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Hey

How do low temperatures affect electronic (recording) equipment? My home studio is in a basement and the place is not heated the whole day. So basically I'm facing 10 - 13C in the winter (when there's -10C outside). The place is dry, just a bit cold. :)

Is it possible to damage my FW sound cards or microphones when they're turned on in such cold conditions (the equipment is not moved from cold to warm and vice versa)? I have looked up for min-max working temperature range, but can't find any specs for my PreSonus FP10's.

Regards

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AudioGaff Sat, 01/10/2009 - 09:22

Cold breads moisture, and mositure + power = product failure.

All gear is designed to be used within their spec'd temperature range. If you are using gear outside that range, it won't likely meet it's perfomance spec's. In the ideal world, temp should be within the operating range of the gear and be stable for at least few hours before it is used. About 50-degrees inside temp would be the lowest I'd ever power on anything I cared about.

Insulate your gear with a thick blanket, sleeping bag, ect... to help protect it.

RemyRAD Sat, 01/10/2009 - 12:18

Because I run a substantially large Remote Truck, my equipment is exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations between summer & Winter. It's not always powered up 24 hours per day. In fact is only powered up when I'm working. While heat is the great destroyer of equipment, cold equipment that is not up to temperature will frequently not perform in an ideal manner. Yes, it is actually a fallacy that transistorized/IC chip silicon devices don't need to warm up. They absolutely need to warm up. In fact, having been a factory authorized service technician for MCI, Ampex, 3M & Scully, I actually discovered that these machines need to warm up for more than 3 hours, even while at room temperature, before any alignment functions can be reliably performed. So even though we want our equipment to "run cool", we don't like it on the rocks, shaken or stirred. So I never tweak 24 track analog recorders until they have warmed up for at least three hours.

True, externally polarized, 48 volt condenser microphones can be affected by the cold, even more severely. Steamy breath can actually short out the microphone capsule causing, lowered output level & uneven response. While not all equipment indicates external operating temperature parameters, it's generally assumed that the equipment, in a professional environment, will generally be operated at normal room temperatures. Fahrenheit or, Celsius/Centigrade, your choice.

Nobody wants to listen to Golden Coldies
Ms. Remy Ann David