B2 overheating, or not ?

[Ian Barber]

I have seen posts about the B2 overheating, so I thought I would share my data ,recorded yesterday afternoon over a 5-6 hour period. My B2 is the 2TB version which,after yesterday's upload, holds 13,000 tracks taken from nearly 900 albums. I have another 600 albums to go,but I am taking my time.

My B2 stands alone on a folding all  wooden side table which has a top made up of 2 cm square holes approx 1cm deep. Cabling to the hi-fi is some 3 metres in length from the B2 and the hi-fi was all in standby mode while I was operating the B2. The doors and windows were open yesterday, and there was a cool breeze circulating.

I have a laser digital thermometer which I have had for the last 25 or so years and it is accurate to + or - 1 degree C.

AMBIENT TEMP                17-18 degrees C throughout the measurements.

PLAYING TEMP                 30 degrees C

RIPPING TEMP                  33 degrees C

COMPRESSING TEMP      33 degrees C

BACKUP TEMP                  31 degrees C

This means a temperature rise of 16 degrees C in operation would appear to be normal at least in my setup. However, other setups may well result in higher temp rises, especially as the weather is hotting- up together with the proximity to equipment with a heat source on board. I would think that  a maximum external casing temp of 45-47 degrees C would be ok for safe operation of a B2 with an ambient temp no higher than 30 degrees C. Cheers               

[JFBUK]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for posting this. 

Its great to have some quantitative data from a real life set up in normal operation.

Having said that, a subjective question :) 

When you touch the outside of your B2 casing does it feel warm, hot, too hot to touch etc. ?

To me , mine is warm to the touch and I definitely would not describe it as hot

Thanks

John

[Ian Barber]

I have been caught-out a few times,as recently as early last year when I was testing a very large/heavy scandinavian phonostage which was overheating and I had it on test for a couple of months, prior to purchase. In my experience, it is very easy to think that something is over-heating if you touch it with cold hands. Whereas, if you touch it with warm hands it does not seem to be that hot. Luckily, I have the luxury of an accurate laser thermometer to put me right.So, how do you tell if something is over-heating without the use of a laser thermometer ? I would suggest that,in the case of my B2, if the temp reaches 50 degrees C or above, it would start to burn your fingers or would be fairly obvious on touching the casing.