Welp finally bought a full-bridge amplifier, a SIA 3500

[SplashScreeN]

I am fortunate enough to have quite a collection of half-bridge amplifiers and never planned on running a full-bridge design, but the SIA 3500 sparked enough interest for me to snag one. It’s in a closet now but I do actually plan on running it in-vehicle on a single U-18 I’m building an enclosure for. What’s everyone else’s experience with the SIA (not sfb)?

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[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I don't have any experience, @Bobbytwonames I think has one. I know a lot of people who don't like them on music the best, and some seem to have problems with them.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

SFB are a bit noisy compared to the Soundigital that China ripped off the design from but they do make a shitload of power and Sundown is well known to honor warranties. IMO the SFB 8Ks I own are worth every penny of MSRP.

I suspect this current revision should be an improvement and I also suspect at the volume these boards will sell US re-sellers will be leaning on China pretty heavy to iron out the wrinkles so I have high hopes for the next couple revisions.

 

[MattinMO]

SFB are a bit noisy compared to the Soundigital that China ripped off the design from but they do make a shitload of power and Sundown is well known to honor warranties. IMO the SFB 8Ks I own are worth every penny of MSRP.

I suspect this current revision should be an improvement and I also suspect at the volume these boards will sell US re-sellers will be leaning on China pretty heavy to iron out the wrinkles so I have high hopes for the next couple revisions.

I already know what your answer is gonna be but for shits n giggs how come mmats can make a bulletproof .5 ohm stable full bridge but China can't?
Edit: I should say China & Brazil

 

[YourNameHere 10+ year member]

I already know what your answer is gonna be but for shits n giggs how come mmats can make a bulletproof .5 ohm stable full bridge but China can't?
Edit: I should say China & Brazil

Cuz China just hasnt stolen the design yet

 

[Bobbytwonames 5,000+ posts]

I am fortunate enough to have quite a collection of half-bridge amplifiers and never planned on running a full-bridge design, but the SIA 3500 sparked enough interest for me to snag one. It’s in a closet now but I do actually plan on running it in-vehicle on a single U-18 I’m building an enclosure for. What’s everyone else’s experience with the SIA (not sfb)?

I have two of them. One is only played about once a week. The one in my daily driver is currently stuck in protect. I'm not sure what the problem is either. I have a mechman 320, an AGM, and one bank of lithium. It goes into protect at weird times as well. It never happens during a demo or playing the music loud. It happens when I drive somewhere while playing the music low. When I come out of the store and start my truck it immediately goes into protect. I don't get it. I've got it out of protect twice, but now it seems to be stuck for good. The volt meter is reading 14.0v at the amp. I'm running it at 1 ohm.

 

[SlugButter]

I am running the Brazilian full bridge amplifiers, and I am not super impressed. The 4 channel is decent I guess but the mono amp isn’t making me want another one. I’m not running the big power you guys are running, but I can see some issues on these even with the lower power amps. Im only at 1400 rms @ 1 ohm. The fan is loud and stays on all the time, the power input and ground doesn’t accept 4 gauge without trimming it down significantly, no adjustable crossover at all on the mono amp (the 4 channel does have an adjustable crossover). I do like the clip lights, but I never had a problem with clipping before that existed anyway. I haven’t tried to pull all 1400 watts out of this amp as of yet, but running a few different subs of varying rms ratings on it, I’m finding that it might make close to rated power. When I see that there are 60 amps worth of fuses on a 1400 watt rms amp, I start to get skeptical though. I’m going to throw 2 audio legion armada subs on it and see if it can get the 1200 rms today. I’m fully expecting to buy another amp this afternoon while roasting marshmallows on a Brazilian heat sink…….

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I already know what your answer is gonna be but for shits n giggs how come mmats can make a bulletproof .5 ohm stable full bridge but China can't?
Edit: I should say China & Brazil

China will build basically what you tell them to build. Companies like Kicker have been building their amps in China for 20 years or so and they're known to be rock solid. Kicker is, however, doing R&D in house with real engineers, paying their sweatshops enough to maintain a high level of build quality, and has implemented some form of QC or oversight to maintain high standards on what comes off the line there.

IF you call up the sweatshop and ask them to build an amp that makes 3000W with FOB price of 150$ they're going to cut whatever corners they can to get you something that resembles what you ordered at the price you negotiated.

The issue here is twofold, first the consumer doesn't want another 1000$ 3K amp, they want a 300$ 3K amp, and second it very probably is more profitable to sell 300$ 3K amps every couple few years and eat 10% or so in warranty claims than to sell a 1000W amp every 10 years with a 1% rate of failure. I could be way off and certainly there's more factors, but this explanation seems most probable, and I'm very confident rates of failure on every piece of electronics being sold by established companies are very well known.

1/2 ohm load on a full bridge amp is absolutely torturous on semiconductors though (how many 1/4 ohm rated half bridge amps can you name?) and there is really absolutely no benefit with this style design. Personally I'd like to see more companies following the lead of Brazil making 2 ohm versions, but again, I think a lot of this is just providing the market with what they think they want.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Personally I'd like to see more companies following the lead of Brazil making 2 ohm versions, but again, I think a lot of this is just providing the market with what they think they want.

This.

100%

 

[SplashScreeN]