Rack mount stacking and cooling???

[dp19]

I see some pics of rack mounted Rotel equipment with absolutely no airgap between the components, even on the Rotel site.

http://www.rotel.com/NA/products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=478&Tab=1&Pic=4

What happens to the cooling of the amps? The vents seem completely blocked off. Are the top covers removed?

Surely someone must know how this is done (Kevin D?)

[Kevin D]

The 15 series has a lot of venting in the front, top, upper sides, and on some pieces the bottom. The rack mounting hardware is just rails along the bottom sides to not block these vents. You can stack them with no harm if you have a properly setup rack with active cooling.

Having them stacked also seems to have some form of 'global' heatsink effect as well. All of my equipment tends to take on the same temperature, rather then the receiver being hotter the the amps.

Kevin D.

[dp19]

Makes sense... so I'm guessing that active cooling is pretty much a necessity in this case?

[PewterTA]

I would say it's probably more recommended than not. Would they work without it... yeah probably as long as it's completely open in the back. To be safe (especially when it's almost completely sealed from the front), it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have some active cooling to help keep things running properly. Of course this is also dependent upon what your ambient temperature tends to be. For example if this is going to be in a cooler area like the basement, then you might not need it as much as if it's in a room upstairs that gets a lot of sun and is hard to keep cool.