[S Clark]

It has been a cool summer in Texas... past tense.  For the past week over 100 w no relief in sight, so the tubes had to go. 
I've been finishing up a X-Statik kit (+-$350) to have something more efficient than my Neo2X that have been in my small room for years. 

Into the closet goes my Dodd tube amp, the Dodd preamp... which get replaced with a $6 TDA7297 modded w/$10 of caps.
The sources are a Virtue Piano cdp  and a vinyl rig (not cheap and cheerful). 
So much cooler now, and the quality is still very nice.  I could get used to this.  The X-Statiks are a great match for the little chip amp.  I should have done this years ago. 

Amp-$20, speakers-<$400, cd- $?? couple of hundred for a used unit?  Altogether less than $700 and it sounds good.  It will be interesting when I put the tubes back in later this fall to see how they match with the X-Statiks.  They might just end up for sale. 

Anyone else switch units due to heat?

[jarcher]

Can't say I really understood this business about "summer vs winter" amps, and I've got a few different tube amps. Guess I'm lucky to be where it's cheap to keep the AC running strong.

[Guy 13]

It has been a cool summer in Texas... past tense.  For the past week over 100 w no relief in sight, so the tubes had to go. 
I've been finishing up a X-Statik kit (+-$350) to have something more efficient than my Neo2X that have been in my small room for years. 

Into the closet goes my Dodd tube amp, the Dodd preamp... which get replaced with a $6 TDA7297 modded w/$10 of caps.
The sources are a Virtue Piano cdp  and a vinyl rig (not cheap and cheerful). 
So much cooler now, and the quality is still very nice.  I could get used to this.  The X-Statiks are a great match for the little chip amp.  I should have done this years ago. 

Amp-$20, speakers-<$400, cd- $?? couple of hundred for a used unit?  Altogether less than $700 and it sounds good.  It will be interesting when I put the tubes back in later this fall to see how they match with the X-Statiks.  They might just end up for sale. 

Anyone else switch units due to heat?

Hi S Clark.
Even with my air conditioning full blast,
the thermometer in my listening room never goes lower than 30C/86F
so my Decware SE84C+ and my Bottlehead Crack get hot like hell,
well I don't know if it's hot like hell, because I never been there,
(Probably after I die I will pay a visit to Lucifer)
but my solution was a 220V. floor fan set on it's lowest speed
with a 220V. to 120V. step down transformer.
The propeller turn real slow, a gentle breeze,
therefore no noise and enough air to keep those two little furnaces cool.

Guy 13
Around the month of January, the temperature only drops by 5C.
Still need the floor fan.

[JLM]

Can't say I really understood this business about "summer vs winter" amps, and I've got a few different tube amps. Guess I'm lucky to be where it's cheap to keep the AC running strong.

Living in the great white north, I don't get all the discussion about gear heating up room either.  I have a friend who used to shut off the furnace to listen in the winter, just to avoid hearing the fan, so I wonder if some of these folks are turning their AC off when listening.  If so, it's the environmental warmth (and stagnant conditions) that's making for discomfort. 

Has anyone tried doing a survey of BTU's produced by various tube (or solid state class A) amps to compare the heat produced versus typical appliances you might find in a listening room (like old desktop PCs, CRT TVs, lights)?  Or just done a calculation of BTU versus temperature rise in various room sizes/construction?  Our furnace is rated at 90,000 BTU, the whole house AC is rated at 3 tons (1 ton = 12,000 BTU), and my listening room has 1 of 15 diffusers in the house, so roughly 6,000 BTU of heating and 2,400 BTU of cooling going to my 2,200 cu. ft. basement room that averages about R20 insulation on all 6 surfaces (with insulated/sealed exterior fiberglass door).  And my new amp with (6) 12AU7 and (4) KT120 tubes of course throws off lots of heat compared to my 100 watt digital mono-blocks but produces indiscernible temperature increase to the room (was hoping it would).   

[S Clark]

Interesting that our members from cooler areas don't find this as an issue.  This system is in a room on the SW exposure.  In spite of 2X6 wall construction and triple pane windows, the room runs about  8 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.  Yesterday I measured that room at 88 degrees when my northern exposure bedroom was 75... and the tube amp can run it up another 3-4 degrees. 

Gen. Sheridan, who oversaw the reconstruction years in TX after the Civil War once said, "If I owned both Hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent out TX".  During August, there's truth to that statement.

[Guy 13]

Hi all.
I have an American (Texan) professional photographer that came to planet Vietnam
to live and do business
and he told me that he prefer the (Cooler) temperature of planet Vietnam.
Is Texas that hot ??? (Never been there)

Guy 13

(Here it's between 85F to 100F with 40 to 85% humidity.
Data comes from my National Geographic weather station.)

[S Clark]

Is Texas that hot ??? (Never been there)

It can be.  I have some desert property west of where I live near the little town of Terlingua, TX.  I've seen temperatures there over 120 degrees    This photo was taken about a mile from my place.

[JLM]

Hard sometimes to understand why people live where they do, then I recall our 8 feet of snow last winter.   

[ClefChef]

I too have a "summer" system consisting of TPA3116 amplifier that I'm using instead of 300b amplifier. It definitely sounds sweet.
My huge 300b amplifier can definitely heat up the listening room nicely - it doubles as a space heater during cooler winter months here in the south.

[Guy 13]

It can be.  I have some desert property west of where I live near the little town of Terlingua, TX.  I've seen temperatures there over 120 degrees    This photo was taken about a mile from my place.

Hi S Clark.
Is that desert property (Nice house) of yours for sale?
That's exactly what I am looking for for my retirement,
a very quiet place.
Don't seems to have electricity, well, if it's windy,
then no problem.

Guy 13

[I.Greyhound Fan]

We keep our house at about 70-72 degrees all year round and my BAT Vk-51se preamp with 8 tubes, my AVA DAC with 2 tubes and my PASS X250 amp can heat up my listening room which is 17x17x9 in just 1 hour.