P2201 running hot on one side

Chris Brown

AK Subscriber
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I was having some Friday fun listening to music fairly loud for an hour and a half or so. When I was done I took the opportunity to measure the temperature of the heatsinks on the sides of my amps. One measured 130F, which was considerably more than the others.

I have one P2200 and 3 P2201 amps (same except the P2200 has meters). I run the 4 amps bridged, giving each of my JBL L150 and L100T speakers their own amp. After that hour and a half of music, the left and right heatsinks of each amp all measured in the 95F-100F range, except for that one side that measured 130F, and the one right above it that measured 110F, probably just due to the heat rising from below. Ambient temp was 74F.

Considering that I was pushing them hard and the halved impedance of the load due to the amps being bridged, I expected them to be hot, but having one out of the eight sides running so much hotter would seem to indicate a problem. Any ideas?
 

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Check the idle current setting in that one amplifier.

Thanks for your help, I will start my investigation there. I admit that I have no idea how to perform the procedure and if it seems too dangerous I will probably end up just taking it to a tech. I'm just not sure if 130F on that one heatsink is a "hotter than normal but probably okay for now" or "stop using it now" level of hot. I know that the thermal light on the front of the amp comes on at 100C (212F) and thermal protection activates at 130C (266F). I have never actually seen the thermal light on any of the amps come on since I've owned them.

Hope its not the bottom amplifier.:biggrin:

Are you talking about the P3500 on the very bottom or the bottom P2201 out of the 4 P2200/P2201 amps? The P3500 has fans so I figured that would probably be okay. The P2200/P2201 amps all have about a half inch of space between them and other amps in the rack, and the sides of the rack are open giving the heatsinks good airflow. If that seems like not enough space I could reconfigure the rack to space them further apart. For what it's worth, the P2201 on the bottom, right above the P3500, has the coolest heatsinks, about 94F and 95F after that hour and a half of heavy usage. The one that measured 130F on the left side was the P2201 second from the bottom, 3rd from the top, out of the four P2200/P2201 amps.
 
No. The bottom 2201. Wasn't sure it they were stacked . That would have made it a royal PITA to gain access.
 
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