US Amps AX3200DE vs Sundown 3000D

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Sundown amps are also good for knocking the faceplate off your headunit. Does the warranty cover that too?

LOL. I use a cheap *** Dual head unit on my bench, I think it's 2V preout... Gain setting should negate any differences in input voltage, but that's just in theory, in the field things might be different as I don't own a "line driver" or a "boosted up preout whatever thingie..." so I can't say whether 7V+ on the input helps or not, but at least in theory it should not make any difference.

 

[Jeremiah25 10+ year member]

Sundown amps are also good for knocking the faceplate off your headunit. Does the warranty cover that too?
LOL. I use a cheap *** Dual head unit on my bench, I think it's 2V preout... Gain setting should negate any differences in input voltage, but that's just in theory, in the field things might be different as I don't own a "line driver" or a "boosted up preout whatever thingie..." so I can't say whether 7V+ on the input helps or not, but at least in theory it should not make any difference.

I've seen it make a huge difference.........clamp/DMM, and also on the TL. Like an undisputable huge friggen difference. No idea why......I'm not an amp engineer.

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

It may be because some peoples head units pre-out circuits clip too early to drive the input circuitry to full signal capabilities. I personally have no experience with that, as most people actually listen to music on their systems, not burp it for the termlab.... So in most practical situations I would think the gain adjustment is plenty to drive up the input signal going into the rest of the input circuit. Will have to get one of those "souped-up" preout driver box thingies and try it myself, I personally have never owned one and thought the only reason you could possibly need one is if you are dividing a single sub-out to multiple (like 4 or more) amplifiers. Maybe that's why the SPL comp guys get more out of their amps with the "souped-up" preout box, I am not even sure why they call it a line driver, I thought that was something use in 70V PA systems... LOL.... Maybe they gain so much because by the time they divide their pre-out signal to 4 or more amps the signal is weak if it's just coming from the headunit.....

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

BTW: I know I jumped in this thread because of 06alterego's claims, but in regard to the original post about the US Amps AX3200DE vs SAZ-3000D, I took a look at the inside of the US Amps AX3200DE and it looks substantial to me. I have never tested one so no idea which is more powerful, but I would say judging by the guts it should at least be close. Looks like decent build quality too, I normally hate working on the US Amps models but that one does not look so hard to work on.... What is the price range on that amp? Is it a current model or is that an old model?

 

[headbussaboi 10+ year member]

BTW: I know I jumped in this thread because of 06alterego's claims, but in regard to the original post about the US Amps AX3200DE vs SAZ-3000D, I took a look at the inside of the US Amps AX3200DE and it looks substantial to me. I have never tested one so no idea which is more powerful, but I would say judging by the guts it should at least be close. Looks like decent build quality too, I normally hate working on the US Amps models but that one does not look so hard to work on.... What is the price range on that amp? Is it a current model or is that an old model?

It's a current model and can be had for about $600-$1k.

 

[87linkin 10+ year member]

It seems like everyone who is saying that 06 is full of shit has some kind of connection to SD or has their name in there sigs, 'authorized rep' or a fan boy..... no one wants to hear that the equipment they are pushing/using/selling is not up to par. The dude obviously has used both and is giving an opinion on his use...most of you other guys (nutthuggers) have NEVER used a Us Amps monoblock....so WTF do you know?

word! there are no other tests to back up the fanboys claim either

 

[87linkin 10+ year member]

????

 

[87linkin 10+ year member]

Weird? hmmmm....

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

word! there are no other tests to back up the fanboys claim either

Actually there are a shit ton of tests backing up the 3000D, however there are 0 credible tests that back up 06.

 

[Gearstix 10+ year member]

I've been hearing alot of hate towards Sundown. Not trying to kick up shit but this is what I got in a reply to my ad for looking for an amp in edmonton, guy had a Stetsom 4K2D for $1200... I told him its more than I have now, and I planned to get two refurbished Sundown 3000s for my SPL-12s.

This is his response..

"What is that gonna cost? I have tested the sundown 1500 amp and i was not impressed at all. I seen a guy at finals with these in his car and he blew up 2 of them just by turning them on. lol I had to laugh after he said that he called JAcob Fuller to ask if it would damage the amps by having them powered up but not playing. Jacob said it would be fine. After all its easier on a amp to be on and not under load then to be on and playing music..... lol And they blew up."

 

[87linkin 10+ year member]

I've been hearing alot of hate towards Sundown. Not trying to kick up shit but this is what I got in a reply to my ad for looking for an amp in edmonton, guy had a Stetsom 4K2D for $1200... I told him its more than I have now, and I planned to get two refurbished Sundown 3000s for my SPL-12s. This is his response..

"What is that gonna cost? I have tested the sundown 1500 amp and i was not impressed at all. I seen a guy at finals with these in his car and he blew up 2 of them just by turning them on. lol I had to laugh after he said that he called JAcob Fuller to ask if it would damage the amps by having them powered up but not playing. Jacob said it would be fine. After all its easier on a amp to be on and not under load then to be on and playing music..... lol And they blew up."

wow!//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

I think it was just one amp that went, and I repaired it. It had a faulty capacitor on the input circuit causing the driver board to get an erroneous signal to it, causing a constant whine in the output inductors which over heated them.... funny thing was even with crusty burned up output inductors, I plugged the amp in here on my bench and it still worked! LOL... it probably thermalled on the guy and he thought it completely gave up, but actually it was just overheated from the heat produced in the output inductors... Needlessly to say, I was SHOCKED that it still worked when I plugged it in and turned it on... Anyone who says they are not impressed with the 1500D (even 06salterego said he liked the 1500D) is crazy... it's a badass tank of an amp.... The thing that kills them is vibration, but the newest ones have new mounting screws and standoffs etc to help eliminate that problem and so far I have seen none with those updates fail from vibration... always a faulty cap or someone hooked the power wires up backwards (LOL) or something stupid like that.... Hell of an amp really......

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

LOL, this makes me think I should start anonomously calling dealers up and asking questions about Sundown amps just to see how much BS I can call them on..... LOL , would be a riot! They will tell you anything to sell you stuff... most car audio shops are hurting BAD right now if I am not mistaken.... Business is slow. people are scared to let go of that money, scared they are gonna lose their job, christmas is here, you name it money situation sucks for a lot of people right now....

 

[dB-r 10+ year member]

Something else I would like to add to this whole discussion about the SAZ-3000D clipping out at 2700 watts that I should have posted earlier but I didn't is this....

Anyone who knows anything about subwoofer loads will know that you get impedance rise in any setup. If this guy had the SAZ-3000D wired at 1 ohm, as soon as the subwoofers start to move the actual impedance that the amp will see rises. This means that if he was using a typical 1 ohm sub setup to do his measurements (which he posted no numbers of so we cannot see what impedance his amp was actually seeing) he likely was, even right at the tuning freq of his enclosure not able to get all the way down to 1.0 ohms. He likely was more like at 2 ohms or 1.5 ohms at the minimum as far as what load the amp was really seeing, so if the amp started clipping at 2700 watts at 1.5 ohms or 2 ohms that is fanstatic, and is far more than the rated output of the SAZ-3000D at 2 ohms or 1.5 ohms...

He said he tested the amp "unloaded" for clipping... I have no idea what he meant by that and I know of no method for clip testing any amp "unloaded". If you have BAD impedance rise in your sub enclosure, you could be as high as 8 ohms when wired to a 1 ohm DCR load at tuning freq. A 10,000 watt amp would likely start clipping at 2000 watts into an 8 ohm load.

Jacobs test sub setup at his shop is wired at .5 ohm. Because even though his enclosure is built right, to get the actual impedance (with rise) down to 1 ohm you will need to be wired at .5 ohms You may get closer to .5 at tuning freq with a good enclosure, but likely never below .7 ohms... So if you are load testing an amp (like Jacob does) at .5 ohms and you want to see ACTUAL power output at ACTUAL 1 ohm load you just raise the input frequency from your head unit with your favorite bass tone CD or signal generator a little an bam! you can get it right to a 1ohm actual load at the right freq.

Someone who is a freaking rocket scientist correct me if I am wrong but I don't think so.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

"What is that gonna cost? I have tested the sundown 1500 amp and i was not impressed at all. I seen a guy at finals with these in his car and he blew up 2 of them just by turning them on. lol I had to laugh after he said that he called JAcob Fuller to ask if it would damage the amps by having them powered up but not playing. Jacob said it would be fine. After all its easier on a amp to be on and not under load then to be on and playing music..... lol And they blew up."

Wrong.

One guy running Sundown had ONE amp with a problem at finals - not two. Out of SIXTEEN amplifiers he had in the car.

db-R described above what happened to it - likely because he had blown several subs all to hell using the amp. Either way - its the only amp either I or dB-r has seen with the inductors burnt like that. For that matter, keeping with our reputation, we replaced the amp for him.

And let me guess... that guy was from Canada ? There is a group of guys up there that have been bashing Sundown from the beginning.