Ok, I've gone from not caring too much about the sound in my car (wired FM modulator) and caring more about the volume of music and Empeg geekiness to wanting a good sounding system in my car. Too bad I didn't do this at the beginning when the car was brand new. Here's what I have waiting to be installed:

Nakamichi CD400 head unit (aux in and sub volume control)
Nakamichi PA-1004 4-channel amp (for the door speakers)
Nakamichi PA-1002 2-channel amp (for the sub)
MB Quart DKE 116 2-way coaxials (four 6.5" door speakers)
JL Audio 10w1v2 10" subwoofer

I plan on running the Empeg into the aux in of the CD400, then normal stereo install from there. I have an audiophile friend that makes all his own cables, so we'll be custom making the RCAs and getting good quality speaker wire and power/ground wire. I'll be ripping out my seats and re-wiring the speakers and running everything myself.

I have an issue with how to mount the amplifiers. I have a wagon, so I need to mount them in the back somehow. I don't want to mount them against the seats because I would like to retain the usefulness of putting down the rear seats and having the extra cargo space (without bumping into the amps). The most ideal place that I can think of is fabricating a custom box against the wheelwell of the car and mouting the sub and the amps to this box. The box would run down the entire left side of the rear compartment, and I could mount the sub at the back and the amps towards the front on their side. I would sink the amps down into the box a bit so the heat sinks are flush with the outside of the box (so all the connectors are protected from cargo moving around).

My problem is that the Nakamichi manual that came with the amps does not suggest mounting the amps with the heat sinks running (edit: parallel) to the floor. From an engineering standpoint I understand this, the heat coming off the lower fins will just rise to the upper fins and may cause a problem. Would this really be an issue, though? I am not playing my stereo at anywhere near the max limit on these amps. Has anyone had a Nakamichi amp and was heat ever a problem? Here's a 3d expert rendering of my planned enclosure:



Comments?

I'm guessing that this



is not an option?

tanstaafl.

I think it has more to do with airflow. Since you're creating a temperature differential, the air will want to move up, and if there is another fin in that direction, it will be harder for it to move.

Some people claim that you actually get more heat output when you're running an amp well below specs. I don't know if that's true, and I certainly don't know if that's universally true. (Sounds like something that could happen with some cheap engineering to me.) I don't have the same brand of amp you're looking at, but mine is also installed with the heatsink fins running horizontally, and I've had no problem at all. It just doesn't even begin to run hot enough for it to be any concern.

Honestly, I just have one (relatively) small Alpine amp. But I've felt it after it's been on and running for hours, and I can't imagine that another five of them would bring the temperature beyond what it's probably like in the trunk in the summer anyway.