Robert F.

Parasound amps and heat

Hello everyone.
I have just purchased a Yamaha RX-V1400 as my first home theater product. So far I am pleased. This is only the first of many steps in my home theater build up
I plan to purchase an amp and use Yamaha as pre/pro for now. Looking at Parasound HCA-1205A. Anybody use this amp and what do you think of it? How hot will amp get under normal conditions? Amp will be in a cabnet with open back and glass doors on front. Any info would be great even about other brands of amps. Just trying to determine if I need to rig up a 12V muffin fan to help with circulation.
Thank you all

Marcelo T

I have a HCA1000A in a cabinet with open front and back, and about 25cm of clearance on top. The amp get as hot as to almost burn your hand on contact, therefore a fan is mandatory.
Besides that, it's a great sounding unit, and I'm driving Dynaudios 4ohms speakers with it.

PaulT

I have a 1203 out in the open and will soon have a 1000 also in the open. The 1203 runs warm but is completely clear on 3 sides. The manual is the same for the 1203/1205 and here is what Parasound says:

To insure safe and reliable operation, it is very important that the amplifier has plenty of ventilation to prevent overheating and automatic shut down from its thermal protection circuitry. Please observe the following ventilation guidelines when installing your amplifier in a cabinet or other enclosed area:

1) If you are not using a fan, allow at least six inches on each side and above the amplifier, and do not close off the front with a cabinet door or panel.

2) If you are enclosing the amplifier within an equipment cabinet, use a fan to draw in cool air and exhaust warm air. Two vent holes are required: one for intake and one for exhaust.

3) Do not place the amplifier on carpeting that will obstruct the air flow into the bottom of the amplifier chassis and heatsinks.

4) Avoid stacking components. If you do stack components, you must use a fan to circulate the warm air that will quickly become trapped between them when they are powered on.


They are great amps, give it some cool air and enjoy.

"One of the problems of taking things apart and seeing how they work--supposing you're trying to find out how a cat works--you take that cat apart to see how it works, what you've got in your hands is a non-working cat." -- Douglas Adams

Drew_W

and...



That's probably why.

My Rotel gets warm in a cabinet with only an open back, but I'm not really all that concerned. You should see what it does when you get it. A huge factor though is ambient room temperature. My basement is cold all the time. My Pioneer Elite in a cabinet never gets even up to what I'd consider remotely warm. Put it in a different place in the house, like I did a few months back, and it heats up quite nicely.

I gave up on tracking my collection and actually started watching what I have.

James W. Johnson

I have my HCA-1500A in an open rack and am running easy to drive Klipsch speakers and it still gets pretty hot.

The 1500A is pure class A up to about 15 watts so for the most part its running in class A mode and class A amps are just hot as heck, the 1000A and 750A are similar in design so are class A up to a certain point.
My subwoofer amp is 3 times as powerful and it has a much more difficult load than the Parasound yet it runs ice cold when it not being pushed hard...no class A watts is why, its A/B all the way to clipping.

If totally enclosing the Parasound then you should get and intake and exhaust fan for your rack.