Just dawned on my that you are the Fender Guy...
Good luck with your search.
DeKay
Good luck with your search.
DeKay
Are there any tube amps that don't give off any---
Consider cooling your body instead: https://www.polarproducts.com/polarshop/pc/Cool-Flow-Industrial-Cooling-Seat-System-p2014.htm |
punch a small hole in the wall and put the amps in the next room.@daveyf This isn't a bad suggestion. We have a number of customers that have their amps installed in the basement beneath their listening room, near the ceiling so the speaker cables can be kept short. Of course our amps have balanced inputs so its easy to run long interconnect cables to make that possible. But you could do the same thing if you got some decent line transformers (so as to convert from single ended to balanced and back again at the amplifier) so you could run the long interconnect cables. |
I know two people have already mentioned the Carver 275 but without much context. Carver runs the output tubes much cooler than typical, so he can guarantee them for 5 years. The 275 is sort of a miracle amp - it runs just a little warm, weighs only 19 lbs, yet drives my low-impedance Wilson Sabrinas spectacularly. |
if your looking for tub sound with minimal amount of heat, I’d look at a hybrid amp like the one Lector puts out. They’re made in Italy and sound as good as any full fledge tube amps. I run this amp all summer long and switch to AudioValve Baldur during the winter. The Baldur’s have 10 tubes per side and sound incredible. I highly recommend the lector’s for your room setup |
YES! Rogue Audio Sphinx. Hybrid. Tube Pre, Class D output.Sounds lovely. Runs cool.I got mine in early September, this year. It is now my primary unit.My room is small, 10' x 15' and I live in Tucson Arizona and temp here have run 100 degrees plus all through September. Sound quality is a big improvement over other pure class D's I've had and frankly, better than other Class AB's I've had.Never had a pure Class A - all tube. Way too hot for AZ in my opinion. |
How lucky you are that you can listen to any music from even a solid state system on warm days without having to turn on the air conditioning. I'd like to move to the North Pole at this point just so I can listen to music from June to October without concern. As soon as the air conditioner goes on the music goes off. |
Tubes have to heat their filament to be operational. That is their principle of operation. It is like the car engine which relies on an exothermic reaction to do its job. The amount of filament current may be less in some more modern designs but even then, there will always be SOME heat. It is probably impossible to find tube amps which do not generate ANY heat. Correct me if I am wrong. If you are so sensitive to heat, then you should get a class D solid state amplifier. |
this is crazy/
started reading this the other day, i got interrupted had to quit.
if you want cool like i said, this is crazy if you want cool get a variac turn voltage down to 112/110/108/105 vac. tubes much cooler. 6l6s at 110 you can hold them in your hand(not responsible if you have very tender hands) this might satisfy your heat issues...and its cheap just don't use the power tool voltage regulators(voltage bounces too much) |
Tubes have to heat their filament to be operational. That is their principle of operation.It is, but that is not why tube amps run hot. I explained that earlier. My dedicated room is a stand alone structure on a concrete slab. No basement.'Stand alone'? Like an outbuilding of some sort? If yes, installing a ceiling vent would be easy and inexpensive. If you already have an amp you like, this really is the easiest (and cheapest) solution, and its not noisy. |
Here’s a great tweak that no one knows about. Place your tubes in the refrigerator overnight, preferably the vegetable crisper, for 8 hours before listening. The next listening session, your tube amp won’t produce any heat whatsoever! Ok, don’t do that - instead, get yourself one of those small computer fans and for a few dollars, your tubes will run cool and you’ll extend tube life too. |
Hi daveyf... You didn't address power requirements and such. I am extremely happy with my newly purchased Music Reference RM-10 MK II used in my tiny dedicated studio. It sports 4 small EL84 power tubes that produce a healthy 35W per channel. If curious, you can see recent posts for details. Best, Pin |
In my room, even an amp that puts out just a little heat, over time heats up the room considerably. I already own a couple of amps that put out just a little heat ( one a ss amp, one a tube amp). I also have AC, and in the summer, this is required. The AC runs fairly quietly, but one can still hear it..again due to the size of the room. My OP was really more about an amp that runs totally cool, vs. one that runs a little warm. ( many tube amps run a little warm --and a few monsters act like space heaters!). |
@daveyf If you don't want to give up your Jadis amps you can use them with 6ca7/El34 tubes which will give off considerably less heat than the KT150's you're currently running. If however you want a totally cool running amp Class A/B SS would be the route to go are you considering a seasonal amp rotation with the Jadis? |
@jond I actually do a seasonal amp rotation, the tube amps for the winter and mostly the ss amp for the summer. Even so, the ss amp heats the room enough within about 1.5 hours that it is time for the AC. Swapping out the KT150's for El34's may be an option. The big KT150's do give off some heat. I cannot imagine an amp with 24 of them or more...like the ARC Ref 750 or the upcoming newer version...Total heat engine! |
"...get yourself one of those small computer fans and for a few dollars, your tubes will run cool and you’ll extend tube life too." As much as the tubes may run cooler, the amount of heat in the room will stay the same, I think (theoretically even higher due to fan operation heat). It would not solve the OP’s problem. "We have a number of customers that have their amps installed in the basement beneath their listening room, near the ceiling so the speaker cables can be kept short." Very economical and environmentally-friendly version of what is usually called "floor heating". |
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@daveyf If heat really is the deal (and installing inexpensive venting is out of the question), then you might consider a class D amp, as they run the coolest of any kind of amp. There are some class D amps now that rival tubes for smoothness and detail. However one thing about class D (and nearly all solid state amps for that matter) is that you have to have enough power that you never clip the amp. Tubes are different in that they can have such a graceful overload character that you don't know that the amp is clipping- hence the myth that tube power is somehow more powerful than solid state power. But its a myth; its just that they overload differently. |
I don't think you are ever going to find an amp that runs totally cool. There is electric flowing through it and that is going to generate at least a little heat The coolest amps are going to be class Ds no question but even they give off a little heat. Rogue's Hydra and Dragon are class D's with tube input stages. They are excellent. I have the hydra and it doesn't heat up much. The Sphinx and Pharaoh are integrated amp options from them. AVMs Evolution A 5.2 is a hybrid Class D integrated amps with a tube input stage. i am sure there are other Class D Hybrids. These will be the closest you are going to get to cool tube amps if LTA is not an option. . |
Daveyf, my understanding is that Carver amps run cooler than most. I am not sure if you can do this but, if you have a basement you can do what I did which is to make a shelf 12" under the floor and drill a few discrete holes to run wires. I also run fans. I put pots on the supply lines so I can control fan speed. I can slow them down to the point of not being able to hear them at all upstairs. Check out my system page. |
"I don’t think you are ever going to find an amp that runs totally cool. There is electric flowing through it and that is going to generate at least a little heat" Correct! All gain devices will generate heat, while in operation (none are 100% efficient), but- not all gain devices are defined as, "THERMIONIC" (requiring some heat to operate in the first place). The operating parameters of one’s gain devices and how much output power is being called for, will determine how much heat finally results (aside from a filament’s contribution), while signal is being amplified. ie: Some tubed Carvers = cool enough to touch / some FirstWatt (Class A, SS) = too hot to touch (for the sensitive) |
I have a small integrated amp with 6C33C that put out a lot of heat and I biased these low, to the point that the entire amp innards get very hot, I set a Noctua silent fan underneath which helps with the heat but in the OP's case will only move the heat away from the amp into the room possibly making it hotter, I found a company which specializes in all these cooling solutions ACINFINITY you might be familiar with, like others have stated it may be easy to run a duct to the outside or other room with an inline fan, these are supposed to be quiethttps://www.acinfinity.com/duct-fan-systems/ 32 dba is the equivalent of a quiet rural area so it should be pretty silent Just my 2c |