How much ventilation space

Posted by: Andy Widd on 25 February 2018

Hi,

Wondering if any one would be able to advise me on how much space I should allow for my my Supernait and cd5 in an AV cabinet I am having built. It will also house a Yamaha AV amp, pioneer multidisc player, non-Naim power supply and an Epicon vokal centre speaker. I want the unit as small as possible. In my current enclosed cabinet I have about 15cm above the Supernait and 10cm above the CD5 and don’t have any issues with overheating. However I would like to reduce this space if possible in order to make the new cabinet as low as possible ( I need to hide the hugh Epicon vokal centre speaker from my wife and don’t want the telly to be to high up). The shelves would have grooves cut into them to aid ventilation along with breathing space at the back. The front doors would also allow ventilation when closed( think Venetian blinds appearance). Any advice on suggested ventilation dimensions would be great. I do leave the naim equipment on all the time.

cheers, andy

Posted on: 26 February 2018 by Ardbeg10y

Andy, I have no experience in putting a Supernait in a small enclosure, but I did found that the SN (I have mk1) only runs warm when the internal Dac is used. Others have reported on this forum that the loudspeaker cable must be long enough. If not, or wrong cable is used, it might run hot,

I've been using it for an hour now today and it's entirely cool.

I think the venetian blinds is an elegant solution.

Posted on: 26 February 2018 by ChrisSU

A lot will depend on the temperature of the room. If you’re in a hot climate, or have the heating turned up and modern sealed double glazing, that will not help. Also, how hard do you drive your speakers, and is your speaker cable to Naim’s recommended specification?

If you have no back on the cabinet, and air can circulate around it allowing heat to dissipate, you should be OK. 

There may also be a price to pay in sound quality if source components and their interconnects are squeezed in close to PSUs and mains cables. 

Posted on: 26 February 2018 by Mike-B

 I built my own cabinet;  see profile pic:    It closed sides & semi (70%) open rear.  The top & side gaps to the SN & NDX is 15mm. NB: Its 15mm not as per your cab @ 15cm

Running temp is all relative to room ambient,  Chris's comments about how hard you drive & speaker cable all play a part,  that said I have yet to find a cable that makes my SuperNait protest, even those dastardly RA Kimbers,   not so my Nait-2 tho'

Measured at a point around centre on the case top (inside the cabinet) the SN runs about 8'c above room ambient when running idle,  & a few degrees warmer when its party time.

My 'hottest' item is the NDX,  that runs about 10'c warmer after an overnight rest & the internet connection has been off,  when streaming its around 12 to 15'c warmer

Re CD temps,  when I had a CDX2 it was near room temp all the time,  I once measured amp draw & could not detect any change between idle & playing.   

Posted on: 26 February 2018 by PSAN

My Supernait2 has about 2 cm above it and I'm not having any issues. I have no back plate (or front plate) on the cabinet, which obviously helps.  

Posted on: 26 February 2018 by Andy Widd

Hi,

A big thank you to everyone for taking the time to reply. I’m new to this hi-fi world! I’ve taken your comments on board and it doesn’t sound like i need to worry too much as I’m planning on allowing a reasonable amount of room around each component after reading your comments. So thanks again for putting my mind at rest and making the cabinet planning easier.

cheers, AndyThanks