Tweakers' Asylum

Posted by Paul T. Kelly on July 03, 2004 at 18:34:51

In Reply to: SMPS (Panny) and heat posted by rha61 on July 01, 2004 at 01:47:26:

Heat is one of the great destroyers of electronic gear. Transistors should not be operated above 85 deg. C if their temp exceeds that their heatsinking is inadequate and should be increased or a fan added. If you use a DC fan you build a sinple variable power supply to set the speed of the fan so that it doesn't run any faster than necessary, reducing noise. I'm sure that this applies to tube gear also, altho by their nature they run much hotter than solid state. Try to get a reading on the temps of your output devices. If you have caps that are heating above body temp they are probably pulling too much current (current produces heat) Check voltages and resistances in the stage that appears to be too hot against the specs for the device. As Georg pointed out "Voltage = resistance x amperes". All equipment sounds best after it has warmed up, but it shouldn't run excessively hot.

Happy Listening !