Is the use of a external cooling fan proactive or not,Thoughts?

LPhillips

Member
I was considering a cooling fan ,not a giant summer box fan ,LOL, but a small fan designed for equipment cooling to help keep my baby comfortable during moderate use.
Thanks for any comments,

Larry
 
Have a little usb cooling fan that i use whenever i change from SS to Tubes...just to help with the air flow and dissipate the heat...
I'm assuming your talking Hi-Fi and not a real baby! :)
 
Lol, no not my baby 15 year girl, my newly up and running G6000 thanks to kev, just thinking ,I know dangerous , that the heat sink gets pretty warm with a load of 4 channels going at 50+- 5 percent it may be helpful to ease the strain on this old receiver to keep it around longer.

Larry
 
Best to just provide adequate clearance and ventilation ... let passive convection be your friend. A fan just adds noise that can impinge on your listening enjoyment.

PS ... how hot is hot? Not unusual for heat sinks to get warm to the touch - as long as you can hold a finger on them for a few seconds, you shouldn't be doing any damage.
 
Well, you are correct in your thoughts dealing with whats warm and whats hot, I already know that I need my bias adjustment done after kevzep helped me out after smoking my output transistors, running 2 channels everything is good , just adding 2 more the heat sink gets hot to the touch at 50+-5 percent with the highs on, bass at +3 or 4 and treb at +5 , I could be inducing the issue at those settings for a 45 year old receiver . no problem for now, just don't run 4 until the necessary adjustments are made.
 
I have a couple small fans from Cool Components. They can run at variable speeds. Pretty quiet, I don't notice when the music is on, but I can hear a faint sound when the music is off. I have a 9090 receiver with about a 3-4 inch headspace which I think is too low, so I have one in there to move the air..
 
I might add that having a fan blowing into/towards the unit will tend to concentrate dust into it, making cleaning of the amp to remove dust buildup more frequently needed. That's in addition to any noise it may add while running.

Most Sansui receivers and amps were quite well equipped as far as heat sinks go. The few models that kicked enough sonic a$$ to need active cooling (fans) in addition were factory equipped with such. To my knowledge, only the BA-5000, B-1, G-22000/33000, and 9900Z were so equipped. Can't speak to the later model hi-end models like the B-2301, so there may have been a few more I'm unfamiliar with.

Key thing is to provide a proper environment for it. Crammed into a tight cabinet or stacked under a bunch of other gear will not provide the passive cooling needed, so design your setup around a shelf of entertainment center that permits for decent air flow without the need for fans.

Just my thoughts, a fan may help keep it cooler but there are tradeoffs to consider in using one.
 
I might add that having a fan blowing into/towards the unit will tend to concentrate dust into it, making cleaning of the amp to remove dust buildup more frequently needed. That's in addition to any noise it may add while running.

Most Sansui receivers and amps were quite well equipped as far as heat sinks go. The few models that kicked enough sonic a$$ to need active cooling (fans) in addition were factory equipped with such. To my knowledge, only the BA-5000, B-1, G-22000/33000, and 9900Z were so equipped. Can't speak to the later model hi-end models like the B-2301, so there may have been a few more I'm unfamiliar with.

Key thing is to provide a proper environment for it. Crammed into a tight cabinet or stacked under a bunch of other gear will not provide the passive cooling needed, so design your setup around a shelf of entertainment center that permits for decent air flow without the need for fans.

Just my thoughts, a fan may help keep it cooler but there are tradeoffs to consider in using one.
Thank you, in the back of my mind I was thinking the same dealing with dust. You gave me food for thought in regards to setup/location.

Larry
 
Maybe consider a laptop cooling fan. The unit I have houses 5 small fans driven by USB, unit is 15mm thickness. Either place the fan unit
on top of the amp (ie draw mode) or sit the amp on top, (blow mode). Don't understand what positioning is better and why. Always thought
it was "relatively" the same, ie, the air moves at about the same rate.
 
Maybe consider a laptop cooling fan. The unit I have houses 5 small fans driven by USB, unit is 15mm thickness. Either place the fan unit
on top of the amp (ie draw mode) or sit the amp on top, (blow mode). Don't understand what positioning is better and why. Always thought
it was "relatively" the same, ie, the air moves at about the same rate.
Good point! exhaust the built up heat.
 
I previously used a large diameter laptop cooler fan with great success when I had my amp inside a relatively confined space.

The fan itself is 18cm/7" diameter and when run on 3 to 3.5V (instead of the usual 5V) it is inaudible. It creates a gentle draught rather than sucking an enormous amount of air through the amp.

EDIT: I previously used a repurposed mobile/cell phone charger for this purpose, although I added a multi-voltage unit later for more control over the fan speed.

As an aside, I also used this fan once upon a time to keep a poor little Marantz PM550DC operating during a party - it was outputting every one of its 60WPC for about 12 hours straight, and didn't miss a beat! The fan did a wonderful job of keeping temperatures under control.


ghettofan1.jpg
 
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I have a Pioneer SX-1010 that, due to it's design, is known to have overheating power supply issues. For that one I do have a fan. I'd much rather deal with a little dust (OK, in my house, a lot) than fried resistors. For the Sansui I don't, although I may at some point.
 
Use a fan if you need to, install a filter as well, all the pro amps that have fans also have filters, just clean
'em out every now and then, certainly does not hurt to circulate air through the amplifier....
 
Yeah man I do the same on my B2301 B2302 AU-X911DG's on summer. Have some PC FANS on top of the amps , gently sucking the heat produced. I run them on 3 to 4,5 volts dc from adjustable power packs , that run from 1,5 to 12vdc. All is good . Specially here in Greece where the summer is hot enough. Also as Kev said a filter at the bottom will help leave the dust outside the amp. You could try the foam type that is used on the kitchen two motors suckers. it's available everywhere and easy to cut and fit on the bottom of the amp.
 
I doubt you'll have the need for a fan after you have adjusted the bias on that thing. :)
 
IMHO--consumer gear (unless already equipped with a fan--some are), there should be no need for a fan, unless the gear is improperly spaced/ventilated to start with (in your rack). Most pro gear incorporates a fan in the design, because they are designed to be mounted and run hard in close quarters. If your consumer gear at home "needs" a supplementary fan, you are in one of two situations--you have it cramped for space/proper ventilation, or you are driving it beyond its intended design limits--essentially using external cooling to "override" the built-in thermal protection. Just because you can keep it "cool enough" to not engage the thermal protection circuits, does not mean that you are not "over-driving" the unit. It will eventually shut down or blow up, either way--just depends on what type(s) of protection circuits/methods are involved.
 
IMHO--consumer gear (unless already equipped with a fan--some are), there should be no need for a fan, unless the gear is improperly spaced/ventilated to start with (in your rack). Most pro gear incorporates a fan in the design, because they are designed to be mounted and run hard in close quarters. If your consumer gear at home "needs" a supplementary fan, you are in one of two situations--you have it cramped for space/proper ventilation, or you are driving it beyond its intended design limits--essentially using external cooling to "override" the built-in thermal protection. Just because you can keep it "cool enough" to not engage the thermal protection circuits, does not mean that you are not "over-driving" the unit. It will eventually shut down or blow up, either way--just depends on what type(s) of protection circuits/methods are involved.
With respect, I disagree, if extra cooling is used, it is certainly not going to hurt anything, amplifiers have regulated supplies with Pass transistors which are pretty much fully turned on all the time, producing a lot of heat in certain areas. You do not necessarily have to be running an amplifier at full power for it to be producing huge amounts of heat in the regulated supplies.
So this is where a fan would be quite useful and particularly if you live in a very warm climate.
 
if extra cooling is used, it is certainly not going to hurt anything

I don't necessarily agree with this. My Krell amps (pure class A) run extremely hot--on purpose, and don't sound as good on cold-start as they do when you've had them on for an hour and can cook eggs on the heat sinks. Tubes have heaters for a reason--they need to maintain a certain temperature to operate most efficiently.

I agree that excessive heat is the "enemy" of all electronics, but I don't know of a single manufacturer that would intentionally send to market a unit that (if properly housed) would exceed the maximum operating temperatures of the components used in the build. UL and the FTC have their own specs for that.

From the net:

https://standardscatalog.ul.com/standards/en/standard_1492_2

"The FTC requires that the amplifier be pre-conditioned at one-eighth of rated total power output (for a multiple-output system, all channels are on) for one hour using a sine wave at a frequency of 1,000 Hz.

The power spectrum measurement is then collected with two channels at maximum rated power over the audio frequency range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, in ambient still air of not less than 25°C, for the a duration of not less than 5 minutes."
 
I don't necessarily agree with this. My Krell amps (pure class A) run extremely hot--on purpose, and don't sound as good on cold-start as they do when you've had them on for an hour and can cook eggs on the heat sinks. Tubes have heaters for a reason--they need to maintain a certain temperature to operate most efficiently.

I agree that excessive heat is the "enemy" of all electronics, but I don't know of a single manufacturer that would intentionally send to market a unit that (if properly housed) would exceed the maximum operating temperatures of the components used in the build. UL and the FTC have their own specs for that.

From the net:

https://standardscatalog.ul.com/standards/en/standard_1492_2

"The FTC requires that the amplifier be pre-conditioned at one-eighth of rated total power output (for a multiple-output system, all channels are on) for one hour using a sine wave at a frequency of 1,000 Hz.

The power spectrum measurement is then collected with two channels at maximum rated power over the audio frequency range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, in ambient still air of not less than 25°C, for the a duration of not less than 5 minutes."
We are not talking about class A amplifiers here in the Sansui forum, and in most cases in the amplifiers we are talking about, there are areas particularly in the regulated supplies where there is excessive heat.
Using a fan to circulate air and keep the temps of voltage dropping resistors and pass transistors down is most certainly to an advantage.
We are not talking about how hot the actual power amplifier runs at a given power output, its not about that, its about the general temperature at normal levels and/or idling where there are on many different models and makes, many components running hot in various power supply applications as mentioned before. The life of these can be extended by some degree of cooling.
 
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My Fisher RS-Z1 reached a blazing temperature of 115 degrees farenheit at the top of the receiver case by the heat sinks.That temperature was reached after playing Vanessa Mae for about 2 hours at about 75% volume. I’m am running Bowers & Wilkins DM640i towers rated at 4ohms.The Decibel meter at 10ft was an eardrum shattering reading of 107dB. The manufacturers amp specifications are 150 watts/channel into 8 ohm with THD .007%. This was a true workout for this class A II receiver. Since taking the temperature with flir infrared camera I have placed a few laptop cooling fans atop the receiver drawing heat up and out and since has brought the temperature down to a comfortable 91 degrees farenheit. I only use the cooling fans when pushing the RS-Z1 over 60% volume. This has to be beneficial to the longevity of my receiver.”
 

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