Using an AVR with external amps

Beta

I am going to be adding external amps in my HT system to push all my speakers (fronts, center and surrounds). When I connect the amps to the pre outs on my Denon 4310CI, does this completely disable the internal amps in the AVR?

My concern is heat. I will have everything stacked on top of one another. I will be using Parasound Zbreeze fans on top of each external amp to keep them cool. I am wondering if the AVR will still run warm in this scenario and if I need to acquire an additional fan to cool the unit given I will have external amps stacked directly on top of it?

Thanks for your help.

Sherardp

Your going to want a rack at some point. Your equipment needs to "breathe" especially the amp/AVR. The receiver will send a signal to amp via preouts in which the amp will power the speakers. The Denon will still do the processing of data. The AVR should run a tad on the cool side with no load on it.

Look into VTI racks bro, low cost and they look awesome.

Beta

Thank you.

I think I will pick up another Parasound Zbreeze fan for placement on top of my AVR.

I have many of these fans (both in my 2-channel system and in my HT system) and find that they do a superb job keeping my gear running very cool. They really circulate air quite well. I even have one on top of the tube cage on my tube amp which sits in a enclosed cabinet (the rear of the cabinet is removed). I can keep my tube amp on for days and the amp and cage remain cool to the touch.

When I had my HT system installed, I wanted my components to be completely out of sight. Therefore, I had sturdy shelves built in my garage on the wall directly behind the wall in my living room where my plasma is located. Unfortunately, a rack isn't going to work for me. I simply don't have the room for one.

Much appreciated!

BlueFox

Just as a side note, I was really surprised at how hot my AVR got (Sony DA7100ES) even though I am using an external amp. I thought the amps would be disconnected by using the pre-outs, but that is not the case. I placed the matching Sony 9100ES SACD player on top of it, and it looked great. But then I touched the AVR, said 'holy crap', and quickly pulled the 9100ES off of the top and sat it on the side.

pdxfj

One thing to remember is that even though you will not be using the AVR as an amp, it still is doing a lot of work. It has to process, decode and pipe the pre-amp signals out along with any video processing it might be doing.

My Onkyo 808 runs at least 5 times hotter than my dedicated 5ch amp and the 808 is only running the back surrounds. I added extra cooling to my AVR where my external amp just gets warm.

Marty913

The video processing chip is often the culprit, especially the REON chips used by Onkyo (not sure if they've moved away from those yet). As pdxfj pointed out the sound processing chip can also generate some moderate heat but nothing compared to the video chip.

The receiver amps work against the speaker load so if there are no speakers connected (as in using the preouts) then the receiver amps are "idling" so to speak.

Beta

Marty913 wrote: »

The receiver amps work against the speaker load so if there are no speakers connected (as in using the preouts) then the receiver amps are "idling" so to speak.

Interesting. Thank you!