dCS Lina dac power consumption sleep mode

dCS Products
1

Hi,

Question on Lina power consumption.
What is the power consumption when the unit is in sleep mode? I noticed that the unit is quite warm in sleep mode so it must draw considerable power in that state.
The manual is clear on operating power consumption and powered off is clear as well, but no reference on sleep mode.
Anyone know the answer?

Merry Christmas, Richard

2

According to Hi-Fi News standby consumption is 1W. Presumably this corresponds to the figure you saw for “powered off” since when it is actually powered off it should consume no power at all.

3

Hi @struts001,

Thanks for your response.
I hope dCS engineers can confirm that for I’m having a hard time to believe that considering the unit temperature, but hey I could be so wrong. :smiley:

Regards Richard

4

Richard, the standby figure for power consumption in HFN is in their laboratory test specifications ( i.e. result as found) and is not a dCS specification. dCS do not provide any power consumption figures in their " Lina Full System Specifications".

5

According to the same review the power consumption in use if 22W (c f dCS’s spec of 30W). That is certainly sufficient to make the unit feel warm to the touch, whereas 1W would, as you say, be easily absorbed/dissipated by heat sinking and/or casing.

From the pictures I have seen of the circuit boards it looks like the main board, containing the Ring DAC and the analog output stage is the one lying on the “floor” of the unit, although it is not clear from the pictures (which only show the board from above) if/how the output transistors are heat-sinked or thermally coupled to the casing. Maybe @Phil can comment?

6

Thanks @PAR @struts001.

For some power usage is not important for me it is so I would like to know the sleep mode consumption to determine whether I power off the unit or keep it in sleep mode.
Not sure why dCS keeps that spec out the manual specs.

7

@Phil Can you share more information regarding the question about power consumption in sleep mode for the Lina dac?

8

If Phil is too busy anyone with a LINA and a Fluke should be able to confirm. @Anupc perhaps? May also be able to confirm how the output devices dissipate their heat.

9

Hi Guys,

“My” Lina DAC here at home measures as…

“ON” - 23w,
“Standby” - 22w,
“Sleep” (long press of front panel power button) - 0w

Phil

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10

Thanks Phil. Can you confirm how the output transistors are managed thermally? Looks like “automagic” when seen from above but I assume they are sinked or thermally coupled somehow below the board?

11

Hi,

Sorry if I’m being dumb but I’m not sure what you’re actually asking here … could you expand / clarify?

Phil

12

Yes, if I am squinting correctly (sorry, this is the highest resolution internal pic I could find) these are the output devices.

LINA DAC
LINA DAC3000Ă—2000 463 KB

If so, it looks like they are mounted on thermal wafers but I can’t see what they are thermally coupled to. It can’t be the board itself because that’s an insulator. So what is going on under the circuit board?

14

Thanks for the info @Phil .
Standby mode is not really an option due to the high power usage (trying to be as green as possible :blush:)
Is there a downside if you power off the unit every time, I mean electronics wise?

15

Hi Richard,

There’s no penalty as far as the electronics are concerned but obviously you can’t turn the unit back on from the app…

Cheers

Phil

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16

All the boards use the sides and top of the casework to dissipate heat…

Phil

17

Okay Phil thanks for you reply.

18

Phile I am confused by your answer. You give three options : On, Standby and Sleep. However all of the dCS units I have owned and the Lina DAC manual show On, Sleep and Off. If the power consumption is 0W then surely this indicates Off not Sleep ( Sleep indicates that core functions remain powered)?

As I am not a Lina owner the reason eason I ask is combining this with James response regarding battery use for the volatile memory in Vivaldi. He says :

So I am assuming the means off and not sleep. However he refines the matter to talk about battery use only when the unot is fully powered off. To me that means when the unit is powered off by the rocker switch on the rear not the front panel. Grateful if you could clarify. I apologise for mashing up two threads but I could not think of another way.

19

Hi Pete,

No problem … Lina and Vivaldi work differently anyway and Lina doesn’t have a battery backup.

Richard used the term sleep so in my reply I defined what I was presuming he meant by sleep by specifying that I was taking that as a long press of the power button (the only other option being either the rear panel switch being flipped to off or the power lead disconnected)…

If you have a Vivaldi that is either powered off from the rear panel switch or powered off on a long press on the power button then the control board is not powered and the Vivaldi will be using the battery backup to maintain the settings memory.

I hope that helps.

Phil

20

Sorry for the confusion, sleep = standby. :smiley:

21

Thanks Phil. I can now go back to my normal state of battery paranoia :wink:.

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