Hostile Architecture and Stereo Receivers

I've always had a love for sound. So when it came time to purchase a new stereo receiver as a gift for my wife's parents, I went to work finding the best stereo I could find for the price.

This was in 2003, before Amazon was really what it is today. I would shop in large chain stores to find really good products. Stores like Sound Advice, and BestBuy, then try to see if someone sold them online for cheaper.

I found this stereo receiver.

Here is a quick look at the specs:

The JVC RX-8040 features premium performance with high current 130 WATT x 6 This receiver also incorporates new convienience features such as Virtual Surround Back and Quick Speaker Set-up. The DSP processor enables the RX-8040 to provide the highest level of accuracy in decoding Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES and Dolby Pro Logic IIx. It also makes possible All Channel Stereo, and the JVC exclusive DAP soundfield.

• 130 watts x 2 min. RMS, both channels driven into 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz with no more than 0.08% THD
• 130 watts x 6 min. RMS, into 8 ohms, 1kHz, 0.8% THD
• DVD Multichannel Audio Compatible (5.1 channel analog input and 5 separate amps) for connection to existing and future multichannel sources such as DVD Audio
• Texas Instruments 32/64-bit Floating-Point DSP
• Virtual Surround Back: allows users to playback 6.1 channels without adding a surround back speaker

If you noticed that little white sticker at the top of the receiver. It's a warning not to put anything on top of it, because it might catch on fire. But two pets put themselves on top of it, two of our cats. The receiver is powered on most of the time, and it gives off a decent amount of heat, just what cats love.

I never worried about it much, because the cats would just get off of it, if it was getting too hot. What I didn't consider was their hair!

I know that cats shed, but you wouldn't imagine that it's much when all they are doing is sleeping. They were never moving around on top of the receiver, they would just get on top and sleep, they didn't clean themselves, or do much moving around at all. But alas, the hair came out anyway. And man, did the hair come out!

Once I removed the cover, I was greeted with this. Mind you, there was never any hair on the cover ever -- because the cats were dusting it off with their bodies.

As you can see, there was quite a bit of hair in there!

Cleaning the receiver was not too bad. I used a vacuum cleaner and shop air to get all of the hair out.

The next part was to come up with some way to keep the cats off of the receiver. I was bouncing around a few ideas, when my wife reminded me of "hostile architecture" video we saw a while back.

For those who don't know I'll show some examples. Hostile architechture was placed in various cities across the country, to keep homeless people from being able to sleep on park benches, or in store windows.

There's no sleeping on these benches.

The plan was to create something uncomfortable for the cats, but not block airflow through the receiver. After looking around my garage I came up with an idea.

I found some aluminum angle stock that I bought a few years ago, but haven't used it yet. I decided to make angle iron strips that would be good for airflow, and hopefully just uncomfortable enough for the cats.

When working with metal, I always like to make it look art-deco, because why not? People like that style now. Here's what I came up with.

The part where it says "HOT RESISTORS ARE 1.8Ω 2W" was from around 2010. My wife's parents purchased a newer receiver because they wanted one that could switch HDMI video. My wife's dad gave me their old one (this JVC). I cleaned it out, but noticed that there were resistors which had been so hot, that their color bands were almost gone. I wrote down the values in case I needed to change them some day.

It paid off, because some time around 2016, the receiver died. Once I started checking it out, I found that one of those resistors had burned open! I looked everywhere but couldn't find a replacement. Finally I found one on NewEgg. It was a 1.8 Ohm 25 Watt wirewound resistor, used for elevator controls, and made in Russia. 25 Watts is way more heat dissipation than was required, but that's fine because it just means it's overkill. I replaced all of the old resistors and it's been doing find ever since.

Now my surround sound receiver should stay cat hair free for years to come. Also, it will have an edgy art-deco look about it. Haha!

It's always something...

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