Warming effect

doug lang · May 2005

Tell me all you guys with all these big amps and receivers, how do you put up with the heat comming off them. My onkyo 989 I believe does have an enternal fan, but you still get a lot of heat off it. That brings me to the question of the cabinet. Should the units be stacked and not enclosed. Mine is in a cabinet. Opened in the rear, and with glass in front for the little hands. I plan to get an amp, and put it in the cabinet below. Again opened in rear glass in front. I live in SW florida so the heat in the summer is a factor. Also my wife will not part with the cabinet. So what could be the answer? Maybe more fans around the sytem? Any ideas would be helpful. As always I thank all you guys for the time you put into this. Doug

heiney9 · May 2005

Doug, not trying to be flippant here, but what does your owners manual suggest? Most components are designed to be stacked. Since the back of your cabinet is open it shouldn't be a problem. All amps have thermal protection. If you find it's going into protection mode alot it might be time to think about external fan or moving things around. Honestly, unless your amp is class A you should be fine. When I used to have my equipment in an audio cabinet I always put the amp on a seperate shelf with nothing stacked on top and more space for the air to circulate. The output section of rec/amps are designed to run with a little heat, some have more heat than others. You should be just fine.

H9

doug lang · May 2005

Hey thanks guy I will take your advice. Maybe more fans.

BobMcG · May 2005

doug,

Get a new wife.

Just kidding!

The best you can do in your circumstance is to stack nothing on top of your rcvr or any amp.

Owner's manuals aside, you can tell by looking at the vents or fins designed into your components as to how much emphasis the manufacturer has placed on the importance of heat dissipation for that paticular unit. Obviously rcvrs and amps are of a higher priority than most other devices. Radio Shack has a selection of small audio fans (some quieter than others) that you could incorporate into your cabinet if you feel the need to go that route.

Heat is one of the contributing factors to the life expectancy of (or lack there of) any electrical component. You can actually subject a unit to excessive heat without knowing it yet be just below the threshold of any protection circuitry tripping. It still doesn't mean you're doing the unit (and yourself) any favors.

doug lang · May 2005

Hey I thought about the wife idea, but she puts up with my buying components. She still does not no I upgraded to the lsi center and lsi 9s. They look just like the last polks, but sound alot better. She's deaf. Thanks for the advice.

gshisme · May 2005

I'm with H9. All my amps and the receiver get their dedicated shelf. Also, I would make sure those glass doors are open if ever so slightly. The more air flow the better. I would not stack any amps without a good air flow for 'em. Of course I drive 'em pretty hard at times.

michael_w · May 2005

Your onkyo could be getting hot because it simply can't handle the load of the 4 ohm LSI's. I had my lsi7s running off a panasonic avr and it ran a lot hotter than it had ever run with my other 8 ohm speakers. It would probably be very benificial for you get an external amp both for sound quality and for the sake of your receiver. After looking at your receiver it seems it's pretty high end but I'm not certain how it handles 4 ohm loads....

If you don't get an external amp you should just make sure there is lots of room around it and maybe add a fan if you are worried.

Warming effect

Comments