Opened Up: Home Theater Pioneer Receiver

Twas time to downsize and get rid of my stereo system. Something about a 35 lb subwoofer, two 10 lb speakers, and a 20 lb receiver strung together with over a dozen feet of speaker wire that got to me. Don't get me wrong, they sounded incredible. I had them since 2005 or 2006 and bought them with the idea of paying a premium for the "best" so the itch to upgrade would never touch me again.

There were a few times that I seriously considered picking up an extra pair of speakers to create a 4.1 system. Then I lost interest and didn't want to deal with it anymore. In my newfound desire to have fewer possessions, these giant, heavy items were getting in my way a bit.

Pioneer AV Receiver with Lid Removed 

Video
Inside: AV Home Theater Receiver

Ten-ish Years Later
They were still working almost ten years later. I gave the speakers and subwoofer to someone on the cheap. The receiver, however, was thrown out -- it was still working when I unhooked it. Trying to sell a really old home theater receiver that didn't have any HDMI connections, had never been cleaned out, and probably had very ripe electronics wasn't something I thought was a good idea.

Instead of taking it out back and going to town with a club, the audio/video receiver was opened up. There were around six screws, some pushing and pulling, and voila.

Pioneer Home Theater Receiver Opened Up

The most shocking thing was that there wasn't that much dust. I was careful when dusting the grill on the cover over the years to avoid pushing dust into the holes. Turned out that I did a pretty good job. There was also a fan up front that I don't think I ever heard turn on over the past decade. My guess is that it only activated when temperatures rose above a threshold. With only two speakers to drive at pretty low volumes, that probably wasn't a big problem.

Looking Inside a Home Theater Receiver

And nothing would be complete without a few shots from an infrared camera -- with the settings not properly set to create accurate temperature readings. Pay attention to the location of the giant heatsink.

Inside a Receiver with an Infrared Camera

And another photo from a different angle. Note that the receiver had only been on a very short amount of time before the infrared photos were taken. Also, there was nothing connected to the receiver being powered.

Another Shot in a Different Color Palette

Reminder: Temperatures are not accurate.