Question Subwoofer Cooling

[kennethrjones.cs]

I'm getting this sound system:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004M18O60

Several of the reviews say this has issues with overheating. I don't intend to play mine loud, it's just for video games on my PC. But I found this picture of the back, and it looks like there is a metal plate on it:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/612Vml777vL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

I was thinking about getting this heatsink that looks like it can stick on. I was wondering if putting this on the back would be helpful, or would it cause any damage, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VDX7NNG

 

[Ralston18]

Audio does not need to be loud to overheat.

It could simply be poor design with regards to materials, assembly, case layout, etc..

As for the metal plate, the heat sink will only be effective (maybe) if the metal plate is actually intended as a means to radiate heat from the interior.

As another thought, if the back plate is intended for cooling is some manner I would expect there to be some physical vents....

My suggestion is to hold off on doing anything pending more information.

There may be other ideas and suggestions.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Zerk2012]

I can't see it overheating unless you had the side vent blocked that air moves in/out from the cone movement

 

[kennethrjones.cs]

I don't know. There are lots of reviews online of this overheating. I don't know what people are doing to cause it though. Playing at max volume for long periods maybe. I just want this for gaming and YouTube because my current Amazon Basic speakers suck. I never play my stuff loud. I don't listen to music often and when I do, I don't have is blaring. It's just for gaming.

But it does seem like there's an issue with this product because I have seen so many reviews about the same overheating issue.

I guess I can just wait until I get it to see if I have any of the same issues other people are having.

 

[kennethrjones.cs]

There is one review on Amazon by DerekZ10. It's one of the first pictures with a temperature gauge on it. I don't know how to put a link to a review. In any case, this guy sounds a little unhinged, with his comments about kicking the subwoofer and then complaining that it doesn't work.

Not sure why he would spend $400 on something and throw it on the floor either.

 

[Math Geek]

my guess would be that the people who had issues most likely stuck this thing inside a tight space where it could get no airflow. hence it overheated.

you have to take any user review with a large grain of salt. most "errors" are on the user side but THEY TYPE IN ALL CAPS SO IT MUST BE TRUE!!!!!!!

look at professional reviews such as the ones found here

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Logitech+Z906+review&t=ffab&ia=web

and see what they have to say. if there is truly a problem with design it'll show up on more than a couple random amazon user comments

 

[kennethrjones.cs]

Thanks everyone.

I'm just going to get it and try without the heatsink and see if I have any issues. If there is a problem, I can try to resolve it when it happens.

It has a 2-year warranty on it, and according to what I found, this speaker system has been available for 14 years on Amazon, so if there were any major issues with overheating, I would think Logitech would have been aware of it and fixed it by now since they are a fairly decent company (unless you're driving a sub 😏).

 

[Dr3ams]

I bought the Z906 5.1 about a week ago. It replaced my Logitech Z640 5.1 that I had for around 23 years.

After a week of use, here are my observations and solution:

Windows 11
First, my install of Windows 11 doesn't support the Z906 as a 5.1 system, I had to "control panel/sound/speakers/configure", then choose 7.1 to get them to work properly.

Position
Second, placing the subwoofer on the floor so that it faces you is a bad idea. My ear drums kept plugging up. I turned it so that it faces away from me and the ear problem went away.

Heat and cooling
Third, the plate in the back of the subwoofer does get hot, regardless of the volume and content. But, the plate never gets hot enough where I can't place my hand on it and leave it there. I did consider installing a heat sink on the plate, but that wouldn't help much considering that most of the thermal tape I found is of bad quality. If you look inside the subwoofer, all the parts that are generating heat or getting hot for some other reason are installed very near or on the plate directly. That means Logitech intended for the plate itself to be a form of a heatsink. What the plate needs is a permanent external heatsink (hello Logitech) and/or cool air circulation. Something to remove the heat from the outterside of the box as quickly as possble. For me, the optimal solution now would be to place a small fan to the side and rear of the subwoofer to blow the heat away from the plate and box. But, in my situation there's not enough room on either side. I have ordered a small Honeywell TurboForce fan to blow cool air directly on the backplate. It hasn' arrived yet, but I will post the results here when it does.

Conclusion
I'm not worried about the heat. The subwoofer from my Z640 speakers also got warm and sometimes hot on the backplate...and as I stated above that system lasted 23 years and it is still working. The reason why I'm using a fan for the Z906 is because it can handle a lot more watts than the Z640. Obviously this generates a lot more heat from various sources...so because of this I want to help with it's longevity.

 

[Dr3ams]

The fan came today and I placed it behind the subwoofer. I turned the fan on the lowest setting (that thing is a little loud, even on the lowest setting). After playing 30 minutes of Queensrÿche the backplate got warm but never hot. The negative is the fan. A little too big and loud (I'll use it somewhere else). I ordered a different fan that should do the job that I want. So there you have it. From my experience you don't need a heatsink and some shady Amazon thermal tape that may or may not work. Just place a small fan near the back of the subwoofer and it should cool it enough to keep the backplate from getting too hot and prolong the longevity of the system.

It wouldn't have cost Logitech much to install a permanent heatsink directly on the outside of the backplate. Maybe and hopefully in the next version.