I will start with this disclaimer, i do not have sufficient cooling space around my denon. Because of the height of the VP150 center channel I had to lower the shelf above the amp. There is ample cooling to both the sides and back but only approx. 1.5" above which is well below the recommended distance.

So now that I have that out of the way lets get started. I have an Epic 80 7.1 system using a Denon 3808ci for the receiver. I have never had an overheating issue nor do I see one. My wife was listening to music while I was out. Yes she likes her music loud. To make matters worse she wanted to go to the other end of the house and do some work while still listening to music. This meant turning the volume up to +7.5, yes i do mean to have the plus in front of that number, in 7 channel stero mode. Just for reference the volume never goes up past -10 during movies or music becuase it is just too loud. At -10 for extended periods the amp section has never become more than warm.

So after around an hour and 25 minutes of this abuse the amp went down. The green ring on the power button started flashing red. I actually pulled into the driveway about 30 seconds after this happened. When I entered the house I got the whole "I don't know what happened, it just stopped working" speach. I tried pushing the button and it came back on for about 2 seconds before protecting itself again. At that point I felt the heat on my hand in front of the amp and she mentioned she might have been playing it a bit loud. After a 45 minute cool down it fired right back up like nothing happened.

I figured I'd post this as many people worry about the 4 ohm load of the M80's. Honestly I think if I had proper cooling nothing would have happened. Also I would never listen to the amp at this level


Epic 80 - 500 system in 7.1
Denon 3808CI