Rack Cooling

[bearjew]

Ok, so as I am currently finishing up a bunch of various projects, I am about to start my biggest one to date.  I will be building three Nelson Pass amps.  Building the amps isn't the part I need help with though.  I am going to be putting these three amps in a rack when it's all said and done, and they apparently idle at 140 degrees.  I have done a ton of reading, and it's totally fine for them to run at 140, but I imagine they'll live significantly longer if their asses aren't on fire all the time.  anyone familiar with any rack cooling methods that don't destroy your wallet?

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Set em on laptop coolers.

[bearjew]

i thought about that, but i'd like to get actual rack mountable stuff to keep everything... um... clean?  plus, those laptop coolers aren't as effective as i'd like them to be

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Still cheap and quiet, you could mount similar computer fans into a wooden panel and mount that at the back of your rack.   It could be done very discretely if you are careful.

[ataudio]

What type of rack?   Closed, furniture style or open rack like Salamander brand?
I have used computer fans very effectively.  To keep noise down I run them at reduced voltages.
A 12v fan (or several of them) are very very quiet when run off 5 volts or so.  A long time ago I ran
A 240 volt (yes, 240 volt fan off enterprise IT hardware) off 120 volts and it was super quiet.  I used this in an old
fully enclosed furniture style cabinet.  I have several computer fans and many wallwart power supplies if you want to
experiment.  I just left them run all the time....never an issue.

[schwarcw]

Check out these, made specific for racks of various size and cooling capacity.  Not cheap, but professional all the way made for what you want to do.  If your going to put the blood, sweat, tears and money into building some Nelson Pass design equipment, don't cheat yourself on the cooling.

http://www.coolcomponents.com/rackcooling

[F1nut]

I would place them side by side.

[bearjew]

Check out these, made specific for racks of various size and cooling capacity.  Not cheap, but professional all the way made for what you want to do.  If your going to put the blood, sweat, tears and money into building some Nelson Pass design equipment, don't cheat yourself on the cooling.

http://www.coolcomponents.com/rackcooling

wow that site is brilliant.  i'm definitely not cheaping out on these amps; i'm just trying to make this Pass project fit into my budget... i know, "Pass" and "budget" have never been in a sentence together before.

I would place them side by side.

i would love to, but i currently will not have the space to do that.

[papabearjew]

Immerse in nitrogen bath like they do with super computers. At least Cray used to.

[ataudio]

Maybe  you can use oversize the heatsinks.  Start with good passive cooling. 

[bearjew]

the chassis are going to have 40mm heatsinks already haha

[ataudio]

A really good ballbearing fan run on reduced voltage can move enough air to work. Since your amp is spec's to run as is a simple fan setup would probably work just fine.  I've only borrowed a couple of class a amps.  One was a Sumo and one was a Pass amp of some forgotten
flavor.  I remember liking them both...but both out of my price range at the time.  Good luck on such an adventurous project.
Please keep us posted.

[bearjew]

A really good ballbearing fan run on reduced voltage can move enough air to work. Since your amp is spec's to run as is a simple fan setup would probably work just fine.  I've only borrowed a couple of class a amps.  One was a Sumo and one was a Pass amp of some forgotten
flavor.  I remember liking them both...but both out of my price range at the time.  Good luck on such an adventurous project.
Please keep us posted.

Sadly enough, I'm building these strictly based on the reputation of Nelson Pass.  I have never had the luxury of hearing any Pass amps, but I have a gut feeling that these could be end-all amps for me... unless i'm a millionaire, then i'm going to make them out of 24k gold...

[GraphicFX]

Ok, so as I am currently finishing up a bunch of various projects, I am about to start my biggest one to date.  I will be building three Nelson Pass amps.  I am going to be putting these three amps in a rack when it's all said and done

When you say rack, are you talking about 19" front mounting? If so, there are tons of rack mount cooling fans everywhere. Fairly cheep and look way cool.  My rack, Contains 4 old school crown amps, Behind the rack (hidden) I use a 7inch desk fan. plugged in to a power strip. When the party gets cookin', I just flip the breaker and on she goes. I only use it when I'm playing my system at just below clipping. At that volume, you can't hear it.

It's primitive but cools things in a hurry.

[schwarcw]

These are a pair of Pass Labs 600 wpc mono blocks.  I heard these at the Chicago Audio show earlier this year.



Pass Labs link:  https://passlabs.com/products/amplifiers/point-5/x600.5