System Temperatures During Heatwaves

Hi-Fi Corner
1

Hi everyone,

With this relentless heat dome currently parking itself over the continent, my listening spaces are pulling double duty as saunas, ultimate luxury I know. Since I don’t have a temperature-controlled room, I’ve been getting a bit nerdy with an infrared thermometer to see exactly how the kit is dissipating the heat.

I’m curious—for those of you without air conditioning, what kind of casework temperatures are you currently seeing, and have you noticed any real difference in the performance or sonic presentation as things warm up?

For reference, With the systems sitting in situ not playing here is the current state of play across my two setups:

System I (The Main Stack — Ambient Room Temp: 33.8°C)

Component Temperature (°C)
NAP 500 40.7
500 PS 35.1
NAC 552 35.3
552 PS 35.5
ND555 Head Unit 37.9
555 PS & 555 PS DR 36.1-36.4

System II (The Vintage/Second Stack — Ambient Room Temp: 27.9°C)

Component Temperature (°C)
NAP 135’s 36.4
NAC 52 34.5
52PS 36.4
NDS 39.1
555 PS 38.8

A note on the NAP 500 fan behavior

Living with System I in a room hitting nearly 33°C ambient, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to trigger the low-speed fan on the NAP 500 with it playing for only 10-20 min at ~09:00. It will quickly rise even when the temperatures were lower where the ambient temperature would be between 24-28C the Unit will sit at 36C and im able to get that fan on within 45-60min. Never had an AMP as good as a 500 but also never a Naim amp that can ramp up the temp so quickly makes a 300DR feel very very reserved with its power.

Through a bit of close monitoring, I’ve noted that the NAP 500 fan tends to come on low speed as soon as the central portion of the front fascia casework hits 41.5°C.

Luckily, I haven’t managed to get it to ramp up to full fan speed yet, and I haven’t hit any dreaded thermal cut-out temperatures. It’s comforting to know the internal thermal management is doing its job seamlessly, but it certainly makes you sweat just looking at it.

How is everyone else coping?

If my room at 32.8°C feels tight, I can only imagine what it’s like for our members over in France and southern Europe who are experiencing 40°C+ ambient temperatures right now.

Although I assume the Naim Factory has Central HVAC what else are you experiencing sonically with outside temperatures rising?

If any of you are running big Naim systems over there without domestic AC, how on earth is the gear holding up?

Looking forward to seeing your stats and opinions

Cheers,

FHM

2 Likes
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Listening room (sorry lounge) has been too hot to listen in since 10am this morning (S UK) so basically switched it all off. Looks like from the forecast, Sat it might be switched back on. Wasnt worried about it overheating but seemed pointless having it on

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I have been listening to the radio all day on my system. The 332/333 are slightly below normal body temp. the 250 and NPXs are just over 40C. The LP12 and NVC and NPX are all around 32C, as are most surfaces in the room.

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Is your system on a Fraim?

Has your 250 turned its fan on?

5

Yeah, mine is off too - by a similar time in the morning.

6

I really haven’t even considered what temperature the system is running at, it sounds good and playing along nicely!

We have had warm days before so not sure what the panic is :thinking:

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7

I have a tubes amplifier. Actually 42C outside. I won’t take the risk to listen to music after 11 am.
Then, with 32C in a room, i won’t have the pleasure to listen personnally.
Only after 9pm or before 11am.

2 Likes
8

You should come round to mine when we have a good session. The volume seems to creep up to the point where the 500 can be seen hovering above the glass by a good few millimetres with the air the fans are putting out. Naim really needs to fit afterburner’s!

I’m sitting in the front room at the moment with the volume at around 8 and the room temperature at 30C and all seems fine.

4 Likes
9

Haha, Im just wondering how all of you have “such” cool rooms by 6 ish PM the Listening room is at 36C and I cant be in there comfortably so dont bother.

@frenchrooster how do you keep the room at 32 when its 42 outside? Its only got to 33C outside today but i have internal temps 3.0C over that.

@Polarbear I also do find the system is sounding very good however its me who cant handle the heat not the Black boxes. I have no worry that they system is a little warm, most of the Electronic components are rated for far far higher temps and this is childs-play for them.

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Wait but dont the fans run the other way? The 500 should be glued to your Glass like that old Brabham BT46B F1 car was glued to the floor with a fan.

Are you getting your fans to full speed? Thats when they genuinely do sound like small jets. But at the low fan speed normally achieved theyre not audible unless system is muted and youre fairly close to the unit IME.

1 Like
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On a Quadraspire rack. 250 hasn’t turned the fan on so far.

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interesting. They mustve increased the trigger temperature for the NC Series, As For 135’s it was roughly 37-38C (casework) for fan trigger, And back then i believe it wasnt two stage it was fan full tilt or off.

The 500 increased that to around the 41.5C (casework) I suppose thats due to the fact theres more amplifier boards to create more heat. It sits Idle at 34-36C in moderate temperature rooms.

13

Slightly related, there are possible heavy thunder/lightning storms forecast for tonight/areas of the UK. May be prudent to unplug some stuff in areas.

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14

We had that Vicious Storm a few days ago and I got out and through the rain to Unplug the systems.

Better safe than sorry.

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15

I close the window blinds and the thermic curtains.

16

Not sure the fans on my nap350s have ever turned on. The case doesn’t really get warm, even after half an hour of cranking the 252 up. Genuinely impressed with NC thermal management.

Ps, im in Kent, not Shetlands. Yes, it is warm here.

17

It’s still 30° in the garden here, and 29° indoors. Last night we slept with the bedroom windows and curtains wide open. Fortunately the street light opposite goes off at midnight.

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Outside it was 36C today and in my apartment it was 25C. I put in mosquito nets so I can open the windows at night and that in conjunction with making sure the shutters are down during the day helps a lot.

19

Yikes, I recommend locating your audio systems indoors! :wink:

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FWIW, the manual of most electronics states the min and max ambient temp and relative humidity. There’s a fair margin too so using things outside those values within about 20% is usually fine.