Rotating Amp Channels?

Whadyasay

Hello All,

I've had my 5-ch amp for about 16 months now, and most of my music listening is done in 2-ch, including regular radio when I'm doing things around the house. So the amp channels for the two mains have seen pretty-much constant work, even much more so than the center channel. Is it a good idea to switch the mains' useage to the channels presently used for the surrounds, which have seen considerably less useage? Even though the channels are marked for L/R/C/SL/SR, they are all rated the same in terms of power and such. Has anyone done this?

unc2701

I'd say that the more important thing isn't the mains vs others, but rather the current/ impedence of each. Since your mains and center are 4 ohm, those channels are going to run hotter than your surround channels. Most electronic components have their mean time between failure assessed assuming a certain temperature and as that temperature goes up, they'll fail sooner. So, rotating your channels will make it slightly more likely that your amp will last longer, but 1)it's a probablilty not a certainty and 2)the average difference might be stupidly small, like 2 hours per 10,000 run.