Fan in Electrocompaniet ECI-4


I recently bought a ECI-4 from a fellow Audiogoner. The unit looks pretty new and sounds rigth to me (although an issue, see following).

One thing that worries me most now is that the fan in the unit seems never to be working, even when the amp is working for hours and got fairly hot. The seller told me it really need to be very hot for the fan to turn on and I have yet able to make it happen! (i intentially put my CDP on top of it to prevent venting)

The other thing is that I found that I need to turn the volume control up a lot to get enough sound pressure, (ie. well past 12') Although even then the sound is not like pushed to the limit, just worry if this is anything wrong. I have a pair of Dynaudio Focus 140s, And used to drive them with Accuphase E-212. The E-212 only need to dail to 10' to get similar volume, but does sound pushed to limit when dail past 10'. I don't know if this has to do with the fact that I am using RCA input for the amps now, and ECI-4 is really designed for balanced operation.

Anyone has expierence with the Electrocompaniet int-amps? Thanks a lot!
yes_cx
It turned out to be all fine. According to Electrocompaniet serivce guys, the fan in newer ECI-4 will not be on until the temp reaches 75 Degree Celsius which rarely happens and that's why I don't see it on most of the time. Thanks Dschultz and yes, the amp sounds great!
Hi, Dschultz

Thanks for your reply. Do you know what year was your ECI-4 manucactured? Or even better, can you tell me its SN? (you can send me email to yes_cx@hotmail.com)

I am really concerned about the fan on mine now and wish to get more clear about it.

Meanwhile how do you clean your volume attenuator? Mine seems fine by now. Thanks a lot!
Perhaps I have an earlier version of the ECI-4, but my fan runs continuously whenever the unit is powered on.

My only complaint is that the volume attenuator gets noisy every 6 months or so & I have to clean it. Otherwise? Fantastic sounding amplifier.