Antec VERIS A/V Cooler Review

The Antec VERIS A/V Cooler

The sturdy carbon-glass structure has an aluminum top deck that has a very nice brush look to it as you can see from the picture above. Since you’ll likely be stacking things on this let’s not spend much time here and see what makes this cooler work.

Flipping the Antec VERIS A/V Cooler over we can see where the magic happens. Two 80mm fans are strategically located on the underside of the cooler that suck up air from the hot component below and then routes the air out through the back of the cooler. If your A/V components are located in a cabinet with a back or in a bookshelf this design won’t work that well, but you could always spin it around to where it sits backwards or just circulate the air as some airflow is better than none.

On the front of the cooler there is a blue LED power light located just above the power switch that is only on when the fans are set to either low or high. The power switch is labeled Low/Off/High and the fan noise on low is impressive. Antec claims that the fans get no louder than 28.7 dBA and low is just 22.5 dBA. This means that on low you shouldn’t be able to hear it when sitting on the couch in a quiet room, but on high it can be heard if the room is silent. When watching a movie or playing music you won’t be able to hear 28.7 dBA, so no worries on the fan noise. Many people that have Onkyo TX-SR705 or TX-SR803 7.1 receivers have complained about heat and that temperatures above the unit can easily hit 100 to 140F and that a cooler can really drop the temperatures and ensure years of use. We tried out the Antec A/V Cooler on various receivers from Sony, Sherwood and Onkyo and found that it dropped the temperatures on average ~25F. Not bad for something that takes just two seconds to install.

One downside to the Antec Veris A/V Cooler is that due to the unit’s height you might not be able to use it in your TV stand. We tried to use the Antec VERIS A/V Cooler with the Sony receiver pictured above in this glass stand and found that the cooler was not able to fit even though there appeared to be enough room above the receiver. Other A/V coolers are on the market that just sit on top of the receiver and an example of this is this 17mm thick model. Without a doubt the Antex A/V Cooler is one of the nicest looking models on the market, but at 47mm tall it is also one of the thickest around. Just be sure to measure your TV stand or A/V cabinet before ordering one to make certain that it will fit.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions:

Just put the Antec A/V cooler on top of any A/V component’s air ventilation grid and the cooler will start to suck out the hot air out and away from the A/V component. The idea is simple enough, and for $61.01 plus shipping you can have one at your door and ready to use on your precious stereo components. One of the most popular mid-range receivers today is the Onkyo TX-SR806B, and at $619 plus shipping this 7.1 Channels, 130 W/Channel receiver also gets pretty hot. When spending that much money on a receiver it only makes sense to make sure that it is being properly cooled.

The Antec A/V cooler comes with the legendary Antec AQ3 warranty, which means the cooler comes with a three-year parts and labor warranty. If you plan on running the unit 24/7 then this warranty might be of interest to you as it will cover new fans should one ever fail. Antec claims that under continuous operation with normal temperature (25 C or 77 F) that the A/V cooler should last for about 35,000 hours. Since there are 8760 hours in a normal year (8784 hours are in a leap year), that means this cooler should last for at least four years and even longer if only used a few hours a day.

Legit Bottom Line: The Antec VERIS A/V Cooler is a simple yet effective way to whisk away heat from your home audio components.