you need thermal compensation to control the idle current in the output stage. silicon transistors have a negative temperature coefficient, so the Vbe is reduced 2.2mV for every deg C of temperature increase. if the bias voltage remains the same, this turns on the transistor on harder, increasing the idle current, and increasing the temperature even more. the cure for this is a bias clamp, which acts like an adjustable zener diode. the transistor in this bias circuit is usually mounted on the heat sink between the output transistors so that it can compensate for the change in temperature by reducing the bias voltage of the output transistors.