He's correct, heat will dramatically decrease the like of today's electronics.

You need to have a balanced flow - the same volume going in and out and it also needs to be sufficient to cool the amount of heat produced. You also need to be aware of noie, both from the fan and the moving air. You also need to be concerned with filtering that air. If this is a base cabinet you don't want it drawing in dirty dusty air and blowing it through the equipment.

Obvious answer is to perforate the bottom of the cabinet for the intake. Search for electronic cooling fans there are several manuf. of readymade solutions.

My solution was to put all the components upstairs in a closet, and have just a touchpad in the wall and speakers in the ceiling. There's plenty of room and airflow in the closet. This is not a good solution for most people.

Quick and dirty solution? Keep the door open when the stereo is on. Makes it easier to change the music too. But you want hidden...does that mean hidden always? Is having a retracting or garage style door too ugly to contemplate?

Next most simple, put in a couple of small fans. There's obviously going to be electricity there. You can mount electronics style fans in the top and bottom of the cabinet. Perhaps even use fan platforms like they sell for laptops under each of the components.

If that's not enough airflow, the only other thing I can think of is to have either a louvered or mesh covered door, rather than solid.

BUT, how gonzo are these components? And how old? Most are meant to go in rack systems which are usually much tighter, with a lot less airspace than you're talking about. Is there any way to put some holes in the bottom of the cabinet? Since heat rises that would allow some natural convection to drive the heat out of the high holes in the side and draw cooler air up from the bottom. That would save having to remember to turn on fans.

Otherwise, maybe the cabinet maker can make the base of the cabinet where the door hits a little short front to back (like 1/4" or less) so that there's a gap at the bottom with the door closed. That should allow enough air to flow in.

They make/sell fan unit for this purpose. Don't know exactly what they are called. We had a large niche in our great room for TV equipment and had a door made for it from an old shutter. We cannot leave door closed when watching TV or it heats up. Guys who made door gave me a manufacturer, but I've misplaced the piece of paper.

They said it would be placed at the top to pull the hot air out of the niche/closet through some holes put in the wood above the door.

Definitely use a fan. The ventilation holes alone will probably not be enough. We tried it once with another piece of equipment. It didn't' take long to notice the heat building up in the cabinet.

Guys, a fan is not enough. Space between components using convective cooling is not enough. A couple of holes will probably not be enough either.

Yes, the stuff will work with out properly designed cooling airflow. It will shorten the life of units with integrated circuits. You need to get enough voulme of cool air into the cabinet to cool the heat produced by your components and then exhaust that warmed are out of the space. It's not rocket science. But its not as simple as drilling a few 3/4" holes in the top of your cabinet or plugging in a small fan.

That said it all boils down to how much you value your electronics, designing and buying a $600 cooling system is probably not worth the effort if you have a $175 reciever. Just get a new one every few years. If you have $5000 + Crestron or McIntosh amp, the hassle becomes less of a hassle.

Try the site below. You will have to cut a hole in the side of the cabinet that gets covered with a grill.

Here is a link that might be useful: For ideas

Wow, thank you all for replying. Here's more information.
Even though these are not really high end ones my hubby is concerned about this and it is his really only concern in this whole thing so I want to be responsible yet don't want to overkill. The receiver is a Technics probably 10 years old, but works great. It is 17"wide by 6" tall and could sit on the 5 disc cd changer, but could also sit on a shelf with vents drilled in. There is no heat from the cd changer.
This is an upper cabinet that will sit on our new quartz counter--yes directlly on it. I could ask the cabinet maker to make the door just a little short to allow somemore air and sitll go with the 1/2 inch holes on the side. Will this be enough or do I need him to install a fan too--that's going to be a trick. Remember there will be plenty of airspace behind, to the side and about 5-6 inches on the top of this unit. But I'd rather have the door shut when in use--no mesh on anything either. Oh and it won't be a dirty location at all. Needs to be in this location though.

So airholes or a airvent can be drilled to the upper side of it cause that will be hidden by some trim going in front of the cabinets next to it. But lower holes or whatever on the side will show but a possiblity. Will that do it? Thanks, and please let me know--tomorrow is d-day.

drilling the holes will not do anything until you at a fan

Here is a fan that will only speed up when it's hot enough, it will be at it's fastest when it is around 90 degrees.

http://www.icecapinc.com/01/fans.htm

I would recommend this fan it's used by hobbyists to do different cooling application things. If your receiver has an outlet on the back you can plug it in there so it switches on when the receiver is on.

poorowner: does this fan or any fan we get have to be built into the cabinet? Or could it just be sitting in the cabinet and go on when the stereo is run (yes I'm hoping there is a outlet to plug it into the stereo so it runs only when on). We'd still put in holes.

How about if you replaced the solid cabinet door with something like a lattice door or a radiator grill insert? I know outwater supply had the lattice panels (and I saw them installed in Schuler cabinets --they were nice) and radiator panels. If you got the doors prepped for glass (but didn't order the glass) you could fit them with the perforated panels to increase airflow. Yes, dust and whatever may get in the cabinet, but I offer it as an option.

My son would tell you to get an ipod and a small docking station. You could do one with speakers or wire the speakers in elsewhere. LOL

Put a fan near the top where you can hide it. Can you put a couple of holes in the toe kick of the cabinet or the bottom of it? I doubt you'll need too much--the fan will pull out hot air from the top, and the holes will allow cool air to come in.

yup, you will need to cut out a square and but make sure you leave room for 4 holes to mount the fan. if you have moulding that will hide it up. Then I would put a set of intake hole somewhere maybe the bottom, the heat will raise up and the fan will draw it out. It's not optimal but it's not like we are building expensive computer cooling or anything, the idea is similar though.

The cool thing about this fan (pun!) is that it doesn't spin fast until it gets warmer. So if it's not real heated up you don't have to hear it at full speed all.

I am posting this touchscreen/amplifier for fun, something I was dreaming about. That way you don't have to put it inside a cabinet at all. Show this to your husband :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Touchscreen music amplifier

poorowner: do you have one of these fans? Which one, there were 2, would we need and how much are they? I met with my cabinet maker today and he said they've done many stereo systems in cabinets and the cabinets aren't airtight. He feels the holes near the top side (about 12 inches off the counter) will be adequate, but I would do a small fan there too if you think that will help. Both the holes and the fan would be at the same level cause that is where the moulding is to make this so it doesn't show. Thanks. Cindy

Yes, I have these fans in a light fixture to prolong the life of the tubes.

The heat do not go away by itself fast enough through little holes, the fan is around $40, if you don't want auto temperature adjustment, you can get a computer fan from BestBuy for around $12, but you still need to buy a 12V adapter. They are the same size.

I think I would buy the big one but really not too much difference, you are just trying to get some air moving so inside the cabinet is the same temp as the outside.

So is this fan something that would mount on the side of the cabinet--i.e. we'd do a cut out for it and put it in drawing the air out? Could it be connected to the receiver to go on when it goes on? What does the 50-102 CFM mean? What are the demensions about? Thanks.

CFM=Cubic feet per minute. In theory it could move that many cubic feet each minute, which in a cabinet your size means about 20 air changes per minute 100/5 cu. ft. That's a lot of air movement.

Look for a fan that is very quiet, since you want want the noise while listening to music/watching tv.

We found a lap top computer whisper cooling fan at Radio Shack that was not very expensive (around $40?) It is little and flat and plugs into a regular electrical socket. It is quiet and it runs continuously...has for a couple years now. It sits atop our heat producing DirectTV box inside a cabinet. We drilled some holes in the top of the cabinet that no one can see. Works like a charm! Here's a photo. It is that flat 3/4" thick piece sitting on wood spacers on top of the Direct TV box at the top of the photos. Before we got it that unit would get almost too hot to touch, even though it only gets turned on in the evenings. Argh. Nothing like a flash photo to illuminate all the dust in there.

{{gwi:1561850}}

Thanks for the picture, I'm hoping something like that will work. We will already have the holes. In your example the row of 1/2 inch holes would be on the upper right side kind of in line with where you cords come in. We will have room to place one of these fans on top of the receiver too--guys and gals will this do it?