Is this too hot

[Pelliott321]

Interesting that you mentioned that, Riley
The unit has little rubber feet that raises it up off the shelf about 1/4 inch.
I put a small 1 inch thick wooden block under the center and after a half an hour the top surface temperature dropped 10 degrees!

[tomp]

You might want to rest the flat surface of a small heat sink like this one on it which will help.

Tom

https://www.amazon.com/tatoko-Aluminum- ... 810&sr=8-4

[Pelliott321]

might work
maybe some thermo compound too

[tomp]

Yep, but a little messy.

[SoundMods]

might work
maybe some thermo compound too

By all means. You have to have intimate contact between the surface you are mounting the heat sink on to assure good heat transfer. I've used thermal epoxy to good effect.

Here is a product that gets the job done:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124519336627?h ... SwpNVf-IJw

To assure a long DAC service life, as but one example, I heat-sinked the Ultra-Analog modules and Microsonics PMD-100. I fired it up and let it "cook" for a couple of hours and the heat sinks were definitely getting the heat of the cores of those devices.

Since the DAC is well ventilated, because of the tube output stage, the heat from those devices gets up and out.

Attachments

[mix4fix]

At what point is too hot becomes too hot for safety sake?

I remember there was a vendor at CAF who had a large tube amplifier sitting on floor that was too hot to touch in order to relocate.

When does it become too hot? I'm not talking about the components. I am talking about damaging carpets, shelves, floors, etc.

[Pelliott321]

Check the flashpoint of those items,
It will be much higher than 120 degrees F

[Pelliott321]

I put a 12vdc computer fan next to the “hot” device and it lowered the surface temp from 118 to 85 degrees F
Now I have to listen to see if anything changes

[Pelliott321]

This is the almost final solution

Keeps the Uptone Etheregen very cool.
I isolated the unit from the casework and the unit is isolated from the richlite shelf
the etheregen has a standard switch on one side and a special port on the other for your music server/streamer on the other.
you can hear the unmistakenly positive difference from moving your streamer from the standard switch to the special switch port. Its hard to believe but its there.
Is it worth $600? only you can decide

[Cogito]

This is the almost final solution

etheregen.jpg

Keeps the Uptone Etheregen very cool.
I isolated the unit from the casework and the unit is isolated from the richlite shelf
the etheregen has a standard switch on one side and a special port on the other for your music server/streamer on the other.
you can hear the unmistakenly positive difference from moving your streamer from the standard switch to the special switch port. Its hard to believe but its there.
Is it worth $600? only you can decide

Interesting. Audiophile companies sell anything to make money.
I see the Etheregen has SFP port. I wonder what they recommend using it for? The reason I ask is, the SFP port is on the input side. Are they trying to convert optical signals into USB with this device?

A simpler way and better way of decrappifying is converting the electrical signals of ethernet to optical signals. Noise does not pass thru optical cables.

Setup would be using an Ethernet-to-Optimal converter near the music server and connecting the converter to music server with fiber optical cable. Of course, you would need a fiber NIC in the music server. Whole setup would cost about couple o hundred dollars.