Integrating a Large Rack

[nyhifihead]

Hey all, I got my hands on a large server grade rack. I believe it's a old school verizon fiber rack, it was being used for a few HP servers until they went with an all APC skeleton style rack

It has active fans, it's crazy big and all the doors/panels are removable.

It's pretty ugly though and I'm thinking of keeping it in the adjacent "store room" to my listening room. I didn't run enough XLR or speaker wire for all my speakers/amps so I will have to do that at some point. I can imagine the fans are pretty loud too and it would have a significant thermal impact on the temperature of the room.

For now I will have the unit inside the listening room, it will clear up a lot of clutter around my Bell'O tv stand/rack and I can finally do all the wire management I've been meaning to do

to go into the rack
2x QSC MX1500a
2x Hafler P7000
1x Hafler 9505
2x furman PL 1U power conditioners

I will attempt to add the krell- but it may pose an issue with all the additive heat making the rest of the amps run hotter. I also may have to invest in longer speaker wire, so we will see.

perhaps placing it in the rear corner near a few of the dedicated lines I ran. I am going to install speakon jacks on my subs this weekend as well and do 10awg runs back to the amps

I'm going to replace the fans with new silent ball bearing PC fans and dampen the inside with foam/dynamat. I was thinking of sanding the outside and doing an olive drab or flat black- suggestions welcome

 

[Bob in WI]

I'd sure paint it something complementary to your room. IT beige is just not a comfortable color..... unless you're into the industrial look I suppose.

 

[whoaru99]

Don't know why the room would be warmer to any material degree in the rack rather than not in the rack, if the same gear is turned on either way.

 

[nyhifihead]

Don't know why the room would be warmer to any material degree in the rack rather than not in the rack, if the same gear is turned on either way.

right now the amps are not stacked and spaced out, I was thinking because of the proximity being stacked inside of the rack it would create a good amount more heat

 

[whoaru99]

If it's all in one place maybe you'd feel a higher concentration, but if you had two amps each dissipating (for example) 500 BTU it's still 1000 BTU total into the room either way.

 

[N8Nagel]

It will create the same amount of BTUs per hour (OK, rest of the world, "Watts" if you must) although being more enclosed may make the spot temperatures near the gear higher.

 

[toxcrusadr]

If it has fans, I would think that will extract the heat much better than it would dissipate passively without fans. Also if you can leave an extra space above or below the Krell it will allow for more air flow.

Nice rack!

 

[techguy0192]

I can tell you those built in fans are gonna be crazy loud. Best to locate that rack in off in a closet if you need/want to run the fans.

 

[nyhifihead]

@whoaru99 understood

If it has fans, I would think that will extract the heat much better than it would dissipate passively without fans. Also if you can leave an extra space above or below the Krell it will allow for more air flow.

Nice rack!

valid point, I guess the bigger problem is sourcing some sturdy rack ears.. I will email krell but I'm afraid of the price

I can tell you those built in fans are gonna be crazy loud. Best to locate that rack in off in a closet if you need/want to run the fans.

yea even with lower noise PC fans thats a lot of CFM it will definitely not be quiet..

the plan is to eventually run all the wiring to the adjacent "room" it's really just the other side of the basement that's not finished. I will probably install another 20amp line as well.

I also want to run some speaker wire to my office and have the 9505 run some monitor audio bookshelves

I'm picking it up on saturday I'll play with the placement.. its gonna be a pain to get this thing into the basement

 

[whoaru99]

Not sure what fans are there and how many cfm you need. But, I replaced four 80mm "H" model panaflo fans in four QSC pro amps with the "L" models. The noise, even with all four turned on, is inaudible above the ambient noise floor of the room from more than a foot or two away from the amp stack.

 

[nyhifihead]

Not sure what fans are there and how many cfm you need. But, I replaced four 80mm "H" model panaflo fans in four QSC pro amps with the "L" models. The noise, even with all four turned on, is inaudible from more than a foot or two away above the ambient noise floor of the room.

thats awesome, I replaced the fans in both my hafler p7000s with korean ball bearing and they are pretty quiet, the QSC mx1500a not so much even the low speed is quite audible, I will def upgrade the fans soon.

I plan on pushing the mx1500as hard I use them every one in a while to power my stereo integrity 18s to get some killer bass, I run them bridged @ 1500w 4 ohm. QSC are seriously workhorses I will be near clipping the subs can still take more the bass is so tight and extended, I have a few basshead friends who enjoy it. Usually im giving them 525wpc from hafler p7000 and they sound great the hafler still has a nice grip