Xpa 200 gets hot.

[mike47]

I have my "200" wired to a pair of 4ohm MTM towers and I noticed that after about an hour of loud listening the amp is plenty hot, mostly over the heat sink. Hot enough that I can't lay my hand on it. I was wondering if it is ok to keep jamming along or should I rig some kind of fan. Weird because my pair of "100s" run very cool although they only see an 8ohm load. Thanks Mike D.

[Dark Ranger]

Hi Mike,

What make and model of speakers do you have?

I'd take a guess that your 4 ohm rated speakers actually dip lower somewhere in the frequency spectrum. The XPA-200 is rated for 4 ohms no problem and will handle dips lower than that. In the case of your speakers, the question is how much of that time is spent below 4 ohms. The current flowing through the amplifier increases as the impedance (load) drops. This generates heat.

Along with that, you mentioned loud listening. Any idea how loud (e.g. 95 dB) we're talking about? The higher the average listening volume, the higher the peaks will be (which means even more power will be required).

If the amplifier isn't shutting down, chances are you're OK with the impedance and within the amplifier's thermal limits. That said, I'd definitely add a fan to pull the hot air from the chassis.

[novisnick]

Aug 1, 2014 19:31:48 GMT -5 Dark Ranger said:

Hi Mike,

What make and model of speakers do you have?

I'd take a guess that your 4 ohm rated speakers actually dip lower somewhere in the frequency spectrum. The XPA-200 is rated for 4 ohms no problem and will handle dips lower than that. In the case of your speakers, the question is how much of that time is spent below 4 ohms. The current flowing through the amplifier increases as the impedance (load) drops. This generates heat.

Along with that, you mentioned loud listening. Any idea how loud (e.g. 95 dB) we're talking about? The higher the average listening volume, the higher the peaks will be (which means even more power will be required).

If the amplifier isn't shutting down, chances are you're OK with the impedance and within the amplifier's thermal limits. That said, I'd definitely add a fan to pull the hot air from the chassis.

And this is why Emotiva should produce an attractively priced C-12 fan unit, at the right price ,,,,everyone would buy a couple of them at least. !!!!!Big Dan???  Lonnie???
Somebody!!!!!!Please, Please, sell the world these units,,,,,,,,,

[mhm2526]

Hey, Mike, my 200 stays cool with my 4 ohm Magnepans at moderate to loud listening levels (peaks about 87db). Just a little warm. Usually about 2 to 2 1/2 hours per listening session.

[ocezam]

Aug 1, 2014 19:41:38 GMT -5 novisnick said:

And this is why Emotiva should produce an attractively priced C-12 fan unit, at the right price ,,,,everyone would buy a couple of them at least. !!!!!Big Dan???  Lonnie???
Somebody!!!!!!Please, Please, sell the world these units,,,,,,,,,

Agreed.

[sct]

I wouldn't worry about the amp too much. If it doesn't shut down it should be ok. More concern for the voice coils of the speakers. You might consider backing your volume down a notch or two. And your ears will thank you, too, 'specially a few decades from now...

SCT

[Dan Laufman]

[/quote]And this is why Emotiva should produce an attractively priced C-12 fan unit, at the right price ,,,,everyone would buy a couple of them at least. !!!!!Big Dan???  Lonnie???
Somebody!!!!!!Please, Please, sell the world these units,,,,,,,,, [/quote]

We'll, we did make a great fan system (Sherbourn C12) but no one was interested in them until we sold them at cost...

To do it right with Emotiva cosmetics we'd need it to sell for $179.00.

Is anyone still interested at that price??

[creimes]

Was the C12 triggered with an input and output trigger ?, and Dan would it be cheaper to make just being straight black and not having to match the Emotiva cosmetics, I would like to have something to fit between two of my three 1L's but if it was an exact match to the amps it would then IMO take away from the look of the 1L's, not that I don not like the cosmetics but it would just look like one big piece of gear . Is it possible to just produce the C12 again with an Emotiva logo in place of the Sherbourn ?

I have a buddy here who has two 1L's that he would like a nice quiet fan system for as well, right now we both have a $10 6" USB fan sitting behind them haha, while efective you can hear it when the volume is low although.

Chad

[chaosrv]

Aug 2, 2014 9:46:31 GMT -5 Dan Laufman said:

And this is why Emotiva should produce an attractively priced C-12 fan unit, at the right price ,,,,everyone would buy a couple of them at least. !!!!!Big Dan???  Lonnie???
Somebody!!!!!!Please, Please, sell the world these units,,,,,,,,, [/quote]

We'll, we did make a great fan system (Sherbourn C12) but no one was interested in them until we sold them at cost...

To do it right with Emotiva cosmetics we'd need it to sell for $179.00.

Is anyone still interested at that price??[/quote]

[mike47]

Thanks for the replies. My speakers are home built towers. Google " Paul Kittingers Marcato speakers" and look at the images. (May have to scroll down some). Mine are the white MTM towers with the aluminum tweeter housing and base (all homemade). Anyway the speakers's designer is Paul Kittinger and he said that they never dipped below 4 ohms during testing. I don't know about the DBs, but I like to listen very loud. I have a small room in the basement that is a dedicated music room, it's my favorite place to be. Mostly listen to old stuff like Syd Barrett/Floyd, Cheap Trick, etc. The heat don't bother me, I just don't want to hurt the amp.   

Dan, I would certainly buy a matching Emo fan unit as long as it was quiet and activated via 12v trigger.

[Dark Ranger]

You have some great DIY skills, Mike. Excellent work with both machining and woodworking. I envy your talent.

Since very low impedance is not an issue, the heat being generated is mostly from high power output due to loud volume levels.  I know a guy who tried a XPA-200 after his Parasound 2125 amp blew up, but due to his preference for very loud volumes, he wasn't comfortable with the amount of heat generated from the XPA-200 during the listening sessions. He upgraded to the XPA-2 and was happier with that amp. The XPA-200 has built-in protection for thermal events. Again, if the amp is not shutting down, it should be fine. If the heat does become an issue for you or the amp starts shutting down, I'd recommend checking out the more powerful XPA-2.

Otherwise, just enjoy the music! I owned an XPA-200 for about 18 months. It was one of my favorite Emotiva amps.

[mike47]

Thanks DR. To get the most out of your money, DIY speakers is the way to go. Im a machinist but not a woodworker. If I can do it, anyone can. I have about $1000 in them and they are hands down the best sounding speakers ive heard ( admittedly, I havent heard a whole lot). But anyway, the XPA 2 is a little too big for my rack. If I could do it over, I would have built a taller rack and used two XPA 100s like I use in my upstairs system.  Mike D.