Amps and overheating?

[michaelab]

The last couple of days here in Lisbon have been absolutely swelteringly hot - my indoor thermometer is reading 32C at the moment :eek: Outside it's well over 40!

I normally leave my amp on all the time but last night as I had some music on I went over to adjust the volume and even the volume knob was hot! The front panel was almost too hot to touch, as was most of the rest of the casing. It didn't seem to be complaining though.

It normally gets quite hot near the heatsinks but it's now hotter than its ever been and even when it's just idling seems to be pretty hot. I'm assuming it's just that the ambient temp. is so high that it can't cool down properly. Is it likely to cause any problems? Amp is Arcam FMJ A22 btw.

Michael.

[domfjbrown]

I thought ti would have shut down if it was too hot, so you should be OK.

However, a small electric fan blowing over it might help?

32 degrees - that's waaaaay too hot for me. I shut down at anything over 20! And my mate keeps suggesting I go to Thailand (not a bad idea actually but...)

[Rodrigo de Sá]

Yes, it's horribly hot. Let's hope it gets cooler soon.

I'd turn it off. My house is rather cool, but I turn the amp off nevertheless when it beggins to get warmer than usual.

OT - My current indoor temp is 25º - that's quite hot for me. I'll be giving a four hour class in a west turned classroom *without* air conditioned...

When I think people actually pay to spend time under such heat it makes my head turn...

[michaelab]

We don't have air con in our flat...:( But since I have to work here a lot with computers on etc. I'm seriously thinking of getting a portable air con unit for my little office here...

It's definitely way too hot to be on the sun-bathing on the beach allthough being in the water must be nice and refreshing :)

Michael.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by michaelab
The last couple of days here in Lisbon have been absolutely swelteringly hot - my indoor thermometer is reading 32C at the moment :eek: Outside it's well over 40!

I normally leave my amp on all the time but last night as I had some music on I went over to adjust the volume and even the volume knob was hot! The front panel was almost too hot to touch, as was most of the rest of the casing. It didn't seem to be complaining though.

It normally gets quite hot near the heatsinks but it's now hotter than its ever been and even when it's just idling seems to be pretty hot. I'm assuming it's just that the ambient temp. is so high that it can't cool down properly. Is it likely to cause any problems? Amp is Arcam FMJ A22 btw.

Michael.

Michael, my gear is suffering a similar fate with similar temps. at the moment.

I measured by pre-amp @ 46 degrees on Sunday. It was 35 outside and my gear is not in direct sunlight :eek: (in fact the whole living room isn't a t this time of year).

I'll be dumping most of my kit in a few months for a TACT setup and hopefully that should remove the 'additional radiator' I have at the moment :rolleyes: !

[voodoo]

Originally posted by michaelab

It's definitely way too hot to be on the sun-bathing on the beach allthough being in the water must be nice and refreshing :)

Michael.

:mad: The joys of living in a land-locked country :( !

[cookiemonster]

My amp has been very hot, with the recent warm weather, as it obviously fluctuates with the ambient temperature, as it is not as easy to dissipate the heat with less of a temperature gradient.

I've had no problems with it though - i considered turning it off, but prefer to leave it running all the time.

I've looked around for a fan or something, but it's trying to find something which runs quiet? This is more for me though, than the amp, as it can get very uncomfortable sometimes, even with the windows open, which doesn't seem to achieve anything.

[michaelab]

I've turned it off for the time being. Hot climate - another reason to be getting a BelCanto :D Maybe towards the end of the year...

Michael.

[wadia-miester]

Tone is lucky on 2 counts, one I live in the UK, where it very rarely goes over 22C :D and I have a amp that's runs damn cool, even at warp 9. Lucky I guess

[voodoo]

Originally posted by wadia-miester
Tone is lucky on 2 counts, one I live in the UK, where it very rarely goes over 22C :D

Tone, you call THAT luck :D !
It's one of the reasons I left ;) .
That and the Euro of course :p .

[lordsummit]

Think of the poor people of Manchester, it's about 7 years since it stopped raining, and it was 5 years before that that the sun was last sighted due to industrial pollution. My next door neighbour has had to fit his pigeons with GPS, and you all wonder why we all wear flat caps. I'd kill for 24 degrees:p

[lowrider]

I managed to hold on for 2 hours on the beach today, then rushed to a nice brasilian restaurant overlooking the beach, air conditioned... :p

Now I am back home, luckily it doesn´t get too warm, I have windows north and south, works better than air conditioning... :MILD:

My Brystons are just warm, as usual... :D

[Robbo]

my amps get very hot as well and I am paranoid about them. however, they have temperature sensitive fans that blow onto the heatsink if the going gets tough.

Strange, whenever Tony comes over they always get put into action:)

Robbo

[lowrider]

They are trying to blow him away, can´t stand the critics... :p

[HenryT]

Came home the other day and the living/listening room was at 28C according to the old mercury, that's before I openend all the windows to give the place a good air out - this room is a bit of green house what with all the big windows everywhere! :eek: Still, the temperatures we've had so far this summer in the UK are hardly record breaking. The last 2 summers have been a fair bit warmer and my kit has managed to survive being locked up and powered up in an un-ventilated room during the days of those prior summer months.

I've not heard of much domestic audio kit which has any kind of automatic protection circuitry on-board which shuts down the component in order to protect itself from overheating. The Yamaha DSP-A1 a/v amp I have has an internal fan, but I've never seen this operating.

The dCS DAC/upsampler boxes have internal temperature sensors, their readings can be viewed via the front panel readout display if you cycle through the respective unit's menu options - presumably these units do feature auto shut down if a critical temperature is reached but I've never personally experienced such a scenario.

IME, Arcam amps would seem to offer little or no protection circuitry at all, maybe this isn't the case with the more recent A or FMJ series, but a friend who has an Alpha 8/9 bi-amp rig had a bit of an unfortunately incident a little while back when his 3 year daughter accidentally knocked over one his KEF Q35 floorstands. The amp was switched on at the time, the pair of +/- banana plugs popped out of the back of the speakers and touched metal against metal causing a short circuit. The amp went bang and had to be sent back to Arcam for repair. :rolleyes:

[HenryT]

Originally posted by lowrider
They are trying to blow him away, can´t stand the critics... :p LOL! :D Self preserving amps then, in more ways then one!

[GrahamN]

Originally posted by michaelab
The front panel was almost too hot to touch, as was most of the rest of the casing. It didn't seem to be complaining though.

It normally gets quite hot near the heatsinks but it's now hotter than its ever been and even when it's just idling seems to be pretty hot.

I guess that's something I'm just going to get used to :D

[Robbo]

They are trying to blow him away, can´t stand the critics...

:D

He really likes them actually:MILD:

[amazingtrade]

I my old Marantz PM4000 used to get really hot in the summer, my PM6010OSE seems much better though, on taking the lids of both, the reason is the PM4000 has just one heatsink with both channel transisters sharing it, the PM6010OSE has two heatsinks one per chanel, even though it does also have an extra transistor per channel. Also the PM6010OSE has an all metal body, the PM4000 is made purely out of pastic, so I am guessing the metal body also acts as a heatsink.

[bottleneck]

pah, u lot with solid state amps! aint even discovered hot yet!!

grab my EL34's in full swing, and get a new definition of hot as the skin burns off your fingers!!!! :D :cool: :D

Literally as hot as the inside of an oven, a valve in full burn.



aaah I love the smell of burning valves first thing in the morning.


you know, there should be a market in making table lamps with valves, the glow they give is too cool just for music making.


PS
Dont say nasty things about my valves on this new forum now!! my liquor is making me cheeky!

Chris

[Rodrigo de Sá]

Originally posted by michaelab
I'm seriously thinking of getting a portable air con unit for my little office here...
Michael.

I'd think twice about it. I had one, you see, and when I moved from Portugal I gave it to a friend.

Now I'm back I won't buy a second one because: 1st) Its too noisy: it can really get on your nerves 2nd) unless things changed a lot, they simply haven't the power to cool an entire room, chiefly because you have to keep one window slightly open and isolation is very poor. You may place yourself in the air flow (and then feel cold rather than cool), but the room temperature, if the outside is really hot, won't really change.

Better get a true air conditioning system that cools your lounge, your bedroom and your study. I had that kind of stuff when I lived in Brazil and it worked very well - and it got seriously hot there - 43º and 100% humidity!

I'm planning that for a while, but right now I'm more interested in getting myself a harpsichord.:)

[Rodrigo de Sá]

Originally posted by michaelab
I've turned it off for the time being. Hot climate - another reason to be getting a BelCanto :D Maybe towards the end of the year...

Michael.

Try the Lavardin before the BelCanto. It is more musical (that is to say: I like it better), and it doesn't run hot at all. It is true my home is rather cool.

As a matter of fact, I strongly feel everyone interested in acoustical music ought to seriously consider the Lavardins. Never quite listened to anything with comparable transparency and tone accuracy.

[Robbo]

Try the Lavardin before the BelCanto. It is more musical (that is to say: I like it better), and it doesn't run hot at all. It is true my home is rather cool.


I think it very much depends on what kind of music you listen to. The lavardin is an excellent amp that is well respected, and is wonderful for small to medium scale stuff, but if you want to listen to full scale orchestras at concert level, or rock/pop/electronica with seismic bass, the lavardin is not the best choice as it has limited power. due to its unique output topology It also rolls off in the bass at below 40 hz and has high distortion in the bass region (mainly second harmonic) IIRC, so bass freaks need not apply.

Robbo

[GrahamN]

So it looks like it's all round to RdS' to check out the Lavvy (and those ProAcs) :confused:

Inaugural meeting of the ZeroGain bake-off club (Lisbon branch)?

What an international lot (Iberia, Anglo/Swiss, Far-eastern(maybe), even the odd member from the strange land that is Scotland :) )

[julian2002]

chris,
there is a company that makes valve lights but i can't find it...
however if you like the smell of burning solder there's always..
http://www.electronixandmore.com/project/2.html

cheers

julian

[michaelab]

I'd defintely like to listen to the Lavardin some time. At the moment I'm just building an imaginary short list of amps I'd like to try in the £2-3K region (inc s/h) :) I probably won't actually be getting one until at least the end of the year, possibly a bit later. It also depends on what I decide to do on the source front :rolleyes:

ISTR that RdS listens to a lot of organ music and surely that has subterranean bass registers that the Lavardin must be handling well enough for his taste!

RdS - Vermeer on the "Clube do Audio" also is a big baroque fiend and an audiophile (of course!) so maybe we should arrange a get together sometime?

Michael.

[lowrider]

RdS, Michael,

Count me in... :MILD:

[Rodrigo de Sá]

Michael and António: PM me and we'll arrange that. Thanks Graham for being polite before I did it... :)

[domfjbrown]

Originally posted by HenryT
IME, Arcam amps would seem to offer little or no protection circuitry at all, maybe this isn't the case with the more recent A or FMJ series, but a friend who has an Alpha 8/9 bi-amp rig had a bit of an unfortunately incident a little while back when his 3 year daughter accidentally knocked over one his KEF Q35 floorstands. The amp was switched on at the time, the pair of +/- banana plugs popped out of the back of the speakers and touched metal against metal causing a short circuit. The amp went bang and had to be sent back to Arcam for repair. :rolleyes:

That'll be Faye then, will it? Women and machinery do not mix :)

Mind you, it's only an Arcam (ducks!). No - seriously, that system (I dunno why) was all boom'n'tizz last time I heard it - unlistenable in my opinion (possibly the speaker/amp combination?).

Naim amps will shut down if they get too hot (or at least the NAP250 does). I think it generally tends to be power amps that have this protection circuitry though. My Rega Mira runs VERY cool - but that good ole Audiolab 8000A tends to run boiling even with no signal going through it (and no, it's not Class A!).

24 degrees is MINGING - I shut down at anything above 20 degrees and would much prefer it stayed 15 degrees all year round. My bedroom window is open even if it's snowing outside...