With all the shuffling of 950 units going on in my HT I had the opportunity to install the two sets of 12" extensions into my Sanus racks. The normal height of these shelves (8") was just a bit tight for propercooling of my 755. While it never cut out or anything like that I just wasn't comfortable with the potential of heat buildup in close quarters.

I'm happy to report that with a new 4" headroom the 755 is now running so cool that it's hard to believe that it doesn't have a fan. What a very nice design. It's been "on" for almost 4 days straight (except for minimal down time as I swapped out 950s) and it's still cool to the touch. And, of course, dead silent.

Nice!

Here's a rough picture of the rack with the extened shelf. (I did this on both racks for symmetry.) It worked out fine. Thanks for the suggestions here and on other forums.




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RAF

My HT (latest update 04/17/02) Now includes Outlaw 950 and Outlaw 755

I'm in a similar position. My racks are 8" and there is only about 1/4" above the 755; a bit too close for my liking, especially as there are no side vents. I noticed it does get a wee bit warm. There's more than enough room on the front, back, sides, and bottom, but that top seems to be where it dumps most of its heat.

My "rack" is more like a TV stand, though, and it was only about a buck and a half at Circuit City. I don't think I'll be able to find extensions for it. I think this will have to do until I get an actual rack. I've been planning on doing that, though, mostly to get rid of all the plastic lawn furniture that the rest of my HT stuff currently sits on.

I had it sitting on the floor in front of the TV for about two weeks, before I was able to get it into the rack (don't laugh) and I noticed that it didn't even get warm there.

I'm curious why you have your amps in the middle with your componentry at the bottom. I would have placed the stuff with LCD displays and IR sensors closer to eye level.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

My guess would be so that he can see the displays when his screen is lowered. Check out his site for the pics of his HT and you'll see what I mean.

Nice call, Owl. Exactly! In fact the bottom two shelves of each rack are below the bottom of the screen. On the very bottom is the 950 and right above it is my RP91 DVD player. On the right side the bottom shelf houses my LD Player and the second shelf up houses my Sony 9000ES DVD/SACD player. The result is that I not only can see the display on the 950 (no OSD display via component) but I can change DVDs and LDs without having to raise the screen.

Works to perfection and does not distract me in the least.

Of course, having the 950 on the bottom was a royal pain in the butt (actually the back and the elbows) while switching everything out three times! I'm done. Finito. Case closed. This 950 has worked to perfection.

And Matthew,

You really should consider increasing the shelf size somehow to provide your 755 with a bit more breathing room. I placed it in the 8" shelf upon receiving it and it ran very warm (as you are experiencing now.) Even though it contains protective circuitry to prevent overheating and it never did overheat while in the rack it can't be good in the long haul to let the 755/770 run very warm. As soon as I added the 4" headroom it ran cool, very cool, from that point on. As a test I've been running it almost continuously for over 4 days now and it is still cool. The fan-less design of the 755/770 requires a "chimney effect" to provide cooling. If you block the top or bottom you negate that effect. Sure, you could add a fan, but that's probably going to introduce some noise. Add the headroom and it will run as cool as it did when you had it out of the shelf.

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RAF

My HT (latest update 04/17/02) Now includes Outlaw 950 and Outlaw 755

Yeah, I know you're right... for now, I don't really run it long enough for it to get too warm very often, but I have a feeling that once the 950 comes I'll be putting in some long listening sessions. So I figure I have about three weeks to get a nice rack. :-) My TV stand is not going to be adjustable, though.

I thought you were only using two of your monoblocks?

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Yes, that's right Matthew. But I keep all three of them in the rack since the trio is about the same width as the 755 and it just looks nicer that way. Besides, I have an instant "spare" if I lose any channel and I'm ready for 8.1 at a moment's notice. The 755 and the MA700s have specs that are so close that I could actually switch them and not notice a significant difference in performance. (And to anticipate other questions: No, my speakers can't be bi-amped and, no, I don't need an amp for either of my sub-woofers.)

But you can never have too many amps.



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RAF

My HT (latest update 04/17/02) Now includes Outlaw 950 and Outlaw 755



[This message has been edited by Robert A Fowkes (edited April 28, 2002).]

Are they tonally similar? I.e. do you think there would be a problem if you used two of them for L&R and one of the 755's channels for the center?

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

As far as I could tell, there was no difference in the sound of the amps no matter which combo I tried. However, for the sake of equality (in case there is something beyond what my ears are hearing) I'm using the two MA700s for the Back two channels with the 755 driving the L/C/R/LS/RS channels. I could have used the 3 MA700s as the front soundstage (with the completely independent power supplies) but I wanted to test run the 755 and so far, so good.

The nice thing is, with the position of all the amps and the use of banana plugs, it's a simple task to move the channels around if I want to change the pattern.

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RAF

My HT (latest update 04/17/02) Now includes Outlaw 950 and Outlaw 755