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"The Heat Pipes are coming"... The Heat Pipes are

What is a Heat Pipe? and why you should care. A Heat Pipe( hp from hear on out)is a heat transfer mechanism that combines the principles of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the transfer heat between two solid interfaces. And why should you in Audio-land care. In short the Heat Pipes (hp) transfers heat from audio equipment and audio listening rooms to make them both sound better. That's a bold statement for sure. But before you boil over and get ready to blast my post, remember there is Heat Pipe (hp) in the very computer or Laptop you are on right now. It's keeping everything in your computer cool inside so it can work as efficiently as possible. A hp contains no mechanical moving parts, and typically require no maintenance. The hp's are PASSIVE devices that are place on top of equipment and placed in your listening room. In short my dedicated listening room with sound reinforcement, diffusers, dedicated lines, and all kinds of isolation devices for my equipment. I Have never addressed the heat coming from my equipment. Since I have all solid state gear, I never thought it was necessary. But when I started putting the hp's on top of my amps near the transformer. There was a noticeable improvement. Then I did the same with my preamp near the power supply the same improvement. Then I put one on all 4 of my players, SACD,DVD-AUDIO,CD, CD 5-DISC players I was sold. The cherry on top was when I put the extra hp's around my listening room. IMPORTANT: I did not have to remove one piece of sound reinforcement when I introduce the hp's in the environment. They just make what's there work better. They look like Aluminum heat sinks with two copper tube coming out of them. I do have one that has 4 copper tubes in it, and looks to be all copper heat sinks included. I even have some that do not have any copper tubes at all , just all aluminium. The ones with the copper tube are better than the all aluminum ones everywhere I compared them at, which was everywhere. So let that Heat Pipe (hp) in your computer go to work and give me your feed back if you think like me that the "Heat Pipes are coming"... "The Heat Pipes are coming".
jejaudio

Showing 3 responses by gs5556

gs5556
1,218 posts
 
Good Lord... another fundamental law of science that is altered when audio equipment is involved. Heat transfer depends on basically three things -- temperature differential, surface area and resistance (thermal conductivity). These hp's affect the surface area by adding a series conductor (like adding a window to a wall) to the equipment case. Fine. But turning down the thermostat 5 degrees or so will have a bigger impact on the overall heat transfer.

Does turning the thermostat down in your listening room have the same magical effect? No? Then neither will the hp's.

Also, putting these things in the listening room will not transfer heat. They will simply stabilize to the temperature of the room. (Both plastic and copper are the same temperature in the same room. The copper feels colder because it transfers heat faster from your fingertips.)

If you want to test this theory that heat transfer from hp's over audio transformers make a difference, place a thermocouple inside the chassis about a quarter of an inch above the xfmr (the thermal boundary layer). Note the temperature over an hour in a constant temperature room. Then place these hp's as directed. If there is a decrease in the ambient air temp over the xfmr, then maybe I'll go to the next step.
gs5556
1,218 posts
 
You are telling us that removing heat = better sound. I am telling you that lowering the thermostat removes heat faster, increasing the surface area of the equipment case removes heat faster and increasing the conductivity of the equipment case removes heat faster. The hp's supposedly remove heat faster. How is this different from those other modes of heat transfer?

What about equipment with vent holes? Fundamental heat transfer will tell you convection removes heat faster than conduction (the basis of hp's).

Let's continue with fundamental heat transfer. As heat is removed from a source into the surroundings (the room), the surrounding air temperature increases. As the temperature of the room increases, the rate of heat transfer from the equipment decreases (the temperature differential is less). No matter how these hp's are designed, they must stop working when the temperature of the room equals the temperature of the equipment. The first law of thermodynamics isn't excused from audio equipment. Conversely, if the temperature of the room lowers, the rate of heat transfer increases. If you use a computer in a refrigerated room you do not need heat sinks around the processor.

I never ever question anybody's perception of what they hear no matter how improbable the tweak or the technology. I make no exception with the hp's. If they work, then there must be something else (increased resonance dampening due to weight on the chassis comes to mind). But please do not tell us that the fundamental laws of physics are suspended.
gs5556
1,218 posts
 
Heat sinks are rated in degrees c per watt. This means that the amount of heat dissipated is constant and that as the outside air warms, the device, too, warms to maintain the difference.

Not correct. The term degrees C per watt is the thermal resistance a heat sink requires at a given device temperature. A component will generate heat based on its intrinsic thermal conductivity and voltage/current -- which determines its operating temperature. The heat sink design needs to know this value, along with the power dissipated and the expected ambient air temperature. Then the minimum degrees C per watt can be determined for the heat sink required to maintain that temperature as a maximum. As the ambient air temp increases, the device doesn't warm -- it dissipates less heat but still enough to keep the device being cooled at or below its maximum temperature. If the ambient temperature expected is very high, then that requires a different heat sink with a lower C per watt. If the ambient is expected to be very low, then a heat sink with a higher resistance can be specified (cheaper and smaller).

The fins of a heat sink increase the surface area to transfer more heat by conduction. They also are in the path of moving ambient air. The movement of air through the fins removes more heat by convection. The heat sink designer can now factor the shape of the sink as well as the thermal conductivity. But they still transfer heat based on ambient air conditions -- the lower the ambient, the faster the removal of heat. This is the whole idea that the hp people are selling us, minus the ambient air temperature part. It is nothing more than razzle-dazzle heat sink engineering applied to the equipment chassis. My point is it doesn't work that way.
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