Fuchs ODH in the house!!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Also is the cooling fan noisy?

Here’s an update on the fan. Sitting out in our living room and used on gigs, the fan is not audible when the head was on top of a cabinet. Even after I put the head in the ODH110 cab, I didn’t notice any fan noise when it was sitting on the floor in the middle of our living room or on Friday night’s gig.

But I just unpacked from the gig and put the 110 on my recording desk for the first time. It’s sitting about 8” to the right of a reflective surface, and the desk is a 12’ long countertop with wall cabinets above it. The amp is a few inches forward of the back wall, so it’s effectively the driver in a “corner horn” enclosure - and it’s only about 4’ from my left ear when I’m sitting in my chair.



As soon as I switched it on, I heard the fan. It’s faint, but it’s definitely there. It’s not audible in recordings made with close mics, and I’m not bothered by it at all. But those who would use it only for home playing in quiet rooms may feel otherwise.

As I listened carefully for fan noise when I tried it at GC and again when I got it home, and I only noticed it after putting it in its combo cabinet, I wonder if what I’m hearing is the airflow through the vent holes in both sides of the cabinet. Those vents are directly over the two in the head, and the fan moves a fair amount of air. So it may be the whooshing of turbulent air passing through the slight gap between the head’s case and the inside of the cabinet as it’s pulled in one side and pushed out the other. The cabinet is thick enough so that the vent holes themselves could also be causing some of this airflow noise.

No big deal - but I thought I should clarify and keep it honest. Assuming the 10” combo cab increases the fan’s audibility, those sensitive to extraneous sounds and planning to use it only in quiet home settings might prefer the head on a separate speaker cabinet.

[omphalopsychos]

Yeah I feel the same. It is audible, but I’m using this amp more for band playing, not a practice amp or a recording amp. Even for recording it wouldn’t be a concern to me since I can move the head away from the cabinet.

[fuchsaudio]

Seriously, I show this to people all the time at our shop showroom, on gigs, or send a video clip demoing this, and it's as obvious as turning a switch to turn the light on. I gigged yesterday with an ODH 122 combo and ext cab. I got an insane killer clean tone on a humbucker or strat type guitar, and touched up tones and volumes as the gig got a bit louder. I use a touch of compression on my board and the usual effects (chorus, Keeley Doubler, 12-string simulator, Zoom 70 as a delay in the loop), and was extremely pleased (as was the band mates and a few in the audience) of what I was getting.

[fuchsaudio]

Yeah I feel the same. It is audible, but I’m using this amp more for band playing, not a practice amp or a recording amp. Even for recording it wouldn’t be a concern to me since I can move the head away from the cabinet.

As is being speculated, the "fan noise" is in-fact the air passing through the slots in the chassis, and (I assume) being enhanced by the tunnel created when the amp is in a combo. We did reduce the fan noise by adding a rubber gasket to the fan mount in later production, which quieted things down a bit.

So it's basically "air noise", technically not really "fan noise". While a fan is not imperative, we do feel that moving air through the box makes some sense. The tubes will get warm (they run at real tube voltages, around 300 volts), and there's a large resistor mounted on the shield between the amp and preamp. That serves as a heatsink to the resistor and it shields the amp module so digital noise doesn't find it's way to places it doesn't belong. I feel that all components will live longer happier lives when kept at a reasonable temperature. How "loud it is" is obviously subjective. I personally don't find it offensive at home or on gigs.