DM4800 cooling fan

Jarno

Jarno

Soundaholic
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
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From
Espoo S.A.R, Soviet Finlandia
Gear owned
DM-4800
After finally building a new PC (replacing the one which was attacked by a mug of capuccino) powered up my studio (after almost a year) and realised my new PC is so silent I get distracted by the DM cooling fan noise (whine).

Just asking, if anyone has replaced the fan with more silent one ... or even if anyone who has opened their DM would be able to tell which kind of fan it is and is it easy to replace.

Any suggestions/information would be great.
 
Hi Jarno,

Truth be told, I didn't know the DM consoles had internal fans. My 3200 has never emitted so much as a whisper (except for that vague 'beep' when touch-fader option is enabled. My PC is located in another room, so if there were additional distracting fan noise, I'd certainly hear it.

Maybe the 4800 is different in that way. Anybody else heard a fan in their mixers?

CaptDan
 
Quiet as a mouse here.
Didn't even know there was a fan.
 
Welcome back Jarno!
 
OK! Looks like 4800 feature. Renamed thread.

Tried to post example here, but forum doesn't support WAV.

Thanks Charlie.
 
Hi Jarno,

I know the sound you're referring too - I've assumed it was a fan as I've never needed to open my DM4800.

My one is very quiet - I only hear it when all the doors are closed and the other (non-studio) laptop is turned off - then I can hear 2 noises being the DM's very soft (mid/high) whine and my tube power amps crytally valve sound (high).

I placed a blanket on the desk under my DM that got rid of a bit of the noise to the point where it's almost unnoticeable.
 
... it's not a fluffy blanket that blocks the airflow - I'm not that silly. A thin blanket covering the reflective surface of the desk is what I'm talking about. I could say acoustically selected to match the errant frequency from the fan if I wanted to be a smart alec.

Foam is asking for trouble as the feet of the desk will sink into it leaving the foam flush with the air vents in the DM.
 
My 2seemy arrived today, so I had another reason to open my console. And here's what I found:
dmfan.jpg
Yes. One of those cheap crappy fans which always create more problems than they solve. I'm a bit dissapointed on TASCAM's decision to use this kind of components.

Now I'll have to figure out how to mount a large low-rpm fan there.
 
And the story goes on:

Today my new fan (PAPST 612 NGFL) arrived. Yes, it's dead silent (16dB) and made in Hungary, not in China by child labour (and you can see it on the price tag too). It's 60mm, though, so I had to use some precision tools (an angle grinder) to modify the support plate:
dmfan2.jpg
(pretty, isn't it?)

Now had to install the new fan with only one screw, but hey ... you can always use super glue (and use it more on your fingertips than on intended purpose):
dmfan3.jpg

New fan has found it's location inside the console. Notice the high-tech solution to connect new fan's leads to the old ones):
dmfan4.jpg

Power on ... and ... WHAT? still horrible noise. After some research I found out the support plate carries on fan's vibrations into the console chassis. When separating them, the thing is as quiet as it can get.

So ... after few hours (with a little help from unimaginable amount of super glue) I used some plastic bubble foam to make the fan sit at the right place, but isolated from the chassis:
dmfan5.jpg

ARRGGHHH! Still noisy. Better, but too noisy to my taste. Anyway, getting too late here to do any serious work. Time to have a couple of beers.

See you tomorrow, if I invent something new.
 
Last edited:
Jarno, you're an intrepid, dedicated trouper! Your fan project reminds me a little of some of the challenges faced by car restoration/refurb people. (That's another of my personal interests, so I read all the stories. :) )

Much respect and luck to you. Keep us posted.

CaptDan
 
I hope it won't turn out that your old fan was also very quiet, and the problem was in physical transmission all along.. Good luck!
 
m
Arjan P said:
I hope it won't turn out that your old fan was also very quiet, and the problem was in physical transmission all along
Click to expand...
Partly yes. It looks like when the old fan was new, it only produced low-level mid-high-pitched whine (which I hated, but wasn't a show-stopper). But after all these years it's bearings gave up and it started vibrating which was amplified by DM's chassis. This is common problem with these small high-RPM fans and I STILL hate TASCAM for choosing this kind of cooling for DM and not leaving room for larger low-RPM fan :mad:

But ... back to the business: Made few experiments with different kinds of materials for fan seating: 2 kinds of bubble wrap, piece of acoustic foam ... all wrapped together with super glue and/or electric insulation tape:
dmfan6.jpg
No success. It was time to even try out another example of Chinese Child Labour:
dmfan7.jpg
It was the best one I found in local electronics store ... That's the life here in Socialist People's Republic of Finland ... we used to have 4 electronics stores in one street of Hellsinki 25 years ago, where you could find anything ... even high-quality US made Rotron fans ... all there on the shelf just waiting you to pick them up ... now you have to drive to distant industrial zone where you find one tiny shop with extreamly reduced selection of Chinese crap :mad::mad::mad:

Of course it didn't work: it had even faster RPM than the original fan and the whine was unimaginaby loud!

I had to give up. Just used the best seating combination I found with my experiments (large bubble wrap combined with tiny slice of acoustic foam)
dmfan8.jpg
and glued my new PAPST fan there.

Not as good as I hoped to achieve. But it's almost as quiet as my DM was when it was brand new.
 
captdan said:
Your fan project reminds me a little of some of the challenges faced by car restoration/refurb people.
Click to expand...
Don't remind me! I have my BMW Z3 roadster in my carage waiting for me to do something in order to fix her (after being ruined by my ex-girlfriend to whom I was stupid enough to lend her).
 
Woops! Sorry to hear about your 'Beemer.' Ex-wives/g-friends are responsible for a lot of vehicular mayhem. :eek:

But - at least it looks like you've gotten your fan to behave better. :)

CaptDan
 
hmmm, my old flying instructor used to say "there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots... but there are no old, bold pilots". Are you the exception to the rule Dan? ;-)
 
I heard it a little differently:

There are two kinds of pilots: those who've had accidents and those who will. Me? I'm of the first kind. But everybody lived.

:)
CaptDan
 
Haha - yes, he told me that one too, and also "any landing you walk away from is a good landing". But then, he was an ex-Spitfire pilot in WWII - a real ace - I was very lucky to have such a teacher. :)
 
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