silent mini bass head

[papabassus]

Hi Basschat. Can anyone recommend a mini bass amp head that is v quiet in operation, ie doesn't have noisy fans?

Suggestions much appreciated. Many thanks.

[Beedster]

Welcome @papabassus

 

There's a very big selection to choose from, if you could specify price range, desirable power etc you'll get a more helpful response. My gut instinct response would be any of the Mesa Subway heads, but that may not be what you're looking for 👍 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Trace Eliott Elf

[BassBiscuit]

16 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Trace Elliot Elf

Not quiet. At least mine isn't. But you get used to it...

[Pea Turgh]

No experience of it in real life, but mini (5w), and no indication of a fan;

https://www.thomann.co.uk/hotone_nano_legacy_thunder_bass.htm

[nekomatic]

I recently acquired an Eden WTX-264 which is compact but not 'micro' and while it has a fan, it's not too loud - a soft rushing sound rather than a whine.

 

As far as I know the Phil Jones D-400, Eich T300, Tecamp Puma 300 (no longer made) and the GSS range are fanless.

 

Some people have reported success replacing the fans in amps with quieter versions from somewhere like quietpc.co.uk, but you would need to be comfortable with opening up the amp and would need to check that the supply voltage was the same, current draw same or lower and airflow same or higher than the fan being replaced.

[Chienmortbb]

21 hours ago, nekomatic said:

Some people have reported success replacing the fans in amps with quieter versions from somewhere like quietpc.co.uk, but you would need to be comfortable with opening up the amp and would need to check that the supply voltage was the same, current draw same or lower and airflow same or higher than the fan being replaced.

This is a way to reduce the life of your amp. A better fan will reduce the noise, and it is unlikely that the fan fitted to your amp is the best. However, most "low noise fans" achieve the low noise level, at least in part, by reducing the fan voltage and hence the speed. This also reduces the air flow.

 

[Nebadon2000]

Mesa Subway D 350 has no Fan

It's not Elf mini but pretty small 

[papabassus]

Great feedback, thanks. I have the Trace Elliot Elf already but feel it's working so hard that sooner or later it'll give up. So I need a standby.

I was thinking to try the Markbass Nano ll

[Gank Bass]

On 13/02/2025 at 20:11, Pea Turgh said:

No experience of it in real life, but mini (5w), and no indication of a fan;

https://www.thomann.co.uk/hotone_nano_legacy_thunder_bass.htm

 Got one of these as a novelty but now it's my go-to practice amp for home to save my getting my ag700 out it's road case. Going into an eden 2*8, really nice! Makes a loud pop when you turn it on but quiet after that.

[Hellzero]

If you need loads of power @papabassus, the GR Bass One 800 head has a fan that can be turned off in the Studio mode to only run when needed, but after 3 hours of use at low to mid power, it didn't start, so no worries to have about its noise...

 

In the Live mode, it starts quite quickly and can become very noisy if you don't play loud.

[msb]

The Darkglass m200 is quiet.

[tauzero]

TC BAM200 is quiet. The original Tecamp Puma 900 doesn't have a fan.

[Chienmortbb]

Fans get a bad rap but without them our heads ( amps not real heads) would be much bigger and heavier. On the ESP Audio Pages it is reckoned that a well placed fan can improve heat dissipation by 4 times. So the heatsink could be reduced in size and weight to 1/4 of passively cooled heatsinks. 
 

Many of the amps I see have less that ideal fan cooling. I have just got a Mesa D800 and the fan in that is always on but very quiet. I have yet to use it at a gig or rehearsal though. The truth is that if you want small and light, you need fan assisted cooling. 

Edited Wednesday at 08:58 by Chienmortbb

[Hellzero]

By the way, the TrickFish Bullhead 1K is fanless and it's quite small, light and bloody powerful.

 

I had one, but preferred the GR Bass One 800 I had at the same time.

[agedhorse]

On 18/02/2025 at 03:36, Chienmortbb said:

Fans get a bad rap but without them our heads ( amps not real heads) would be much bigger and heavier. On the ESP Audio Pages it is reckoned that a well placed fan can improve heat dissipation by 4 times. So the heatsink could be reduced in size and weight to 1/4 of passively cooled heatsinks. 
 

Many of the amps I see have less that ideal fan cooling. I have just got a Mesa D800 and the fan in that is always on but very quiet. I have yet to use it at a gig or rehearsal though. The truth is that if you want small and light, you need fan assisted cooling. 

Cooling an amp in a way that's effective, quiet AND reliable is a lot harder than it appears. The fans that are featured as "super quiet" usually do not have the airflow , especially under any static pressure losses that a cooling system presents. 

 

The D-800 has a fairly expensive ball bearing fan that's reasonably quiet (not as quiet as the sleeve version by a dB or two) but is very long life (about 50k hours compared with about 5-10k hours of a typical sleeve bearing fan). It also runs continuously at a slow speed because the resulting air flow allows multiple components to stabilize thermally together as a system. It's extremely unlikely to ever run any faster than the slowest speed, even at 2 ohms.

 

Back about 15 years ago, when I was working at another company, I led a research project (with the cooperation and support of ICEPower R&D) that specifically addressed a whole slew of thermal and dynamics/duty cycle management design approaches, which resulted in a US Patent relating to this application. Some of what we learned, and how they relate to bass guitar ended up being incorporated into the newer ICEPower modules.