AV Equipment Tower

[Waymon Campbell]

I am about to start to build the Cherry entertainment center featured in the September 2004 Wood magazine and I have a question...or rather a concern.

AV_Tower.jpg

I have never kept my AV components in a glass enclosed rack like this and am wondering if anyone else does. If so, do you have any problems with heat. Obviously the rear panel has a cut-out for cable access and heat dissipation, but I am concerned that there would not be enough airflow through the cabinet.

Anyone have any ideas to increase the airflow while retaining the design?

Thanks...

[Matt Meiser]

My AV cabinet (of my own design) has a vent installed in the floor of the cabinet at the front and one in the top of the back wall. I figure convection will draw cool air in at floor level and it will escape the back. The receiver, which generates the most heat, is on the top shelf.

[Gregg Mason]

I'm not sure about the heat problem, but I'm going to be building the same entertainment center. 2 towers and the bridge. I also may do two matching end tables. Please keep us posted on your progress, and any problems to watch out for.

Thanks,

Gregg

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Waymon...Matt's idea would probably work. You might also consider routing grooves through the top and bottom to allow convection air circulation. I'd also "notch" across the back side of the shelves to allow for interconnecting cables and air circulation.

[Matt Meiser]

I notched the back of each of my shelves too. Makes managing cables a little easier. The ultimate would be the unit that is now available that pulls out and swivels. Big $$$ though.

[tod evans]

waymon, high powered audio gear is one of my passions so this is something i have addressed before. what i`ve had success with is using 120v muffin fans one intake one exhaust and drilling or slotting the shelves to allow airflow. i place an automotive type air cleaner before the intake fan so as to keep dust out of the equipment. i`ve found even amps with their own cooling fans will overheat if you drive them in an enclosed cabinet, the fresh air provided by forced ventilation usually cures this. check on-line at a company called parts express for fans or any high end build your own speaker components. the fans can be wired to come on when your amp is powered up or even hooked to a temperture switch. be careful if you go to their web site you`ll end up building at least your own speakers!! tod

[JayStPeter]

The fact that you're thinking about it means you'll probably be OK. It depends a lot on what equipment you'll be putting in there. Unless you use some big dog amps, you probably don't need fans if you use a convection type vent system (openings top and bottom on the back). I have a pretty high-end receiver that generates much heat and the convection cooling of my cabinet is fine.
I would suggest some sort of provision for making cabling easier. Either a way into the back or some form of drawer slides to enable your equipment to come to you. My cabinet has no such mechanism and getting the 40 or so cables to the back of the receiver is awful. Trying to balance a 50lb receiver and plug in new wires for a new game console without ripping the others out is definitely not fun.

Jay

[Dave Carey]

Matt,
I built something similiar and house a tape player, turntable (now seldom used), CD player (ditto with the advent of the iPod and itunes), surround sound tuner, dvd player, vhs player and cable box. Instead of holes in the back to thread cables through I used slots sized so that each is smaller than the piece of equipment on that shelf. Made connecting everything a lot easier and seems to eliminate heat buildup as well. Next time since I can cut down on the amount of equipment (my wife keeps trying to put the turntable in the yard sale anyway!) I'm going to try a pull out/lazy susan setup. Good luck; whatever you decide on the cooling issue it'll be a good looking piece. Dave

[Hal Flynt]

I'm using a 120V muffin fan with an 850 ohm wire wound resistor (I don't remember the amp rating as I took this out of an old piece of gear) wired in series to one of the leads. This, by trial and error, slowed it down to where I could no longer hear the fan.

I mounted on the top rear of my cabinet to draw off the excess heat. It's been in use for 10 months and is on 24/7. (My Comcast box is on 24/7 due to some peculiarities with the way it records). No problems.

I have considered using a DC fan and a small power supply to get more air and less noise than typical. So far i have not needed to.