Tundra Idle Current Tuning & Physical Location

[sunbeamgls]

When installing the Tundras in my system I followed the current tuning advice with respect to hours of playback, and then tuned again a month later. In the home system they are on Quadraspire racks with 180mm spacing and they stand on top of Mission Isoplats.

Last weekend, at the Wam show, I only had spare 215mm Quadraspire spacers to use at the show, the amps were still stood on Isoplats but have an extra 35mm above them. I ran the amps for about 8 hours on Saturday evening and tuned the current just before switch off. Then on Sunday they ran for 2 hours before I tweaked them again about 30 minutes before the show opened.

What surprised me was the amount of tuning that was required in this different situation - between 0.8 and 1mV which is quite a lot of turning of the tuning knob. So my question is this: am I compromising the sound due to the shorter legs at home, or is the ability to tune the idle current giving me the ability to get just as good performance at home where there is less space above each amp?

[lejonklou]

Hi sunbeam!

am I compromising the sound due to the shorter legs at home, or is the ability to tune the idle current giving me the ability to get just as good performance at home where there is less space above each amp?

The latter!

The tuning is exactly that - a way to make the amp sound the same regardless of how warm it is.

It's fascinating what an impact some more empty space around an amplifier has on its working temperature. One might think the room temperature matters a lot and the shelf distances not so much. But often it's the other way around.

[Tendaberry]

Linn amps aren't that intelligent, so I had to come up with a solution of my own. I bought completely silent computer fans and installed them in a board that is placed next to my power amps. The fans have a sensor, that regulates the speed of the fan. See the enclosed pic.

fan.JPG