Adding a fan directly on top of an Onkyo amp?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Adding a fan directly on top of an Onkyo amp?

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#679633 31-Aug-2012 11:04

timmmay:

Running servers at 10 degrees isn't required, they're running them at 30+ degrees these days.

Depends what temp you like your beer I guess!

One day I'll wangle a way to get that thermal image camera down to you.

My experience - fashionable entertainment furniture often conflicts with cooling requirements. Anything with a front glass door often is not so good (cooling wise that is). The hole in the base is a good idea and see if you can rip out any rear panelling to open that up, even though that's often semi structural...

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timmmay

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#679634 31-Aug-2012 11:07

That thermal camera would be good. I can supply some of that cold beer in exchange!

Rear panel isn't structural, hole's easy enough to do, I just hate having to empty the cabinet, it takes a couple of hours to empty then put back together.

lchiu7

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#679651 31-Aug-2012 11:43

All I can say is you must be running the volume quite loud to get the unit to heat up so much. You mention 1080p content but I would have thought all the AVR is doing is passing through the video content to your display device? Unless you are doing lots of upscaling in the AVR?

My HK AVR starts to heat up when I have the volume up and I am playing HD audio and I can hear the fan startup inside but not obtrusively so. But it has nothing to do with the content on the screen.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

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#679658 31-Aug-2012 11:49

I have the volume at about 1/3 usually, sometimes 1/2 at the absolute most. I have quite sensitive ears, to the point I have to wear ear plugs at the movies.

I don't know why high def content makes it warmer. Maybe it's just working a bit harder for a bit longer. Maybe it's that more speakers are driven harder.

Regs

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#679891 31-Aug-2012 20:13

mine has run super hot for the 6 or so years I have had it. I have nothing stacked on top though, so no need for a fan.

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driller2000

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#680089 1-Sep-2012 14:25

probably not a terrible idea

i have an older onkyo 606 which also runs hot - apparently they all do - AND they have a rep for failed hdmi boards due to cooking the caps - which leads to no signal messages and intermittent connectivity and what look like handshake issues

i have had the caps on mine replaced as a result (by avalon audio) but i wouldn't be surprised to see it cook itself again

lchiu7

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#680151 1-Sep-2012 17:53

driller2000: probably not a terrible idea

i have an older onkyo 606 which also runs hot - apparently they all do - AND they have a rep for failed hdmi boards due to cooking the caps - which leads to no signal messages and intermittent connectivity and what look like handshake issues

i have had the caps on mine replaced as a result (by avalon audio) but i wouldn't be surprised to see it cook itself again

Getting slightly OT but I had an Onkyo TX-S576 where the HDMI failed. I had a friend replace all the caps for me as per this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1246078/how-to-diy-tx-sr576-tx-sr606-etc-hdmi-daughterboard-repair-for-dummies

Once I removed the HDMI board I think I could have done it myself.

But it didn't fix the problem, alas. Then then PS failed (power on and it would power off) and I decided to replace it. Initially could not bear to dump it but in the interests of not keeping junk around, took it out to the electronics disposal place in Porirua. A good find for somebody perhaps?

But back to the OP's question, I would agree that playing HD content with 5.1 audio would cause all amps to be going at times and therefore increase the heat around the unit. I myself will never buy Onkyo again - they appear to have design flaws in key areas.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

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#680165 1-Sep-2012 18:25

I agree - I probably wouldn't buy one again either.

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#681005 3-Sep-2012 19:20

I've had Onkyos for years, and usually have a fan running on them as they can get pretty warm. I use a Thermaltake Massive laptop cooler powered from a Blu-ray player USB port or, depending on the model, the amp itself.

My last Onkyo typically idled at about 48 degrees after a few hours of high-volume use without the fan (open rack), and about 35 degrees with it running. It makes enough of a difference that I've stuck with it, but I don't consider it hot enough to worry about. I like to be cautious (never had an Onkyo fail on me yet). The fan is silent when running, so that's never been a problem.

What model amp do you have? They all track their internal temperature for thermal overload protection, and this can usually be displayed on the front panel if you know the right key combination. My last few showed this using the following steps:

Turn the amp on.
Press and holding the 'Display' button on the front panel.
While still holding the 'Display' button press the front 'Power' button.
Release both buttons and immediately press 'Tone'.

NZ models display the internal temperature in degrees C.

This year and last year's amplifier models (XX09, XX10) are a lot cooler running than previous models, as they have a completely new internal layout and cooling system, so it seems Onkyo were aware of people's concerns.

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#681012 3-Sep-2012 19:56

I have an TX-SR508. That key combo doesn't show temp, do you know it for this one? Thanks for the info :)

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#681021 3-Sep-2012 20:50

No, but I know the sequence works for the 3008/5008 from the same model year, so you might want to give it another shot. You have remember to press the Tone button as soon as you release the Power and Display keys. Googling may bring up something useful if you still have no joy.

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#681030 3-Sep-2012 21:11

Ah I didn't hit tone last time, it does show "27" after I turned it on. It'd only been off 20 minutes. I'll try it tomorrow, thanks :)

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#681080 3-Sep-2012 23:40

Mine (TX-NR509) runs between 29-31. Been running for more than 8hours straight now feeding off from tivo.

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#683251 8-Sep-2012 22:17

My SR-508 hit 65 degrees watching a two channel 720p movie this evening, HDMI input from a PS3 in a different part of the case - it produces no heat anyway. I got it down to 55 by pointing a huge fan at it, and it went back up to 58. I think watching 1080p 5.1 it would get even hotter. 65 is pretty hot.

My options are:
- Don't worry about it, buy a new one if (when) it breaks
- Get a 140-200mm computer fan and put it on top of the receiver with little rubber feet, as an extractor. I can power it easily as I have power to fans already.
- Get a laptop cooler, run it off the PS3 USB (though I may switch to Android some time), and it can go either under or over the amp depending on the direction the fan goes - if it sucks up then it can go on top of the amp, otherwise if it blows air up it might have to go under which would be awkward.

The laptop cooler would be easier, the PC fan would be more flexible, doing nothing would be easiest.

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#683375 9-Sep-2012 12:26

65 degrees is hot, but should be well below anything that would trigger immediate distress for the amp. It hasn't triggered thermal protection, so is still running within its operating limits.

Onkyos with active cooling will start their fans on low at 60 degrees, medium at 65 and high at 75, but the fans aren't typically expected to be used often. If your amp has fans their real-time speed setting will be displayed on the front panel together with front and back internal temperatures ('FAN:n' or 'F:n' where n is 'x' for none, '-' for off, or the fan settings 'L', 'M' or 'H'). This will give you an idea of how comfortable the amp is at any given time.

Bear in mind that these amps are designed to operate at around 30 degrees above the ambient air temperature, and to be sold in hot climates such as Africa and the Middle East as well as here.

On the other hand, high temperatures are never ideal and exactly how long it will continue to operate at these temperatures is another question. As long as it's longer than the warranty period then Onkyo's design teams have done their job, which is why I prefer a little bit of extra cooling of my own. Shaving an extra 15-20 degrees can only be a good thing.

What sort of ventilation do you have above the amp, and what sort of speakers are you using? It should have 20cm above and beside, and 10cm behind. Running in stereo I would really only expect higher temperatures at very high volumes or, more likely, pushing tricky speaker loads.

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