Arrangement of components on rack


Now and again -- though not often enough, probably -- I spend some time unhooking and unplugging everything in my system, dusting the works, and then setting it all back up again. Makes me feel better, and it seems that the simple act of unplugging and then reattaching cables and power cords etc. improves the sound, too -- if only in my mind.

As I'm getting ready to do that now, I just had a thought: Is there a generally accepted arrangement for components sharing a rack? What I mean is: Are there components that ought be placed close together and those that should be better spaced out? My power amp sits between my speakers, with the rest of the gear over on the side wall.

I've got a turntable, so that takes care of what goes on the top shelf. The other components: A preamp, a separate phono preamp, a CD transport and DAC in one box, a Bluesound Node streamer.

With all else equal, should, say, the phono preamp and the preamp be near each other? Far apart? does it not matter? I've generally just kind of plunked things down and gone from there -- and haven't experienced too much trouble -- though some years back when I had the preamp (the main one, not the phono pre) up close to the turntable I had a bit of hum, so put the preamp on the bottom shelf and have continued to do so.

Still, as I got to wondering and am set to get to work on this soonish, I thought I'd ask if there's a generally accepted way of arranging things.

Thanks very much.

-- Howard

hodu
@millercarbon and @stereo5  That is some great advise. New here and learned something right away cool.
My stacks are typically amps on top, to dissipate as much heat as possible, then my pre-amp in the middle, then my disc player on the bottom. That keeps my inter-connect cables as short as possible.
If I have a set-up with an amp on the bottom, I'll invert that stack. Over the years I'm sure I've had every conceivable combination, not sure it makes any difference if your rack is solid. 
If you have a turntable pay special attention to where the phono leads come out. [...] Because if this cable touches anything, anything at all, vibrations will travel right up the cable to the tone arm.
+1 Good idea. I'm going to try this. Thanks.
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I brought some of this up on the Facebook Tekton Owners Group. One guy, he took three pieces of scrap wood each about 3x5x1/4" and put them together in a triangle, like the way you would build a house of cards. He put a rubber band around the two upright sides, so it looked like an "A" with the speaker cable going through the hole at the top of the "A". Looked really dumb until you realized he just made a perfect cable elevator with rubber band isolation. The cable floated perfectly on the rubber band. Said it worked great.  

This is what I mean about being creative and making do with whatever is readily available and on hand. That way if it doesn’t work you are out nothing but a little time. But if it does work then you got something for nothing, and all you have to do now is figure out how to make it look better. Along the way you get to hear and learn what does what. Repeat this process a hundred times or so, you too will know your stuff. ;)