Did anyone ever buy an amp and find the fan too noisy.

Yep! My MESA Walkabout. Great amp, though.

 

Did anyone ever buy an amp and find the fan too noisy.
define "too noisy." thanks.

 

I own two SVTs and yes the fans are obnoxiously loud (IMHO). Also, I have not ever come across an amp in good working order with a louder fan

 

I had a Peavey Tour 450 amp that was fine at stage volume but the noisy fan was maddening at low volume at home. Thankfully i had a small practice amp. I thought the Peavey was defective and returned it for another one and it was the same way. I used it until i ran across a killer deal on a BX 500 and sold the Peavey.

 

Ampeg SVT micro head, sounded awesome and was very cool. Except for the damn fan...

 

Yes... mine sounds like the bearings are shot. But I am not sure they are, lol.

 

Some noisy fans can slip past QA. I had both a PF-500 and a PF-800. The 500's fan was much much louder than it's big brother. I bought a "silent" type computer fan that was the same size and it became whisper quiet.

Sure it doesn't matter at a gig, but for playing at lower volumes at home it can be a nuisance.

 

fan mod is replacing the stock Mesa fan with a Silenx fan (the specific model number is around TB somewhere) that has about the same air-flow specs as the stock fan (Cubic Feet Per Min .. CFM) but is much quieter than stock. Easy mod to do, 2 wires and your done. Works great.

caution, the fan mod may void your warranty, but yours is the same rev as mine, so your 5 year warranty is over anyway.

 

It’s easy and cheap to replace noisy fans.

 

Fan noise is the reason I sold my Mesa M9 Carbine. The fan noise was acceptable in a live setting, but when it became an always-on home studio pre-amp, the fan noise was loud enough to ruin tracks, so it had to go.

 

mesa fifty/fifty, carvin dcm 1000, and stewart world 2.1 all had loud fans and it spooked me away buying another amp with a fan.

 

The only time I have returned anything was because of a noisy fan. It was that Ashdown with 8 or 10 bands of EQ instead of tone controls.

Fan made me think of a plane idling on the runway. Nice amp but intolerable fan noise for me.

 

The fan noise on my Traynor head is part of its classic tone.

 

Peavey Mini-Max

 

Fan too loud?....

Not until I bridged a qsc usa900....
After an hour or so, the 2nd speed of the fan was as loud as the electric radiator fan on my car

 

I'm used to it by now but if one bother me I just remember that I've never heard of a blown power transformer in an SVT.

 

I'm not sure this is the approved fan mod. I will have to check.

That said, with the fan mod the amp will not operate at 2 ohms (not recommended anyway) and may shut down at 4 ohms with high levels and high ambient temperature.

 

Noctua makes a fan in all sizes and applications you'd need in a bass amp/preamp/poweramp.

It's an easy swap.

 

Indeed, I've got an ABM EVO II (combo) that has an audible fan. But I just start playing, & then I can't hear it over the glorious roar that is an Ashdown!