I've never found my Model 750 amp to be hot like a toaster oven - it actually runs cooler than my old 1050 receiver did. My 750 is currently in a closed cabinet with a cut-out slightly smaller than the rear panel (for wiring access) and a dead space of probably a foot or so above it. The hottest I've measured the air directly above the amp is somewhere under 100F if my memory serves correctly (haven't measured it in a year or more) - it is if anything slightly cool than what I experienced with an open front and an inch of clearance above it. Any class AB solid state amp with the output ratings we're looking at is going to put off some heat, but the Outlaw amps do have a whole lot of heat sink surface area to reject that heat pretty readily. If you can open up the back panel and give it the 6" to 9" of breathing room clear above it, the 7500 ought to be pretty comfortable.

Gonk:
Unfortunately, channel calibration is NOT global. If I calibrate a regular input to, say, -5dB and then switch to the CD input set for Upsample, that CD input will be +5dB louder than the regular input because the channel calibration doesn't apply to it.

So then to get the CD input at Upsample set to -3dB below the regular input, you'd need to set the 2-ch offset to -8 - which, by the way, is the lowest it goes. If you have to set the regular in put in the above case to -8dB to get the sub to balance correctly and you wanted the CD input at Upsample to be -3dB below the regular input, it would be impossible since the CD input would then need to be at -11dB which it can't go to.

As Skyblazer said - "It's either to low for home theater and to loud for 2 channel listening. Not sure if this is the problem or not." What he is experiencing is EXACTLY the problem I described above. He may be able to use the 2-ch Offset to lower the 2 channel music to an acceptable level unless he had to set the Sub Offset to some level that would not let him do this.

2-ch offset is not a value that is additive to the regular sub offset.

I had to calibrate my system so that the sub offset was 0dB by adjusting the volume of my subs to below what SVS recommends. Then the 2-ch offset could be used to acceptably lower the sub volume for 2 channel music.

I've worked around it for my setup but this is NOT how the sub offsetting should work. It doesn't make sense and is not global like every other pre/pro and receiver I've owned.

I haven't run into this condition myself when using upsample, but if I get a chance I'll try to reproduce it so I understand the situation. I assume this +5dB that you're seeing is in addition to the level variations that exists between DVD (which is mixed at a lower level than CD to provide more response range) and formats like CD, VHS, and cable (which are mixed "hotter" to sound "better" even though it can lead to them clipping sooner).

My 7700 stays on all the time and gets "slightly" warm, that's it. Granted I am not driving it very hard, have efficent speakers & don't crank it up that much but I cannot see this amp getting "hot" even when driven hard.

I really love this amp; I had the 7125 which is very nice but the 7700 / 7500 are "overbuilt" with very heavy gold plated fully insulated 5-way binding post, even the RCA's are gold on these amps, very pretty rear end. I cannot believe I just said that about an amp.

ZoFo,

Was there a sound difference when you moved from the 7125 to 7700 amp? could you hear that 75 watt delta per channel?

thanks Vince

My 7500 is typically cool, even after a movie workout. Compared to the B&K it replaced, very cool, as the old B&K positively gets hot. And the other nicety: dead quiet, I hear nothing in terms of buzz etc.

Vince32837, human hearing responds to proportional changes, not absolute ones. The perceived difference between a 100-watt and a 200-watt input to a speaker is just the same as the perceived difference between a 1-watt and a 2-watt difference, except the sounds in the first case would be described by the typical listener as being four times as loud as those in the second case. Yes, I mean four times as loud - not 100 times as loud. Read any text on psychoacoustics, or even introductory psychology. That's why sound levels are measured in decibels - a logarithm-based figure - and it's why amplifier power levels ought to be converted into DBW, or decibels above one watt, before trying to compare them. My nOrh Le Amp II monoblocks are supposed to be able to deliver 400 watts into my 4-ohm Magneplanars. That sentence tells you just exactly nothing useful - if it pushes any emotional buttons, I'm sorry. But 400 watts translates to 26 decibels above 1 watt, or 26 dbw. Okay - if I know that and know the sensitivity spec for my speakers, which is about 85 db for 1-watt input (on the low side), then I know my amps can push my speakers to peaks of about 111 db each, or 114 db together. I also know that's about 24 db more than my condo neighbors can reasonably be expected to tolerate, or that I would tolerate from one of them. How much power would it take to drive my speakers to the max acceptable level? About three watts, which is 5 dbw.
Which is why I think people ought not to be impressed by astronomical wattage specs.

Paul Nay

So the guys who bought 7500/7700 amps having hum or buzz issues all turned out be outside gear, cable box etc true? no hum from within the 7500/7700 amps?

Paul,

You are right when you take that 100 watt amp and a 200 watt amp, gut at best buy thinks 2X, but reality it 20*log(200) - 10*log(100)= 23 dB -20db =3 dB differnece in power..plus how some manufacturers measure power/THD etc not standardized

Vince

All the hum and buzz issues I've heard about have been due to ground loops or other external issues (dimmer switches, etc.).

Gonk:
My above comments are while using either the built in test tones or while using RoomEQWizard test tones. I'm not talking about measuring levels from a CD and comparing that to DVD levels. This is a pure calibration issue.