Make Way For Pioneer Elite - Update

The home theater setup is finally complete. It's taken a few weeks to get all of the little pieces put together, but it's done and sounds/looks fantastic. I'm really impressed with the new receiver - the audio quality from the Pioneer is unbelievable - such a rich full-bodied sound; a stark contrast to the flat uninspiring sound from the older Sony which it replaced.

The wiring came out nice and neat too, with only 1 (HDMI) cable running to the TV due to the receiver's 1080p upconversion:


The final piece of the setup was the cooling system. As I mentioned in my previous post, the receiver fit very tight in the opening I had for it. I ended up removing all 4 feet and replacing them with hard plastic stick-on feet instead. This prohibits me from opening the front panel cover without pulling the receiver out further, but it's the only way it fits. Even with the slim feet, there's only about a ¼" gap above the receiver; a far cry from the 8" of ventilation Pioneer recommends for the receiver.

To help cool the receiver better, I decided to make an active cooling system using 2 PC case fans. The TV cabinet wasn't originally made with this in mind, so it required some slight modifications; namely 2-3½" holes in the shelf above the receiver. This shelf is what the center channel speaker sits on, so the fans are concealed behind it when everything's installed.

First the top had to be removed; fortunately it's held on by about 27 screws from underneath rather than glued. It still took a little persuasion with a dead-blow hammer though as the finish had bonded it to the case. Here's a shot with the top removed:


With the top off, access to the top-middle shelf (where the orange screwdriver in the above picture is resting) was possible. The next step was to drill the 2 big holes between the middle and rear horizontal support straps for the top. 8 more small holes would follow to accommodate 4 mounting screws for each fan. Here is large hole #2 being drilled:


A backer-board was used underneath the shelf (that's what the clamps in the picture are supporting) to prevent wood chipping when the hole saw poked through the shelf.

Once all the holes were drilled the two fans were mounted. I found two ultra-quiet 92mm case fans from Silicon Valley Compucycle. The fans are made by SilenX and flow 32CFM at 11dBA. These fans are wired in parallel, fused, and connected to a 12v AC adapter which in turn, is plugged into the switched outlet on the back of the receiver. This means the fans turn on and off with the receiver!


The fans can be faintly heard above ambient room noise with all audio source equipment off. Upon turning the TV on, however (still no audio, just TV picture), the noise of the fans quickly blend in with the quiet hum of the TV's internal cooling fan. I'd say 11dBA is about the loudest I'd want to go for home theater fans. With the audio equipment turned on, however, the fan noise disappears. I don't feel these audibly affect the noise floor of my system, but if I want to make them even quieter, I bet mounting them on 4 rubber/nylon washers. This would help damp out any vibrations occurring from the fans being directly mounted to a hard wood surface.

I don't have any data to confirm that the fans actually do cool the receiver effectively, but perhaps if I get ahold of a thermometer, I can do some tests with and without the fans to see how much of a difference they make. Until then, I think this setup will be just fine - the receiver doesn't seem unusually hot and hasn't entered thermal protection mode at all. So far, I'm very pleased with the new setup!