Don't buy a Stetsom amp or PRV 3K

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

I really don't have a dog in this race. But I think one of the other guys made the comment, that most of these are rated at 10%thd. That is probably why your readings fell short, you are using the std. 1% thd, that we all usually test amps to.But as for the burning up , IDK .... I won't ever use one of them anyways, so it really doesn't matter to me one way or the other.

Please keep on with all your cool tests, I like seeing them .... I used to run tons of different amps on my test bench, just to see how they actually did. It was fun, but time consuming.

It certainly is why I got short certified, and I am ok on that. But that would have no effect Dynamic or Uncertified. Both the Clip meters on the Amp and AMM-1 were going off on the uncertified run so the amp had nothing left in it at that point.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

No you didn't, I may have been a bit testy on that, I apologize. Some are bringing up Taramps like I am attacking them... I saw you mention Taramps and I got defensive.

Its all good. I was just giving my opinion on the Brazilians I have used for the people that keep saying how terrible they are.

 

[Hertz Mafia]

Its all good. I was just giving my opinion on the Brazilians I have used for the people that keep saying how terrible they are.

That’s where the Quality control comes in. You either get some good amps or u don’t. You got lucky and got some good amps.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

I do expect an amp TO DO WHAT A MFR SAYS IT DOES!

Show me the part of the owner's manual that says to drive sine waves into a resistor bank.

And yes. The whole point of full bridge design is that it isn't very good at doing that compared to half bridge. That's why people who figured out how to use them as intended (actual music into actual speakers and nominal ohm loads) claim that they have good luck with them. Do you think there's so little on those boards because the Koreans are greedy and want to sell you more and bigger components on their boards?

Not saying this Stetsom isn't junk, it may well be, but your "test" is well outside of what the manufacturer intends this to do.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

First, I am not an engineer, never claimed to be and thanks for the big guys are meatheads crack never heard that one before.
I finally get what your saying... All Brazilian amplifier manufacturers are god like creatures and you best not criticize one because that is blasphemy against them all! Finally I see the LIGHT!!!!

BS. Taramps could handle the amp Dyno. Soundigital could handle the amp Dyno. Was it pure luck they didn't go up in flames? Or is it that they aren't actually using the same tech? Because if the tech is designed to burst in flames at it's rated ohm load, those should have gone up in smoke too.... Also they hit their ratings on the Dyno... My god Taramps and Soundigital must be using something ELSE!

Or Stetsom just made a bad board that is overrated and not stable at it's rated ohm load and you think I am attacking all Brazilian amp manufacturers when I call OUT ONE!

There was no bad intentions in my statement, the meathead crack was simply a joke and if you're going to get up in your feelings about it then so be it.

By separating the other Brazilians out I think you're on the right track. But there IS insinuations in your post that Brazilians are bad. It goes along with the ******* Hertz Mafia who hates Brazilian topologies with no good reason. I'm not going to continue to argue with you, people in this thread have made all the right points already and some of them are smarter than me in this area.

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

Show me the part of the owner's manual that says to drive sine waves into a resistor bank.
And yes. The whole point of full bridge design is that it isn't very good at doing that compared to half bridge. That's why people who figured out how to use them as intended (actual music into actual speakers and nominal ohm loads) claim that they have good luck with them. Do you think there's so little on those boards because the Koreans are greedy and want to sell you more and bigger components on their boards?

Not saying this Stetsom isn't junk, it may well be, but your "test" is well outside of what the manufacturer intends this to do.

I could have played music and would have got the same result with this amp. It's not a 3k amp.

Again not knocking the tech, so stop bringing it up. Talking about the Stetsom only. Unless you have experienced a completely different result with this exact same amp just stop defending it.

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

There was no bad intentions in my statement, the meathead crack was simply a joke and if you're going to get up in your feelings about it then so be it.
By separating the other Brazilians out I think you're on the right track. But there IS insinuations in your post that Brazilians are bad. It goes along with the ******* Hertz Mafia who hates Brazilian topologies with no good reason. I'm not going to continue to argue with you, people in this thread have made all the right points already and some of them are smarter than me in this area.

Edited

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

There was no bad intentions in my statement, the meathead crack was simply a joke and if you're going to get up in your feelings about it then so be it.
By separating the other Brazilians out I think you're on the right track. But there IS insinuations in your post that Brazilians are bad. It goes along with the ******* Hertz Mafia who hates Brazilian topologies with no good reason. I'm not going to continue to argue with you, people in this thread have made all the right points already and some of them are smarter than me in this area.

So you calling me an idiot basically is meant with respect... Whatever

Please show me the post where I talked bad about Full Bridge tech or Brazilian amps as a whole. People may be putting words in my mouth I haven't said. This entire time I have been talking about 1 amp board.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

There was no bad intentions in my statement, the meathead crack was simply a joke and if you're going to get up in your feelings about it then so be it.
By separating the other Brazilians out I think you're on the right track. But there IS insinuations in your post that Brazilians are bad. It goes along with the ******* Hertz Mafia who hates Brazilian topologies with no good reason. I'm not going to continue to argue with you, people in this thread have made all the right points already and some of them are smarter than me in this area.

he did have two hd 15ks blow out on him so he has a good personal reason but he's also seen others use the amp with great success but personal experiences overwrite all that.

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

he did have two hd 15ks blow out on him so he has a good personal reason but he's also seen others use the amp with great success but personal experiences overwrite all that.

Ready for the twist at the end? No he didnt.

I do not represent ourselves as repair tech so can only relay what our repair center has shared with us and then what we actually have in our hands at the time we received it from the repair center.

1 did blow, the other went into protect. This is user's own words.

Repair center-

Practically ALL mosfets blew in the power supply section. The only way to replicate this is to go full on clipping (which full bridge amps do not like) or voltage drop way too low.

We know the amplifier worked on low volume but as soon as it was turned up (per user's words) it popped.

Now, we do not play who did it because we warranty the amplifier for free even if you wired it to 0.1ohm for daily which no other manufacture will do.

But here is the twist that none of you know about-

The other amplifier was reported to go in protect.

To this very day, when they were sent back to us, then sent to repair center, the repair center has done NOTHING to the "protect amp" and it has played flawlessly the entire time. It was returned to us once the other one was repaired and still no problems with the protect amp.

That clearly shows us, along with the blown amp, that the user has/had something wrong in their install. Amp don't choose to go into protect because it has feelings. Something tripped it's circuitry and blamed it on the manufacturer.

Many of us in this conversation ever here the majority of people who badger brazilian amplifiers roll their eyes when people say failures are mostly due to user error?

Well, here is a clear cut case.

Nobody physically blames the person personally as if they aren't worthy of the equipment but rather at least try and educate the masses that nobody is perfect and can make human error in their install.. or simply something out of our control happens and messes up something.

We are National Tech Advisor for Taramps for a reason but in this instance, user decided to go around warranty service, cheated themselves out of equipment by assuming it was faulty and got a refund.. when our repair center educated us that one was not defective and the other has no problem at all.

I know some will ask.. since then, i'm sure the user has installed new equipment that works so explain that?

Simple. Different buildhouses, not brands but buildhouses make their own designs, own schematics, etc.

There is no 1 protection circuit everyone uses for example. It's quite simple to say our protection circuit tripped on something that the replacement product must not be designed to do. Beyond that, everything else is speculation.

Speaking of protection, that new MD8000 amplifier is going to be a beast..

Rated at 1%THD instead of 10%.

Rated at 12.6v instead of 14.4v

Rated at 60hz instead of 100Hz or even 1000Hz on some brazilian brands.

And still half the length of a korean 8-10k.

Oh, and 7way protection (including dual short circuit protection on the output).

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

I can agree the new MD Series Taramps look mean AF.

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

I do have a serious question to go to engineers and amp testers..

It would involve product death though so not cheap test..

Since bigblank has seen some full bridge amplifiers work at 1ohm for a second vs a nanosecond vs however many seconds.. curious if anyone would be financially brave enough to do a resistive test to the death to see how long amplifiers can hold their resistive load til full failure.

We could see something like-

Brand A- 1 second

Brand B- 6 seconds

Brand C- 42 seconds, etc (not likely, hehe)

Only thing i'd say is make sure the output is constantly being monitored with data ALONG with temperature.

We record a LOT of data when we test amplifiers and be interesting to see.

The test, while expensive, would clearly show which product(s) are designed to take the abuse in the lanes from wiring too low vs those who would be better off on music wired properly.

 

[MrFoca]

I’d say test another amp and see how that one does. If it’s no where near the same results then chalk it up as a bad amp. I see these posts all the time on forums and Facebook how amps just installed go up in smoke.

 

[bigblank69 10+ year member]

I do have a serious question to go to engineers and amp testers.. It would involve product death though so not cheap test..

Since bigblank has seen some full bridge amplifiers work at 1ohm for a second vs a nanosecond vs however many seconds.. curious if anyone would be financially brave enough to do a resistive test to the death to see how long amplifiers can hold their resistive load til full failure.

The Full Bridge Amps I have seen work on a resistive load (Taramps, Soundigital and the MMats I personally tested) have were all done on a continously building sine way that cuts off in I think in 5 seconds (I can check the disc when I get home).. Full volume is typically achieved at roughly the 3-4 second mark depending on how much gain overlap is given to the amp. so under full load the amp is under "pressure" for about 1-2 seconds.

I don't know of a car amp that could sustain 42 seconds in the same manner //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif I'd be happy to film it but I'm not paying for it lol

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

[quote name='bigblank69']So you calling me an idiot basically is meant with respect... Whatever

Please show me the post where I talked bad about Full Bridge tech or Brazilian amps as a whole. People may be putting words in my mouth I haven't said. This entire time I have been talking about 1 amp board.[/QUOTE]

where the **** did I call you an idiot? Dude I'm not about to go there with you, the first line in my post said I have respect for you. If you wanna be this way about I can take that back and treat you the same way I treat @papermaker and @JohnKuthe like actual idiots. Get over it, I know I am.