What about a fan blowing over McIntosh 7205 AMP?


Seems like my Amp was getting pretty warm so I put a small fan to blow over the top of it which seemed to cool it down. Talked to a Mgr at a stereo store and he said not a good idea. Seems to me they put fans in computers to keep them cool, but he was pretty sure I could do more harm than good. What is anyone else's opinion???? just thought I would see if anyone wanted to put in some feedback..
128x128ballsteve
Blowing air ONTO an amp may actually make it run warmer by inhibiting the convection of air from the top...sucking in cooler air from the bottom.
TPreaves is right....pull air out the top, rather than blow it in.
A small computer style box fan, on top aiding the natural airflow would help.
I have experimented with an old Intel CPU fan running off a 9v battery. Extremely quiet and moves a surprising amount of air.

That being said, the other posters here are right....and the amp is supposed to run warm. But not hot, depending on many factors, including class of operation and the amount of heatsink vs power. Lots of heatsink is needed for class 'a' amps while my 'd' amp has minimal heatsink, lots of RMS power, but a short time limit at those power levels.

Factors for any given amp, such as low sensitivity speakers run loudly in a larger room will (can) tax even the most robust amp making extra cooling or at least a well ventilated space a good idea.
Make sure your not blowing dust into it. The dust could clog things up, and is a known problem for some laptops like Toshiba, and others. I use muffin fans myself on warm running amps. When I had some inefficient 4 ohm speakers, I had to.
Google heat shortens capacitor life. There is a lot of change (longer life)when they are cooler.
Thanks for all the responses. I have since turned the fan where it just helps pull the air back over it, not blowing on it. steve
I have built many of Nelson Pass's Aleph Class A Amplifiers as a member of DIYAudio.com. Amplifiers biased as class A have a maximum theoretical efficency of 50%. In the real world they are more like 15% to 20%. That means of all the power the amplifier can deliver, 80% to 85% of it is dissipated as heat, with maximum heat dissipation at idle. These amplifiers become giant space heaters. Such is the price we pay for no crossover distortion. Not having the proper heat sinks available when I need them has made me pull out the trusty fan to cool these bad boys down on more than one occasion. Other than the fan's audible background noise, it has produced no ill effects on the amplifier itself.