The used Bryston 2B-LP-Pro that I just bought has no fan for convection-style cooling.
It only has some relatively large heat sinks on the front of the chassis.
I'm using it in bridged mono-mode for an output of 200 watts RMS into an 8 ohm EVM-12L loaded 1 X 12" cabinet.
The owner's manual and any published material I've seen about this amp suggests that running it this way should not be a problem.
But I've been noticing that the heat sinks get quite hot, almost too hot to touch, and I've only used the amp at home thus far - just at low practising levels.
So, I decided to fire off an email to Bryston support.
This is what the guy tells me:
"This amplifier, as you are using it, will be stressed into the load you have made for it. It is a more difficult load then a more normal load of 8 ohms, stereo. As you may be using it at it's most maximum power levels, it will also get hotter then normal. I would recommend to use it in a practice environment to see if the unit will turn off due to heat build up, use it hard, see what will happen. The subjectivity of "hot", is also something I can't check.
I believe you should be ok, but you never know what will happen in all the different venues that one might play in. Use it, see what will happen...the heat isn't a bad thing, is just an indication of working hard."
Now, on the one hand I was thankful that he replied to me.
But "stressed"?
WTF?
Based on their published specs why should this amp be "stressed" when bridged into an 8 ohm load?
The manual doesn't say "you can bridge the amp for 200 watts into an 8 ohm load, but the amp might shut down due to overheating".
I've got a gig next week that I was planning on using the 2B on, but now I'm scared it's gonna cut out on me.
What do you guys think?
Should I just go back to using my SLA1 which doesn't heat up at all when it's bridged?
It only has some relatively large heat sinks on the front of the chassis.
I'm using it in bridged mono-mode for an output of 200 watts RMS into an 8 ohm EVM-12L loaded 1 X 12" cabinet.
The owner's manual and any published material I've seen about this amp suggests that running it this way should not be a problem.
But I've been noticing that the heat sinks get quite hot, almost too hot to touch, and I've only used the amp at home thus far - just at low practising levels.
So, I decided to fire off an email to Bryston support.
This is what the guy tells me:
"This amplifier, as you are using it, will be stressed into the load you have made for it. It is a more difficult load then a more normal load of 8 ohms, stereo. As you may be using it at it's most maximum power levels, it will also get hotter then normal. I would recommend to use it in a practice environment to see if the unit will turn off due to heat build up, use it hard, see what will happen. The subjectivity of "hot", is also something I can't check.
I believe you should be ok, but you never know what will happen in all the different venues that one might play in. Use it, see what will happen...the heat isn't a bad thing, is just an indication of working hard."
Now, on the one hand I was thankful that he replied to me.
But "stressed"?
WTF?
Based on their published specs why should this amp be "stressed" when bridged into an 8 ohm load?
The manual doesn't say "you can bridge the amp for 200 watts into an 8 ohm load, but the amp might shut down due to overheating".
I've got a gig next week that I was planning on using the 2B on, but now I'm scared it's gonna cut out on me.
What do you guys think?
Should I just go back to using my SLA1 which doesn't heat up at all when it's bridged?