How loud should the fan be?

lqdsnddist

Axe-Master
I used to have a II with a pretty loud fan, swapped it with a Noctua silent fan and it was much improved, AND, the II was in a rack case. That combination made things pretty much inaudible at more than a foot away...

I then moved to an AX8, which is totally silent.

Now I've got a III, and right now its sitting on my desk, and the fan while not obnoxious, is pretty noticeable even from some distance away in the room. I know its been said its got a quieter fan the XL+, but not having had a stock unit, I feel I've kind of lost my baseline for what the fan should sound like.

So, how would everyone rate the fan noise ? Essentially silent ? About a loud as a typical computer fan ? Louder than that ?

Just trying to get an idea of if mine is as it should be. It will go back into a rack case at some point and I know that will knock the dB down a bit, but in the interim its loud enough to be mildly annoying, given I built silent PC's for my studio and there is basically zero ambient noise in my new house/neighborhood.
 
The fan on my Axe III sounds like the fan on my XL+, minus most of the motor whine, leaving just the sound of moving air.
 
I used to have a II with a pretty loud fan, swapped it with a Noctua silent fan and it was much improved, AND, the II was in a rack case. That combination made things pretty much inaudible at more than a foot away...

I then moved to an AX8, which is totally silent.

Now I've got a III, and right now its sitting on my desk, and the fan while not obnoxious, is pretty noticeable even from some distance away in the room. I know its been said its got a quieter fan the XL+, but not having had a stock unit, I feel I've kind of lost my baseline for what the fan should sound like.

So, how would everyone rate the fan noise ? Essentially silent ? About a loud as a typical computer fan ? Louder than that ?

Just trying to get an idea of if mine is as it should be. It will go back into a rack case at some point and I know that will knock the dB down a bit, but in the interim its loud enough to be mildly annoying, given I built silent PC's for my studio and there is basically zero ambient noise in my new house/neighborhood.

I've been through the same progression as you, and I'm also disappointed in the fan noise of the III, my only complaint about it so far. It's not very loud, but it's unpleasant.

Danny W.
 
I'm coming from an XL+ and to me the III does sound a little louder, but I also have them in two different racks. My Matrix GT1000FX is much louder than either of them though.
 
The noise on the III at least seems to be more of an airflow sound as opposed to my mkI II with its 60mm fan spinning at like 3k rpm and the resulting high pitched motor whine noise

I think a rack case will go a long ways to helping matters but just wanted to make sure everyone didn’t have a silent fan and mine had an issue lol
 
When switching between different rack cases to see which one I liked best, I noticed that the fan noise was much more prominent with my Mission Engineering head rack. Almost like a resonant response from case and rack, not blowing air/air movement noise.
 
Fan on mine is very quiet. Way way quieter than my II Mk1

That really is no fair comparison because the mk1 had a very loud fan. There were many complaints about that in those days. I had G66 send me a quieter fan back then.

With the mk2 the fan changed changed to a quieter one.
 
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I modded the one on my II as it was ridiculously annoying. The 3 however, whilst a tad noisier than the modded 2 is not worth worrying about this time :)
 
Damn! That's the only complaint I've had with my axe fx ii and xl+ - the bloody fan noise. I haven't got my three yet but it's sounding like I'll have the same issue. Bugger.
Pauly
 
I modded the one on my II as it was ridiculously annoying. The 3 however, whilst a tad noisier than the modded 2 is not worth worrying about this time :)

That is good to hear as it’s a nice frame of reference. I’d say mine is the same, not as quiet as my modded II, but better than it was stock. Sounds like mine is about right then for better or worse
 
I also have it on my desk, nearby.

My Axe-Fx 2 Mark I modded with Noctua was slightly quieter. I can hear a slight fan motor whine on the 3 if I pay attention. So essentially silent. Basically what @themaidenmaniac said.
 
I have my III and XL in a home studio and very close to where I tend to sit... I have to say that the fan noise from the III is worse than I expected and, frankly, it's the ONLY way in which I'm disappointed in the new unit. The III noise is definitely more intrusive than the XL. Even then, I'm not really bitching... if I can find an alternative fan to quiet the unit, I'll install it.

FAS is busy shipping units... once the flurry calms down a bit and there are more units in end-users hands, I plan to ask politely if my unit is the norm. Maybe some units are noisier than others? From professional experience, I can tell you that fans can be all over the map with respect to price, quality, reliability, performance, and noise...

I'm not saying that FAS has selected a poor component but I'd like to investigate the fan in my unit.
 
I have my III and XL in a home studio and very close to where I tend to sit... I have to say that the fan noise from the III is worse than I expected and, frankly, it's the ONLY way in which I'm disappointed in the new unit. The III noise is definitely more intrusive than the XL. Even then, I'm not really bitching... if I can find an alternative fan to quiet the unit, I'll install it.

FAS is busy shipping units... once the flurry calms down a bit and there are more units in end-users hands, I plan to ask politely if my unit is the norm. Maybe some units are noisier than others? From professional experience, I can tell you that fans can be all over the map with respect to price, quality, reliability, performance, and noise...

I'm not saying that FAS has selected a poor component but I'd like to investigate the fan in my unit.

This is exactly where I am on this.

Danny W.
 
To some degree what is "loud" depends entirely on one's hearing thresholds, as well as the frequency range of the noise. As some of you guys know, I'm an audiologist for my day job, so I test hearing (and some other diagonistic stuff of the ears and balance system) and I get plenty of folks in who's auditory thresholds start about 30-40 dB and nose dive from there, maybe not even being able to perceive 3 or 4 kHz until its at like 70+ dB

Those guys aren't going to hear any "hiss" from an amp or monitor speaker, aren't going to hear any fan noise etc. They also don't hear the beep of the microwave, have no idea what a soft spoken female waitress or cashier asks them etc etc. Its all kind of relative as far as hearing levels go, but also what people can get used to. Some people's brain is really good at "tuning out" a certain noise where they just aren't really aware of it, even if its fairly loud. Other people have kind of the opposite issue, misophonia, and certain sounds, while not very loud, just drive them crazy and produce a lot of emotional distress, which can turn to physical distress.

I don't have misophonia over fan noise, but I have had monitor speakers before who's "hiss" was just too distracting to me, didn't want to me around them doing anything because I felt like I couldn't not hear it, if that makes sense...

Point basically being, aware of sound and physical intensity levels of sound don't have to go hand and in. Think of it this way, people who live near a train track sleep through the train, even though the thing can be like 80 or 90dB, physically loud and its totally cool. At the same time, a very soft sound, barely audible, like 20 dB can be very annoying/disturbing/et al, if its like the sound of your parents have sex in the next room. Very soft, but you darn well probably don't want to be hearing that!

Auditory perception is an interesting field, but it keeps my job fun. Vision in comparison is pretty boring, 20/20 is the same for everyone. No one wants to have glasses that make things just a little fuzzy etc.
 
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