif!

Thanks

 

[Upzaw2000]

Death Match FTW!

 

[groundpound4200 5,000+ posts]

So they draw about 700 amps at 12.6V through 1/0 gauge inputs?