The AVR ...does not have a lot of room on the sides for ventilation, maybe 15mm each side. It has about 200mm of clearance at the back, 500mm clearance on top and the front cabinet door was left open and the AVR still cut out.
Why it makes so much heat, and why it shuts down from heat are for the tech guys to explain, but even my Denon 3300 will cook a pot-roast in a closed cabinet with tons of space around it. I bought a fan for a computer CPU and spliced the wire to a 110 plug and connected to triggered output on Amp. Cut a hole in the back of the cabinet, or just aim it out the back of an open rack, and the amp will stay cool (at least my Denon did).
After moving my Denon to an open rack, I removed the fan, thinking it would be fine with open sides and back. Not so fast. After a few hours of pumping the other day, it started spiking the volume knob on its own and would not stop. I did a hard CPU reset, etc, no luck until it cooled. First time that has ever happened, and this is a 10 year old AVR, so this could be the result of years of hot work. But heat will stop an AVR no matter how heavy its guts. So the fan is back.
My advise: spend the extra cash on a good quite fan. I saved $ and I hate the sound the fan makes. Looking to upgrade now actually, so any computer pros in here that know a good fan that runs on 110 volts please let me know.
