Nady xa-900 one side hot

[lordpnats]

I've got a Nady XA-900 amp with swapped fans. One side of the amp stays very cool no matter what, but one side gets very hot even if no speakers are connected (amp not doing any work?). When the amp gets hot, it will kick the fans into overdrive and eventually it will cool to a reasonable level, but it heats up again pretty quickly so the fans are running on high for most of the time.

I've made a sort of air channel out of electrical tape-covered cardboard to try and increase cooling, but it seems like a more fundamental problem than just the fans not being up to snuff since it's only one side of the amp heating up.

I obviously can't return the amp (I snipped and soldered the fan wires ). Does anyone here who knows more about this kind of stuff than myself have an idea on what the problem could be and/or what I might need to do to fix it? I don't mind messing about with the internals of the amp if it comes to it (although I might end up having to buy another amp if I do ;D). Thanks!

[inm8]

Did you notice that side of the amp heating up before you did the fan modification? If so, I wouldn't worry about it; unless it gets really hot (too hot to touch).

If its only been getting hot since the fan mod than that is most probably where your problem lies. I guess untill you're sure everything is alright just keep a bit of an eye on and don't work it too hard.

[lordpnats]

I didn't notice whether it was getting hot on that side before I swapped the fans out. It was actually quite a long time ago that I did it and it hasn't stopped working or exploded or anything yet, so I reckon it's not going to hurt anything. I just happened to think about it as I was sitting in front of the computer and figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Thanks for the response, I'll just keep an eye on it.

[txsmoke]

If the amp is built mirror image (almost like two amps in one enclosure, sharing a few items, with a heat sink on each side of the chassis for each channel) and only one heat sink is getting extremely hot, my guess is that the bias of that one channel is set (way) too high. There's really no way to test this as a lay person unless you have access to a multimeter and a service manual. But it's not hard to do.

Here's a page that explains the basics. Proceed at your own risk. Opening up an amp for adjustment can be dangerous. Also, incorrectly setting bias can overheat an amp to the point of self-destruction.
www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/bias_e.html

Mike