NDX getting hot

I think you might be misunderstanding something.   If its left on iRadio or Tidal it will be playing regardless of what the pre-amp is set to.   If its left on UPnP (NAS) or USB & is not playing anything, it might be doing nothing but irrespective of what its playing or not, its circuits & systems are still running.

I measured mine a while back & it does run a number of degrees above ambient when switched on & not playing - but NB: my NDX is powered from an TP-XPS - so a bare NDX will be different. My NDX is located in a heavy wood rack with enclosed bottom, top & sides,  top & sides all have a 15mm air gaps, the rear is aprx 80% open,  a more open rack such as a Fraim will affect the numbers.  I measured case temperature with a pro level IR beam gun on the front panel. The room ambient was 20 to 21’c & after an on & idle state for >24 hrs the centre area case temp measured 31.42'c. ( I leave mine switched to my separate FM tuner & I'm hoping that has the NDX set to whatever its minimum is.)  After playing 1 album the temp changed to 34.46'c & remained more or less unchanged after playing for a few hours, & its the same with iRadio playing for hours. 

Heat is watts & power consumption.  Naim publish consumption at 60VA (maximum) I’ve never got close to that.  I’m not sure what operating state “maximum” is.  I’ve measured my NDX via its TP-XPS current consumption using a Fluke 79  -  On/idle its 0.95 to 0.103 amps = 22 to 25VA (240v)    Running both UPnP (NAS) & iRadio raised that by next to nothing & it confirms that it's running all the time & does not really “idle”. The display on/off did not change anything that I could measure.

I did notice the case temp drop by aprx 5'c at some point during firmware updates (my numbers are 4 series firmware)  & also the same with the TP-XPS case temp. I've not confirmed if it was firmware that caused this, but I can't image it being anything else.

The NDX will generally get very warm/hot on the front right hand side regardless of whether an XPS is used or not. 

However mine has been on 24/7 since 2013 and toasty the whole time and it's never had a problem. I don't give it much thought.

Thank you to both of your reponse.  I am less worried now by its unusually high temperature.  I have never had another piece of Naim black box with this type of heat situation regarless of wheather XPS2 is connected. 

So what is the "unusually high" temperature ???   

I have used qute2 and NDX, both reach similar hot temperatures especially in the summer . Other naim componets are much cooler. Maybe the streamer card causes all this heat.

Hmmmm... I have two NDXs at home and they both remain cool. My SuperUniti does run permamently warm though...

All have the latest firmware.

You guys are not being helpful;  warm, hot & cool are all subjective  non-specific personal descriptions ......  Numbers, plus or minus, in degrees C F or K would be more helpful

The front right of my NDX reaches 45-50C and is fairly stable. This is where the control circuits are behind the buttons. It's also where the transformer is but since I use an XPS that won't be a heat source.

My UQ2 runs with an even surface temp of around 30C but will go up to 45 after a few mins with no more than a sheet of paper on it (it's in an office). This gives credence to Naim's recommendation that all units must have airflow around the case since the case is a heatsink.

All other units, including my 250.2 run at ambient temp (which in my home is 25C year round) and never deviate. 

Mike-B posted:

You guys are not being helpful;  warm, hot & cool are all subjective  non-specific personal descriptions ......  Numbers, plus or minus, in degrees C F or K would be more helpful

My NDX's run at at ambient temperature - between 22 and 25C. SuperUniti is more around 35-40C.

mine is used every day for hours and as never run hot at all , warm yes but no more than other equipment

Adam Zielinski posted:

Mike-B posted:

You guys are not being helpful;  warm, hot & cool are all subjective  non-specific personal descriptions ......  Numbers, plus or minus, in degrees C F or K would be more helpful

My NDX's run at at ambient temperature - between 22 and 25C. SuperUniti is more around 35-40C.

Ah-ha numbers,  now I can say I doubt your 22 to 25'C Adam.    

This morning, the room is 20'C,  my NDX (ON & idle over night)   shows 31.5'C on a kitchen/BBQ stick thermometer thats is laying on the centre of the case top.   Supernait (ON but not running)  & NAT-05 (ON & playing airwaves 24/7) are 30'C & 28'C on the stick t.meter.      Relative to human perception warm & cool to a hand touch,  they all feel a slightly warmer than ambient & the NDX a small amount warmer than the others.

Feeling Zen,  your numbers are interesting wrt "front right of my NDX reaches 45-50C and is fairly stable. This is where the control circuits are behind the buttons. It's also where the transformer is but since I use an XPS that won't be a heat source."      Same as my set-up with XPS,   but your 45-50'C is very strange.  There is nothing in that area except the transformer, the buttons & screen panel are inert when off & not illuminated.   What firmware are you running ??? 

Mike-B posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Mike-B posted:

You guys are not being helpful;  warm, hot & cool are all subjective  non-specific personal descriptions ......  Numbers, plus or minus, in degrees C F or K would be more helpful

My NDX's run at at ambient temperature - between 22 and 25C. SuperUniti is more around 35-40C.

Ah-ha numbers,  now I can say I doubt your 22 to 25'C Adam.    

This morning, the room is 20'C,  my NDX (ON & idle over night)   shows 31.5'C on a kitchen/BBQ stick thermometer thats is laying on the centre of the case top.   Supernait (ON but not running)  & NAT-05 (ON & playing airwaves 24/7) are 30'C & 28'C on the stick t.meter.      Relative to human perception warm & cool to a hand touch,  they all feel a slightly warmer than ambient & the NDX a small amount warmer than the others.

Feeling Zen,  your numbers are interesting wrt "front right of my NDX reaches 45-50C and is fairly stable. This is where the control circuits are behind the buttons. It's also where the transformer is but since I use an XPS that won't be a heat source."      Same as my set-up with XPS,   but your 45-50'C is very strange.  There is nothing in that area except the transformer, the buttons & screen panel are inert when off & not illuminated.   What firmware are you running ??? 

    

Mike I beleive the control circuit for the unit is virtcally mounted behind the screen/button panel not on the main PCB.

Mike - I will verify the numbers with my pro-thermometer tonight.

Gosh, you guys certainly know how to live. 

feeling_zen posted:

    

Mike I beleive the control circuit for the unit is virtcally mounted behind the screen/button panel not on the main PCB.

The picture is NDX internals,  it shows only the screen & switch button panels mounted vertically.   I'm not sure what you mean by "control circuit",  yes the buttons are "control" items,  but are just touch switches.     The horizontal mounted board behind the traffo (mounted over the top of the power supply & voltage regulator PCB)  carries the ARM9 controller  the larger PCB to the left carries DAC & DSP.

Hungryhalibut posted:

Gosh, you guys certainly know how to live. 

Beats mowing the lawns & other horticultural duties HH

Reporting as promissed:

UnitiServe SSD - in an 'engine room' abmient temperature: 25C, US temperature on top of the cover: 36C

NDX - ambient temperature: 22C, NDX temperature: 27C (one with its own power supply was at 26.7C and with 555PS was at 27C)

SuperUniti -  ambient temp: 22C, sitting on a glas shelf, with an MDF shelf above -  top of the box temperature: 35C

UnitiQute2 - ambient temp: 22C, sitting on a glas a shelf, with an MDF shelf above - top of the box temperature: 36C

Adam Zielinski posted:

Reporting as promissed:

UnitiServe SSD - in an 'engine room' abmient temperature: 25C, US temperature on top of the cover: 36C

NDX - ambient temperature: 22C, NDX temperature: 27C (one with its own power supply was at 26.7C and with 555PS was at 27C)

Dziekuje  ..............  What is the air gap(s) to the shelf above (if any) to the top & sides of NDX's ?????     Interesting to note the internal traffo/rect/reg adds no measurable heat,  I had expected a hint of maybe 1 or 2'C  (but 26.7 & 27 is within expected norms around non-specific t.couple variation for the same temp..)   

UnitiServe:  makes me wonder what its doing to consume those watts,   my Synology is in a closed cabinet & runs 2'C above the in-cabinet ambient when doing nothing,  it goes up 8-10'C after playing for about 2 hours.

Mike-B posted:

Adam Zielinski posted:

Reporting as promissed:

UnitiServe SSD - in an 'engine room' abmient temperature: 25C, US temperature on top of the cover: 36C

NDX - ambient temperature: 22C, NDX temperature: 27C (one with its own power supply was at 26.7C and with 555PS was at 27C)

Dziekuje  ..............  What is the air gap(s) to the shelf above (if any) to the top & sides of NDX's ?????     Interesting to note the internal traffo/rect/reg adds no measurable heat,  I had expected a hint of maybe 1 or 2'C  (but 26.7 & 27 is within expected norms around non-specific t.couple variation for the same temp..)   

UnitiServe:  makes me wonder what its doing to consume those watts,   my Synology is in a closed cabinet & runs 2'C above the in-cabinet ambient when doing nothing,  it goes up 8-10'C after playing for about 2 hours.

You're welcome Mike

NDXs are more or less free-standing (as can be seen in the photos in my profile).

UnitiServe - I'm also curious as to what it does... It's my 2nd unit and I also had a replacement one for 1 month (whilst the current one decided to be stuck in a BIOS limbo). All 3 seem to run at approximately the same temperature - approximately 10 C above the ambient.

Adam Zielinski posted:

NDXs are more or less free-standing (as can be seen in the photos in my profile).

Doh !!!  .............  I have not looked at your pics recently.      

Your open top & sides shelf mount @ 27'c equates well with my 31.5'C within its enclosed rack (also in my profile)

My SuperUniti runs at a similar temperature as your gear, with a similar placement. Good to see some consistency....

So all this info on how hot their NDX is (or  isn't) and it seems from comparing posts mine runs by far the hottest for whatever reason yet seems to concern me the least.

If it blows up before the warranty expires I'll let you know.

PTCM posted:

I know this has been discussed before but those were closed.  I found the following from another NDX temperature related post.  Can someone please tell me how I could put the NDX to preamp input ?  Does it help reducing temperature on NDX also ?

Many thanks in advance.

"

When not in use, I put the system input to a preamp input (via system automation) and this keeps the ND5XS cool (but still at over 30W power consumption - is this really necessary, naim?). In contrast, my MacMini uses a more chilled 10W...

Cheers,

Stefan

Hi, using 'system automation' on the NDX (or ND5XS / NDS), the NDX can tell the preamp to select one of its inputs other than the NDX. In this case, I think the NDX is no longer doing iRadio or anything else (at least it shouldn't). As I said in that previous post, what it still does with the 30W power consumption is not clear - perhaps some cloud processing, helping the design of naim's next streamer or preamp generation?

BTW: My NDS never got as hot as the ND5XS, just wondering where the NDX sits in this hiearachy, temperature-wise (of course, when used with external PSU). The 272 is the coolest of the 4!

S.

I apologize for my non-quantitative descriptions in my original post.  Here is the stat.  Room temperature 29C, NDX 36.9C sometimes it gets up to 39C.  

I am surprised to see that some NDX temperature is as low as 25C, NDX located in Toronto in Winter ??  That said, if majority of NDX owners experience this hotness, I am relieved.  I was going to take it to an authorized dealer to verify, which is going to cost me US$200 easy.

Thanks again to all the NDX owners responded.  

PTCM posted:

Room temperature 29C

In Toronto. Wow, you could grow tomatoes in your listening room. Or cut back the heat and apply the energy savings towards an upgrade.