Is the LE quieter than the SX-1 ?

[sxuser]

Hi guys,

About 15 months ago I bought two SXs used, an SX-1 and an SX-1 LE. I put the LE in storage and have been using the SX-1 all this time until today. Unfortunately it's flakiness got to the point where I decided to swap it out for the LE, which I did, this afternoon. (I've got CD backups of all my projects, so this is not catastrophic at all.)

The LE is all hooked up and behaving well so far. I was able to restore a project from backup, open it, and record a new track. I also started a new project.

However -- I notice the LE runs noticeably quieter than the SX-1. Like, a lot quieter. Is that normal? Was it a design improvement over the original? Or have I possibly got fan failures inside the unit?

Thanks!
Pete

 

[Elvictor]

It’s very possible the two units have different cooling fans. I believe there was a (quiet) fan upgrade available from tascam for a while and the SX1 is very noisy. I would still check the fans just in case.

 

[Dice]

The SX-1s have three fans in them, and the ones in a certain range of serial numbers have very quiet fans in them, and others had a normal amount of noise. No difference between full version and LE. My three units all have the noisier fans.

 

[sxuser]

Thanks for the input guys. Dice, is that "certain range of serial numbers" known or documented anywhere? I really want to avoid the hassle of opening up my LE to check fans. I've currently got a portable fan pointing into the vents at the back just in case, but if I can determine via serial that my unit is one of the "quiet" ones I'll rest easier.

 

[Dice]

One of the techs had posted it on the old forum, but as far as I know those archives are not available. You might put the OS CD in and boot off of it. The diagnostics should tell you if things are running hot. The guys with the quiet models said they didn't notice any fan noise, so yours may all be working.

 

[sxuser]

Booting from CD and running Diagnostics was a good idea. In the few minutes I had it up in Diags the CPU temp went from 61 to 79 C. That seems way too hot, so I shut it down and opened it up. On powering it up again I was amazed to see both fans spinning away noiselessly. I could not see a third fan. The two I can see, one is right on top of the CPU, and one is behind the last two faders (15 and 16).

So now I'm wondering where the third fan is (I will go through the docs), and also if that CPU running temp is "normal". God knows how hot it would get if left running for more than a few minutes. Typically if I'm recording it's running for hours.

I do at least know now that I have one of the "quiet" units.

Edit: I'll be damned. The Service Manual says normal operating temps are "80 C and under" (CPU) and "50 C and under" (M/B). ...So I was in normal operating range. What I can't find in the docs are the number/location of the fans.

 

[Dice]

That sounds normal to me. The third fan is cooling the power supply under the fader panel, but I think you're good.

 

[sxuser]

Thanks again for the excellent info and advice!

 

[Dice]

You're quite welcome.