Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Advice on re-construction options.

Well as most of you know my Odyssey monos arrived and I could not be more happy with their power and performance.

The issue is the free space in my AV rack was only about 10-12" high, so the best I could do was stack them with about 3" of space on top of each amp. There is not much ventilation on the sides at all.

Since they are a class A A/B amp, they are in A mode at idle and do generate some heat. When outside the rack the surface is only barely warm, however, once I stack them in the limited space they warm up a lot more, and are almost hot to the touch, especially the top one as it is receiving some of the heat from the bottom one.

I have taken a picture below with the front plates removed so you can see the space around them. Here are the options that I'm considering.

1) Don't put the amps in the AV opening and just set them in the back closet on seperate shelfs. However, I kinda like to look at them and if they are out of sight I'm not sure I'll like that...
2) I could expand the opening in my wall by going higher and cutting into the drywall. This would require some longer oak trim. Also, I would have to rebuild the AV/shelving unit with some other material besides wood, maybe something with better side ventilation.

If I do option 2) is there something you guys would recommend besides using wood that I can add shelves to in that opening...?

Not sure I have any other options.....

I think cutting out the ceiling of your rack could work very well. You don't even need more shelves, cut out the ceiling, stick one of the amps at the top and let it vent into the open space (not sure what is above your rack in the wall)

This way you can keep everything as is, but you'll just have a hole at the top of your rack that no one will see. This will allow you to have 6" above the bottom mono because your top amp will be right against the ceiling of the rack venting into the open space?

just a thought.

The rack is an old audio rack I built for myself back in my college days. It was built out of solid oak wood and had 4 shelves.

It worked out nice as I was able to place it between the studs in the wall and secure it.

Below is an OLD picture from the backside in the closet. I'm thinking my best bet might be to just cut the drywall on the top side higher and build a new rack, maybe with a different material?

The back panel on the AV cabinet was removed as shown in the lower picture..

Fascinating problem.

To my amateur eye, the amount of clearance seems adequate.

If it was me, before ripping out sheetrock and doing more finish carpentry, I'd probably try to increase the ventilation by taking a hole-saw to the cabinet sides and possibly putting a couple quiet PC fans in there. Or you could even just try the fans at the back of the cabinet to see if MOVING the air in the existing clearance solves the problem.

Getting more clearance around the amps is going to be a PITA, and may or may not solve your problem if they're still "in a box".

Thanks Tom,

These Khartago cases have vent holes on top/bottom to help disapate the heat from the amp heat sinks. For the most part the heat travels upward.

I've thought about cutting some side holes as well. Below is a link another guy gave me for his Odyssey amps that just sit on top of the amp and kick in only if the temp goes over a certain point and turn off below a certain point. They may be an option as well.

I was thinking if I added some more room on the top by cutting out the drywall, I could move everything else up, or rearrange the components to put the amps near the top with more space above them.

When will the madness end? I think JohnK and TomT need to come to Iowa and cast out these demons in my basement that keep causing me problems. Then maybe we could head over to the "Field of Dreams" or even go have a beer somewhere.

So if I'm looking at your pictures correctly, are the amps in the part of the rack without the back cut out?

Ken, it looks like that to me as well.

Randy, I would have thought you have plenty of room for ventilation already, since you have both the front and the back of the rack open.

No Ken, if you look at my last statement above by my pictures, I removed that back panel long ago. It was there when I originally built the cabinet in college.

Dave, heat rises and these class A A/B amps use heatsinks on the sides. There are ventilation holes on the top/bottom of each amp.

This is a really nasty problem.

Have you thought of mounting them vertically?

One thing is for sure. You need to nip this in the bud or you will cut their life in half or maybe less.

Yup, between calibrating my sub location and this latest issue, I'm beginning to wonder if I need to quit this hobby.