Why do my Sundown Saz-4500 amps look different inside?

[Mike Waters 10+ year member]

I took the bottom plate off my second 4500 and noticed that the little ground wire inside at the end of the amp goes to a different spot than on my other one (on one amp the little ground connects right by where it is screwed in and the other stretches out a bit and connects with something else on the board) and I noticed all the little caps were a different color than my other one. Any reason, repair, mod, different versions?

All help greatly appreciated

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[So Low iT Hz]

That's not a ground. It's a thermal sensor. It tells the amp when to go into thermal protect. Looks like they just changed the location of the sensor circuitry. Nothing abnormal there

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

Could be v1 amp and a v2 amp also

 

[Mike Waters 10+ year member]

I also noticed this big difference.

1st pic is of my old 4500 all the pics after that are to show how the one I just got is different. The new one has a few of the things numbered 104 behind the middle knob (bass boost) and before you get to the little circuit board that my old 4500 doesn't have. Can you tell me anything about that? Plus I noticed there is no power light at all. Please help.

My old 4500



My new (used) 4500

 

[Dimwit]

Any changes made from one to the other were either updates or one could be a knock off (not as likely). Look inside to see if you can find any of the brand logos and if they're different on one. At least with other brands there are knockoffs that will use different guts with different logos then put the same shell over the top so you can't tell. If they put out the same rated or similar I wouldn't worry. As for the things with the 104 on them I believe those are resistors (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

If I were you I wouldn't worry too much about it unless one sounds significantly different from the other.

 

[jteske88 10+ year member]

Where you purchase these from? looks like it was worked on or repaired.

 

[Mike Waters 10+ year member]

My old one has never been repaired or had any issues but this new one I just got used off ebay is the one that looks different so I really need someone to tell me for sure if this has been repaired before or modded or is this just a different version so I can decide if I need to return it or not. Seller told me it had never been repaired.

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

Message sundownz. They'd probably know more.

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

From the board everything seems to match up perfect.

 

[jteske88 10+ year member]

Yeah contact jacob he would know. Still looks funny with them solder joints. Just little messy.

 

[So Low iT Hz]

No big deal there either. It's a signal level adjustment. One board is relaying a certain measurement at one voltage, and the same measurement on the other board just needs to have its voltage stabilized to be read properly. Since its a parallel connection to the microcontroller on the pcb I'm assuming there is just a slight difference in the controller itself. You can swap out one for another, so long as they have the same functions present at each port, but they have different voltage stability requirements. So the cap that says 104 on it is simply stabilizing the voltage present at the microcontroller to a level appropriate for the hardware.

If anything it speaks well of the engineers making appropriate changes when new hardware is introduced. My guess is they changed the availability of the previously used microcontroller and had to utilize another model, and made the necessary changes.

 

[So Low iT Hz]

I also noticed this big difference.

My new (used)

Now this pic, the cap at the bottom of the screen. If you touch the green goo coming out is it hard or squishy? Looks like capacitance gel. Prob not good if that cap is leaking... But it could be a glue bead too. It'd be hard if it's glue

 

[So Low iT Hz]

As for the things with the 104 on them I believe those are resistors (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

Good guess but they are capacitors. Resistors ARE the most prevalent circuit components but if you look at the row of resistors next to it they are labeled with a Rxxx on the pcb, the other caps there on both boards are labeled Cxxx to designate the component type.

Don't worry I wrote my EE thesis on OP amps and logic gates I'm way into this stuff //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Dimwit]

Good guess but they are capacitors. Resistors ARE the most prevalent circuit components but if you look at the row of resistors next to it they are labeled with a Rxxx on the pcb, the other caps there on both boards are labeled Cxxx to designate the component type.
Don't worry I wrote my EE thesis on OP amps and logic gates I'm way into this stuff //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Awesome! I really wasn't sure so Im glad for the correction! haha

 

[Mike Waters 10+ year member]

Spoke with Jacob and he says "The factories continuously make minor tweaks. Should be fine." So everything is OK. I was a little worried for a minute. Thanks to everyone for helping.