Hmm, it must be the display then that causes it to heat excessively. Both my Alpine decks were 79** series, so no deck power themselves. I think I can recall running the decks in blackout mode and it did not heat up nearly as much.

 

I can vouch for that as well, my 7894 used to get fairly warm, and I'm pretty sure it is a result of the illumination on the faceplate. I never ran the internal amp, and it still got nice and toasty. The display is very bright and vivid, so I'm sure that is the cause.

CD lasers should not cause any significant amount of heat, if any at all.