The Boogie Board

hello there, ive been a mesa user since more than 15 years now, played triaxis+gforce+50/50 over a syrincs guitar mate up to date but wanted to get down to 3HE in my rack, so i sold the 50/50 and bought a 20/20.

ive read harmony central user reviews, ive read about the deep mod and i trusted into the mesa sound to order it blindly. today it arrived, plugged it in, a bit scooped sound, so i sat down and deep modded it and soundwise im just super happy now - very warm smooth solo sounds, warm clean sounds and all that at very comfortable volumes so i wouldnt wake the neighbours.

now, ONE thing really got me annoyed though - on low volumes the fan is just superloud - it exceeds the fan noise of my 50/50 by far since its one of those small size fans with high rpm. my question is: are there any replacement fans for a less noisy unit or can i eventually shut it down completely if i use the amp on low power (i rarely play beyond 11am knob volume, and especially not now since i stopped playing live a while ago). i didnt dare to shut it down yet, but the unit is cold even after 2 hours playing.


help appreciated, i didnt expect such a loud unit. for small volume recording sessions this poweramp is unbearably loud. first thing my girlfriend said when she entered today to check my new unit: wow, whats that noise?!


kind regards,
simon

hmm, alright, i was so fed up with the fan noise that i simply disconnected the fan and played 1hour with open case, since i couldnt enjoy my rack at normal bedroom level at all thanks to the stupid fan. unlike for bigger amps, the 20/20 tubes are not cooled - instead the middle-mounted fan is just there to dissipate heat from the power supplies sitting in the front part into the rear part of the casing.

with low energy consumption like playing on bedroom volume and slightly beyond, i shouldnt expect any overheating. tested it now with open casing and the big fat power supply block gets about hand-warm - probably not a critical temperature at all.

i think for now ill just leave the fan disconnected and for future live applications ill put another switch next to the ground lift which manually adds the fan for higher power consumption applications.

another possible way would be using a thermal diode maybe, but im not too experienced with such things - if anyone got a good readup on such modifications somewhere on the net, feel free to post it.

I've bought a used 20/20 and the I also find the fan pretty noisy Part of it is mechanical noise form an old fan but a lot of it is the airflow itself. So I've ordered a replacement Sunon fan of the same rpm and airflow and another which is about 2dB noisier from the fan itself, but about 20% less airflow.

I'll let you know how I go.

I think a temperature triggered fan is a good idea but don't know how to do it either. Maybe two or three fans would do the trick, more optimally placed, with much less rpm/airflow per fan.

Where is the cooling actually needed? Tubes? PCB the tubes is on? Elsewhere?

With a former profession in temp control I've wired ex. fans within my rask to ex. warmer air from the space, very simple. If anyone wants a diagram send me a msg.

I found that my 20/20 got super-hot in the rack, even at moderate volume. I recommend a larger, quieter fan mounted in your rack pointed at the tubes. The tubes will last a LOT longer if you keep them cooler.

I agree about the fan noise - it was awfully loud.

...or just more volume

OK I swapped the fan out and also tried a lower air flow fan. Turns out the original is the best.

But now I've bought an AxeFX anyway. (Fantastic BTW). It too has a fan....

Don't you still need your power amp for the Ace Fx though?

How close is the Ace to playing a real tube amp?

Yep, still need a power amp. Or a full range flat response speaker (FRFR), like a PA speaker. I am using a powered one, so my rig is now simply guitar>AxeFx>PA speaker. So light and easy and stress-free!

The AxeFx produces a whole signal chain all the way through to sims of cabs. I initially went this way becasue of the ability to move the effects chain around and place a separate tube pre-amp anywhere in the signal chain (esp after boost/distortion etc, but before chorus, reverb, delay etc), as well as then smoothing it all out and adding character with the 20/20. But I like its onboard sounds so much that I think I'll just get rid of my pre-amp. As for the 20/20, well I love it, but I think I've got everything it has and so much more in this one box. It feels really organic. And I can choose what to do with poweramps, different types, different amounts of sag, brightness, power tube distortion and so on. Mind boggling.

The FRFR speaker experience is a bit strange. It is like listening to a really good recording of yourself playing, rather than listening to yourself playing. If that makes sense. I think it probably just takes some getting used to. I haven't tried it cranked in a big space yet as I've only just got it and playyed maybe 4 hours on it at home. So I'm in the honeymoon period, but so far, so good...