AV Amp ventilation...

Blinkz · 20 Jun 2015 at 10:52

Hey folks,

Just got myself a new tv cabinet and trying to work out the best way to fit all my kit into it.

I've found out that both the amp and centre speaker fit nicely into the centre of the unit, however it leaves very little space around the amp. I'm guessing this is asking for trouble as it will over heat? Picture below of how it looks.

Not the best picture sorry. Hope you can see the issue though. Its not the end of the world as I could move the shelf up and put the sky box where the speaker is to have an inch or two of ventilation. The Onkyo manual says that it needs 8 inches about! Is that overkill? I'm going to drill into the back of the cabinet and put lots of extra holes so aid ventilation, both for the centre area and the side cupboards which will have a HTPC, Xbox1 etc.

Any advice welcome!

EddScott · 20 Jun 2015 at 11:05

I have an Onkyo amp and that is also in a confined space. Asking for trouble some would say with Onkyos.

My solution is to add fans to the back of the cabinet. I'm making a little relay that activates from the 12v out trigger on the back of the amp. This should turn on case fans as the amp comes on. Should anyway, haven't tested it yet.

TheVoice · 20 Jun 2015 at 11:30

As above, Onkyo AVRs do tend to run quite hot so that isn't going to do it much good. If yours is like mine the vents are at the top so you ideally want a good amount of free space above.

james.miller · 20 Jun 2015 at 15:02

you could fry an egg on my onkyo in open space, wouldnt dream of running it confined lol.

OP, you need active cooling in there as EddScott suggested if you want to run it in that unit.

Lowe · 20 Jun 2015 at 22:06

Tweeter ideally needs to be at ear height. So as much as it's a convenient place to put it, it's not great from an audio POV and as you're working out, it'll cook your AVR.

Blinkz · 28 Jun 2015 at 12:26

Thanks for the comments guys, confirms what I thought! I'll move the centre shelf up to give the amp a few inches space above it, putting the sky box on the shelf and the centre speaker on top of the unit, beneath the tv closer to ear height. I'll also be cutting lots of ventilation holes out the back of the unit to allow more air to flow through it. If that doesn't work I'll look at installed a fan or two.

TheVoice · 28 Jun 2015 at 12:40

Good plan. Sky boxes can get pretty hot too, pretty sure the fan in mine was running at a decent speed last night and it was quite toasty when I put my hand on top.

Blinkz · 28 Jun 2015 at 13:32

Thanks, the sky box should also have some space around it. It isn't used much so spends most of its life in standby.

I'm going to put a HP micro server in one of the side cupboards, again with lots of holes cut out the back of the unit to give the server some ventilation. Do you guys thing that will be enough? Its passively cooled with just a small fan on the PSU, with 5 HDDs in it.

An Xbox one will be in the other cupboard, again with lots of holes cut out the back to help with ventilation.

Do we think they'll be ok?

Lowe · 28 Jun 2015 at 19:18

I ended up removing the whole of the rear of my unit, put in a USB fan, then put blu tack on the front of the doors so they're open a small amount. This way there's plenty of airflow and kit has lasted 5 years so far.

Blinkz · 28 Jun 2015 at 22:02

Good idea with the blu tack, although the doors on the front of my cabinet are quite deep so don't think that would work! It's the front ventilation I'm concerned about, especially for the server. Cutting off the back might be easier then cutting lots of individual holes, will that be enough ventilation?