Since the center amps in a 7100 will have higher exposure to heat. Has anyone tried, and if so, what was the result of connecting lower ohm speakers to the outside amps?

i.e. If your front speakers are 4 ohms and the rest 8, I would think your amp would run cooler if the 4 ohm speakers were connected to the farthest (outside) left and right amps..

Just a thought..

I have my 770 wired Left Main, Left Side Surround, Left Back Surround, Center, Right Back Surround, Right Side Surround, Right Main. I was using reasoning similar to yours. Center channel gets the most use, Mains come in second, Side Surrounds third and Back Surrounds last. I didn't want to place the Mains and Center load/heat together in the middle of the amplifier.

That would be my thought too. Even if you drive nothing through the amps, the two amps in the center should read the highest operating temperature due to there location.

Once I get setup, I have a DMM with an accurate thermo coupler, I will do some measurements and post the results.

That makes sense. I too have the mains/center on the outer channels, surround/rear on the inner channels with the center left open because of my 6.1 configuration.

Good plan on the 6.1 thing. I suppose if you had a 7100 or 770 and were running 5.1 you could leave a "gap" between the outer power hogs and run the others to a second zone, which will never be used at the same time anyway.