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

Just be aware that this is a very real issue for most DC commutated fans.

 

Thanks for the warning.

 

Fans tend to get noisy during long bass solos.

 

Can you blame them?

 

How?

 

You remove the old one and find something with the same specs but with lower noise…

 

I really don't have any useful input except that not every place has the same ambient noise level. And there is something about small fans that can really stand out as a background noise source. We returned a brand new refrigerator about a year ago because of how loud the fan was.

I doubt we could have heard the fan if the fridge had been at my in-laws house. They lived in a postage stamp neighborhood in the greater Portland metro area though. And we live outside the city limits of a town of less that 600 people, our closest neighbor is more than a football field away. The difference in ambient noise levels was enough to keep us from being able to sleep down there. They also have trouble sleeping up here because "It's too quiet".

 

Quilter re-engineered the cooling for the BB802 and it is very quiet now, even when the fans are busy.

 

That Ashdown with 10 band EQ instead of tone controls. Sent back after a day or two. Sounded like a 747 at cruising altitude.

 

You kids and your fans...back in my day, we turned up so loud the background noise from the amps drowned out the fan noise, and we liked it!

 

I never had a problem with this and certainly not with a product in the last 20 years. The loudest fan I have ever experienced on an amp I owned is the one in my SWR SM400S. When that thing kicks on I look over my shoulder for a low flying aircraft...although since I work in the aviation industry it's a less disconcerting sound for me than perhaps others.

 

Sure. But at band practice and especially on stage you never hear it. Which is what I bought an amp for.

 

I avoid using my Quilter BB800 for quiet home practice because of the fan that's always on.
Other amps have noisier fans but by the time they kick in I would never notice (except maybe between songs).

 

BB802 -- our prayers were answered.

 

I understand all the responses that mention loud playing and not noticing the fan in those situations, but there are other settings in which a bassist might need a silent amp. I repeat myself, but sometimes I play in mixed acoustic/electric settings where you have live mics in the room recording quiet music. True bypass fx pedal clicks ruin recordings like these, as do loud fans in amps. Luckily I have a GK400RB and a Matamp without a fan, but I have learned I can’t use my Ashdown ABM500 for quiet sessions because of the loud fan. Great amp though and would sound perfect with some of those types of sessions otherwise.

 

Louder than the PA at my gig? No

 

My ThunderFunk 550b has a fan off switch, a plus for recording.

Quiet and powerful fans require whisper quiet motors and blades.
Then add the cost of amp/computer-controlled speeds, and it adds up.

The PC gaming industry is one-up on us in this respect, imho.

 

When I got my Terror Bass, I really hated how loud the fan was. I even opened one or two threads here about it, whether I could replace it with a “silent” PC aftermarket model or the like. Well, contacted tech support, and Orange sent me a replacement – fan noise is way down, barely noticeable in a room where people are speaking. So, yeah, if a fan seems “too noisy”, it might very well be broken / bad batch.

 

It was a tough amp to bring into the studio for tracking, because you had to stop when it kicked on.

 

My Demeter VTBP-M-800D doesn't have a noisy fan. Or a fan at all