How hot is too hot?


I am running a Gryphon Diablo 300 to drive a pair of Magico A3.  My room size is around 3m*4.5M.  I usually listen at around the 80db level, mainly to jazz and classical music.

My room temperature is almost always kept at 26 degrees Celsius in the summer.  After operating after an hour or so, the heat sinks of the 300 often gets up to 50 degrees with the top cover at 38 degrees.  My dealer told me these temperatures are normal but I feel this is hot (too hot?).

I should also add that the amp is placed on the top of a flat open shelf so there is no question on ventilation.

Any experience by other Diablo 300 users to share?

TIA!

joeylchan

Showing 1 response by eurorack

Anything you do to reduce the temperature inside a power amplifier will extend the lifetime of some components, most notably electrolytic capacitors. This becomes important sooner or later. FWIW, the interior temp I measure on my big Krells hovers in the 130s F.

The temperatures inside digital processor chips may not have so much to do with power amplifier temperatures.

As far as what to do, first, my larger amplifiers are all basically at floor level -- where the air is cooler. Being something of a "swap-a-holic", I've built dollies for my amps, with large openings on the bottoms. The bottoms of the dollies are essentially rectangular frames, and are three or four inches above the carpet, to allow air to flow in unobstructed. I would not want to introduce any fans for concern of acoustic or electrical noise.

Cheers.