Yeah, my V3 Monos get way hotter than the 38°C in this video. Even if they're just sitting idle in the ON position they are hot to the touch. Couple evenings ago I listened to a couple hours of LOUD classical music and they were really painfully don't-touch-me hot. I think stacking them vertically is a really bad idea even if they do look cute that way. Also when they're in AUX, they still draw 10W each so remain significantly warm to the touch.
See that the electrolyte capacitors are in contact with the cooling plate of the opamp which has a high temperature. Will this result in the capacitors quickly drying out?
Of course it would seem to make more sense to have the chip/heatsink on the top of the case and lessen heating the rest of the components on the board......
I have two V3 Monos from the kickstarter. First off, they sound great! BUT they get very hot, hot enough that I’m not stacking them, no way. One gets noticeably hotter than the other, making me wonder if the thermal paste was done well on the cooler one. I’m going to take it apart and make sure. No detectable difference in sound, just temperature.
Trust me on this one ... The chip goes into a thermal panic at 150c ... that's 302f, way beyond the boiling point of water! It's actually darn close to being hot enough to unsolder itself from the board. So if the open unit tripped into protection with the camera showing 75c that is not a very good thermal solution. The chip is significantly hotter than the heat spreader. By the same logic, if the outside of the closed case is only hitting 40c, the chip inside the case is significantly hotter. A much better demonstration would have been to put a thermometer right on the top of the board above the chip, inside that case. I'm betting they would have found enough heat to damage the capacitors or other heat sensitive components. That said ... it is true that bench testing is far more torturous than playing music. In a normal listening room at reasonable loudness (80db or so) which usually involves average power levels in the 5 to 10 watt region, heat wouldn't be as much of a problem. Now... if they had flipped that upside down, bolting the chip to the top of a finned case, I'd be far more enthusiastic about the design. Heat rises ...
Interesting observation. Without a heatsink it trips thermal protection at about 80C which is well below spec. One wonders if it was some other protection mechanism that kicked in rather than thermal overload. As for bolting it to the bottom vs the top, aesthetics aside the heat transferred to the case possibly presents more surface area to the air for cooling bolted to the bottom rather than than if it were at the top - with air rising from under the device. Easy to check this theory, just turn it over and measure. I've got mine standing on their side. I measured them comprehensively and am satisfied that this does not compromise the temperature management performance or create any sort of cooling benefit.
@@KeithHeinrich There are multiple layers to any thermal design ... Air temperature ... then enclosure temperature ... then heat sink temperature ... then chip surface temperature ... and finally the junction temperatures inside the chip itself. These various temperatures will increase as you get closer to the die inside the chip. What you feel on the case or even that heat spreader bar is likely to be significantly cooler than the chip itself. So with a poor cooling solution it is possible for the chip to go into a thermal panic while the upper layers remain relatively cool, because the heat is not being carried away.
getting warm is normal people. good design!
Yeah, my V3 Monos get way hotter than the 38°C in this video. Even if they're just sitting idle in the ON position they are hot to the touch. Couple evenings ago I listened to a couple hours of LOUD classical music and they were really painfully don't-touch-me hot. I think stacking them vertically is a really bad idea even if they do look cute that way. Also when they're in AUX, they still draw 10W each so remain significantly warm to the touch.
Why mine are 46- 50C and here it is 37C?
Boiling hot
See that the electrolyte capacitors are in contact with the cooling plate of the opamp which has a high temperature. Will this result in the capacitors quickly drying out?
Of course it would seem to make more sense to have the chip/heatsink on the top of the case and lessen heating the rest of the components on the board......
Yeah and you could attach a big cpu heatsink on top
I guess you could place the amplifier upside down on your rack and install new rubber footers on the top plate?
I have two V3 Monos from the kickstarter. First off, they sound great! BUT they get very hot, hot enough that I’m not stacking them, no way.
One gets noticeably hotter than the other, making me wonder if the thermal paste was done well on the cooler one. I’m going to take it apart and make sure.
No detectable difference in sound, just temperature.
Could use an aircom s6
Trust me on this one ...
The chip goes into a thermal panic at 150c ... that's 302f, way beyond the boiling point of water! It's actually darn close to being hot enough to unsolder itself from the board.
So if the open unit tripped into protection with the camera showing 75c that is not a very good thermal solution. The chip is significantly hotter than the heat spreader. By the same logic, if the outside of the closed case is only hitting 40c, the chip inside the case is significantly hotter.
A much better demonstration would have been to put a thermometer right on the top of the board above the chip, inside that case. I'm betting they would have found enough heat to damage the capacitors or other heat sensitive components.
That said ... it is true that bench testing is far more torturous than playing music. In a normal listening room at reasonable loudness (80db or so) which usually involves average power levels in the 5 to 10 watt region, heat wouldn't be as much of a problem.
Now... if they had flipped that upside down, bolting the chip to the top of a finned case, I'd be far more enthusiastic about the design. Heat rises ...
Interesting observation. Without a heatsink it trips thermal protection at about 80C which is well below spec. One wonders if it was some other protection mechanism that kicked in rather than thermal overload. As for bolting it to the bottom vs the top, aesthetics aside the heat transferred to the case possibly presents more surface area to the air for cooling bolted to the bottom rather than than if it were at the top - with air rising from under the device. Easy to check this theory, just turn it over and measure. I've got mine standing on their side. I measured them comprehensively and am satisfied that this does not compromise the temperature management performance or create any sort of cooling benefit.
@@KeithHeinrich
There are multiple layers to any thermal design ...
Air temperature ... then enclosure temperature ... then heat sink temperature ... then chip surface temperature ... and finally the junction temperatures inside the chip itself. These various temperatures will increase as you get closer to the die inside the chip. What you feel on the case or even that heat spreader bar is likely to be significantly cooler than the chip itself.
So with a poor cooling solution it is possible for the chip to go into a thermal panic while the upper layers remain relatively cool, because the heat is not being carried away.
My BT30D pro is so warm in normal use I'm afraid of damaging the circuitry inside.
Are these monoblocks safe to stack?
I had mine stacked and they got VERY hot. I have them sitting side by side with space in between now.
It's boiling hot.