Now here’s a funny thing I’m hoping someone can explain.
I bought a new Uniti Star in Early December and housed it in a audio unit.
I’ve been leaving it on standby most of the time and noticed that the case was warm to the touch all the time, getting quite a bit warmer when the unit is being used. This especially on the left hand half of the case above the cd transport.
I was a little concerned about this so took a shelf from above the Star out to allow it to ‘breathe’ more! It remained warm throughout the day.
At the end of the day I turned it on and used it for about three hours before switching back to standby, leaving the shelf out.
The next day, the case was cold. Ah I thought: glad I took the shelf out!
I used it again at night and it ran considerably cooler. Just slightly less warm than it had been in standby previously.
But here’s the funny thing. As a trial, I put the shelf back and guess what: it’s still cold and has remained so.
Strange. But now I’m a little bit concerned that something isn’t as it should be.
Has anyone had a similar experience or can any of you explain what might be going on?
I have a Star which is room temperature on standby and warms up when being used. Even after six or seven hours use, I can still put a flat hand on the casework. Warm, but not hot.
One thing to note is, that during stand-by there 2 possible states:
Main transformers stays on (due to any USB-device attached, server mode on, some HDMI-configurations, …): system will be similarly warm like in non-standby, but idle. I.e. it will remain “warm”.
Main transformer is switched off (due to the above items not applying, or system im “deep sleep”). Then it will get cool more or less like being off.
(When switching power supply, you will hear a “click”.)
Otherwise I have not had problems with heat on either Atom or Nova; but never played “real loud” and have it with some 10+ cm open air above it. (And don’t usually check…)
Yeah. That sounds like it’s started behaving. But up to a couple of days ago, it was very warm to the touch in standby and verging on hot when in use. I’m thinking the main circuit has been staying on up until recently for some reason.
Also, as a p.s., there’s no storage attached and it’s not in server mode.
This is interesting to me because I have a Nova in my second system and twice now I have noticed that the left hand side of the unit is running much hotter than usual. This includes when it’s fully on (it’s always fully on) but nothing is playing. The last time this happened, a week ago, the left side of the unit measured at 45 deg C, but a restart allowed it to settle at about 32 deg C after a couple of hours, where it has remained, despite being fully on permanently and sometimes playing at normal volume all day.
The SQ didn’t seem to be any different when it was running at 45 deg C. So what was going on I wonder?
Sorry guys. Seems like I’ve opened a can of worms!
So we’re two days on, with no changes to the set up and a two hour playing session and it’s still cold.
For the previous three weeks it’s consistently run warm and verging on hot when we operating.
Honestly, I don’t get it.
My best guess having read some stuff and heard from you guys at this stage, is that for some reason, until two days ago it wasn’t going fully into standby.
I’ve read another thread on something similar, where connected stuff like usb drives caused the circuits to remain active. I don’t, but maybe the software thinks I have? 🤷
Could have been constantly accessing the net version a WiFi, thus never switching off (know how it feels!)?
I’m sure everything is fine, but stuff like this bugs me!
If the main transformer is running you’ll almost certainly be able to hear it humming if you are close enough to the unit. So if you hear it humming in network standby mode you’ll know it’s not behaving properly (when server mode is off and no USB drive attached, as already discussed).
I don’t hear any hum from my Star’s transformer. I think this is only the case of another device causes DC on the power line.
I’ve only heard it when I plugged in my television on the same power bank and when the wife used a hair dryer plugged into the same power line feeding the wall outlet.
But the thing here is that for four weeks, it was quite warm to the touch in standby (bordering on hot when playing) and now all of a sudden it’s cold all the time and a little warm if playing.
No changes were made to the set up in between, either settings or wiring. Nothing attached and not in server mode.
The only other thing I can think of is Wi-Fi connectivity, although that set up hasn’t changed either really apart from the usual fluctuations in signal strength.
If it was Wi-Fi, it would have had to have been downloading permanently for three weeks!
I don’t get it, but I’m monitoring it to see if I can isolate any change.
Thanks for all your help guys. This is only my second time posting on this forum and I’m blown away by how responsive and helpful people are.
That’s very odd, but I bought a Nova about 7 months ago, housed in a glass fronted cabinet it got worryingly hot for a few days, I planned to take it out of the cabinet for cooling, but then all of a sudden it went cool and has stayed that way since, even when playing? Maybe it’s just a characteristic of the new breed??
No. All I did was remove a shelf from above, play some music for about two hours, and returned it to standby.
I left the shelf off and the next morning it was cold. Thinking I’d identified the issue, I left the shelf off until the following day. It was still cold, so I put the shelf back to see if it’d warm up again. That was four days ago and it’s still stone cold on standby!
It amazes me just how many hifi equivalents of the ‘worried well’ we see on this forum. Is it just too many with too much time on their hands, or is it a recognised trait of wanting / needing something to worry about? If people are searching or waiting for something to go wrong, surely it must detract from their enjoyment of the music?
