H9000 Fan audible?

[basehead617]

My room is dead quiet (Lots of wall treatment, 2019 Mac Pro, etc.) – How audible is the H9000 fan at this point in its firmware/etc.?

Anything beyond ‘almost always off’ or ‘dead quiet’ is probably going to make it a no-buy from me sadly..

 

[Matthias Adloff]

It’s hard to answer this unless we determine what ‘audible’ means. And please don’t forget that the total noise floor in your studio is a sum of all fans and other sources. The H9000 will add to that.

I had a MacPro 2019 with a 16-core Xeon here in the studio, and I found it to be very audible under load even with my 50 years old ears.
Then, I have the new generation RME M32 Pro A/D and D/A converters which have very noisy fans unless you turn them into silent mode, which is only suitable for a cool a/c environment.
Not to mention the Moog One 16 which sounds like a jet turbine on idle 🙂

That being said, the H9000 fan is audible. If you plan to have the unit directly in front of you, you will notice the fan. If you have it rack-mounted, let’s say in a wooden rack, and have the rack full with gear (no gaps), you will not hear it even at close distances around 30cm.

There is another fantastic option though. Since you will most likely end up using the H9000 remotely, you can place it virtually anywhere in your studio, your house, or even in your neighbours house! Unless you use ADAT ( I wouldn’t recommend using this outdated format due to the channel limitations and inconvenience), you can easily install it up to 100m away, using MADI or AVB lines. Then, it is ‘dead quiet’ for sure.

[basehead617]

Thanks for the response – for me the Mac Pro is about 6 feet away and there it is quieter than the noise floor of my idle speakers and general ambience of the room, can’t hear it at all (gotta keep it cleaned out though!).    If the H9000 is inaudible 6 feet away I’d be happy.  Maybe I can pick up a demo loaner to try out.

[Matthias Adloff]

If you keep it in a rack 6 feet away it should be completely inaudible.

[mdruk]

I have mine in a Zaor Miza desk-side rack (pic below). It’s about knee height when I’m working, and to be honest I can barely hear it. When I first got it, it sat on my desk in front of me. It was more audible then but since I racked it away it’s not noticeable.

Granted, I don’t have a completely silent working space and there’s a few other things with fans but I don’t find it significantly contributes to background noise.

I can take a video of it starting up if you’re interested.

[mdruk]

Just recorded two videos to show you what I mean:

• https://youtu.be/yPocaM6f2DU is it starting up with the noise recorded from the front of the rack. Barely noticeable.
• https://youtu.be/YLNxX3m5vYg is the noise at the rear of the rack. There are a few more things with fans in there but I stuck the phone camera near the hot air exhaust fan on the h9000 to give a better idea.

[basehead617]

Thank you both for the info and the recordings!

[spandavision]

Has anyone tried replacing the fan (with a quieter one)?

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