[Michael R.]

My recently acquired ARCAM AVR500 has been cooking by Blu-ray player, even though both are in a stand (components are over 3 inches apart) that has lots of ventilation in an air conditioned house. I couldn't believe how warm the discs became during a movie, so I felt the player and the glass shelf. They were hot enough that I put a thermometer to measure the temperature at the Blu-ray shelf. It was 37 C. Turns out that is the high end of the player's operating range.

I talked to my retailer (who had an AVR600 running noticeably cooler in the show room), who phoned his ARCAM representative. The rep said to bring in the ARCAM for a BIOS update to correct a problem that ARCAM had with some AVR500 receivers.

I'm posting this for the sake of anyone else who might wonder if their AVR500 is too hot.

After the machine receives the update, I will post the result.

 

[dlensmith]

Thanks for the post Michael; I heard this same complaint from some other owners. I have had my AVR500 for about 6 months and was running version 2.4 (I believe this is the latest?) which corrected some bugs. Then about a week ago, it started shutting down due to overheating. I would see a message flash across my monitor, then the unit would turn off and the power light flash yellow/green. My AVR is sitting out in the open air and I do not use gear that require a lot of power. I always thought it felt hotter than it should but it never shut down in the past. I contacted my dealer who told me that Arcam was aware of the problem and that it happened in some of the earlier produced units right after they brought the manufacturing from China back to the UK. Apparently the "gain bias" in the power amp setting needed to be adjusted so they advised me they would exchange it for another with the correct settings. Let me know how you make out when you get yours updated. I am hoping this is the last of my issues with the AVR. I must say I still can't believe how good it sounds. It makes my Def Tech Mythos ST's sound like speakers costing twice as much. Despite all of the issues, I can't imagine a better sounding amp (although there may be some, for a price).

 

[Michael R.]

BIOS upgrade cools down Arcam AVR500

We had quick turn around from our retailer; it just took me awhile to get back here to post the result.

Our Arcam AVR500 is running cooler now. The shelf above the unit reaches 27 degrees Centigrade now instead of 37.

I thought the manual mentioned how to check the BIOS without a computer hooked up, but I could not find it. Does anyone know how?

 

[ScaryBob]

both are in a stand (components are over 3 inches apart)

I find that AVRs typically need much more than 3" of ventilation space. (Most other components are Ok with 3".) Even then they can heat up components on higher shelves when running at high power output levels.