Stacking AV Equipment?

[Jurassic]

Hi would appreciate some advice on this. Basically I'm going to treat myself to a surround sound set up for Crimbo but space in my av cabinet is limited. I'm trying to decide where to put the amp and the only place I can think of is beneath my HD DVD player and PS3. This is how it will be set up, with each placed directly on top of each other:

PS3
HD DVD Player
Amp

Is this a bad idea? I'm mainly worried about the HD player getting cooked when the PS3 and amp are on. Does anyone have a similar set-up and had any problems?

[BeyondJumpFish]

Amps can get quite warm/hot depending on the model and spec. Most of them have an open top with a grill to get the heat out so I'm not sure i would stack it myself. They (the "they" people) say give it about 5 inches all round.
Its worth looking at the options of standing the PS3 on its edge or puting the Amp somewhere else.

[kernow]

I never stack my AV stuff because I'd rather it on individual shelves, plus I find it always makes marks on the casing no matter how careful you are.

[charlesr]

I have a dual amp stacked on top of my er... surround amp. The surround amp gets really hot (onkyo), but it seems ok because the dual amp is full of the usual holes and I can run them both at full chat for a few hours ok. I don't think I'd put something else on top of it though....

[Jurassic]

Cheers for the advice chaps. Looks like stacking them isn't going to be to clever an idea then. I'll have to have a re-jig and move some of the stuff around.

While I've got this thread open, might as well ask:
I've narrowed my choice of amp down to two, either a

Sony STRDH500

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/sony/strdh500/sony-strdh500

or

Onkyo TXSR307

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/onkyo/txsr307/onky-txsr307-blk

Is it worth spending the extra for the Onkyo? I'm on a tight budget with this and the Onkyo is at the very top of my price range, so can anyone also recommend a good set of 5.1 speakers to go with one of those amps that won't break the bank?

[BeyondJumpFish]

They are both entry level AV's and there is going to be very little between them really. Sony's tend to have a slightly warmer sound then Onkyo's in my opinion. Onkyo tend not to process the sound to much and just push it out to the speakers. It all depends on what you want.
If your on a budget I'd go for the Sony.
I don't know what your price range is for speaker sets but i know the little Jamo's work well with the Sony AV's.

[Jurassic]

Cheers for that, they seem to have an identical feature set so I'll probably plump for the Sony and put the pennies saved towards some better speakers. I'll look up Jamo thanks for the recommendation .

[Brad]

If you can actually get to the Richer Sounds shop I'd go for the £149 Yamaha over the Sony or the Onkyo. I think at entry level you just can't beat a Yamaha. Further up the scale I've no idea though. For speakers I'd got foe these Tannoys.

[wod]

i have not amps stacked up but have bluray and my satellite boxes stacked on top of each other but made sure some air would circulate around by raising each up an inch with some bigger rubber feet, got them from maplins a couple of pound for sheet of them.

[Soundwave]

I used to stack my seperates a few years back but always had the amp on top for cooling purposes.

Currently though my AV Amp sits on it's own shelf in my TV Stand all my consoles in a seperate AV stand
However my HD-DVD Player / DVD Recorder / Sky Box are all stacked on top of each other on the shelf in the TV Stand.

I'd never stack anything on top of my amps but everything else is fine by me

Neil

[saif]

I have always put amps on top but nothing on top of them as they will usually run the hottest.
A lot of AV stuff actually runs better with an amp on top (if cooling is OK!!!!) due to the weight making it more rigid. I can also not recommend enough a tesco granite chopping board to go under the amp. Firms up the sound to an amazing degree and is, by far, the best £10 of hi-fi I have ever bought.

[sharky_ob]

I have always put amps on top but nothing on top of them as they will usually run the hottest.
A lot of AV stuff actually runs better with an amp on top (if cooling is OK!!!!) due to the weight making it more rigid. I can also not recommend enough a tesco granite chopping board to go under the amp. Firms up the sound to an amazing degree and is, by far, the best ?10 of hi-fi I have ever bought.

What?? How does this work?

[saif]

Assume you mean the granite board.
I have mentioned it before http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread...hlight=granite

Basically, prevents vibrations. I got the board as I heard about it and it was cheap enough to risk as well as having another use if needed.

[NekoFever]

One thing to look out for on that Onkyo is that it only has an HDMI passthrough, not a repeater. That means you need to use optical for multichannel audio, defeating one of the main benefits of HDMI. I'm not entirely sure if that goes for PCM audio that doesn't need decoding, but you will need optical for Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.

The next one up, the 507, has repeating.

[Jurassic]

One thing to look out for on that Onkyo is that it only has an HDMI passthrough, not a repeater. That means you need to use optical for multichannel audio, defeating one of the main benefits of HDMI. I'm not entirely sure if that goes for PCM audio that doesn't need decoding, but you will need optical for Dolby Digital, DTS, etc.

The next one up, the 507, has repeating.

Cheers that's good advice and something I would have completely overlooked. I think I'm going to go for the Yamaha amp that FullSpecWarrior recommended.

Thanks for all the advice so far, if anyone has any more speaker recommendations post away. I'm looking to spend under ?100 which I realise might be a tall order!