question for SLP05 owners:

 

@lwin They were made to be stacked . I recently sold mine to a buddy who has them stacked just like I did for years.

@harpo75 The reason Cary Audio changed the plate on top of the power supply to one without “foot indentions”, was to discourage people from stacking ...

And yet another photo of the indentions, and not stacking. If the indentions on the power supply top plate were removed - there is a reason for it as @harpo75 suggested. Worth doing more research on this topic, sometimes designs change for a reason. I bet the warranty decision maker at Cary Audio can share updates on what’s important to make the gear last longer. They see the incoming repairs.

@immatthewj no experience with Cary but when I had Pass Labs XP-22 two chassis preamp I heard a very subtle improvement when I separated the preamp from its power supply chassis. Neither one of the units got hot by the way. Slightly warm. I would keep the Cary preamp unit away from its power supply for reasons to not pollute the preamp unit with EMI that the power supply generates and to give the two units space to get proper ventilation.

Thanks for the input, @everyone.  @decooney , as far as the rectifier tube, it came with a Sovtek installed, I tried a Gold Lion for a short time, then a UK Amperex (which I am told is basically a Mullard that was branded Amperex) and recently when I was moving some stuff around to try out a high pass filter in my chain I put the Gold Lion back in.  It gets quite warm, with all of them.

After posting this thread/question and evaluating everything, I am going to continue to find a way not to stack them--for both the possible EMI and the temperature that makes me a bit uncomfortable about the idea.  

I don't remember it getting hot, but it was at least 15 years ago since I had the SLP-05 so take that with a grain of salt!

I've never been a fan of stacking gear on top of each other, even when the pieces were made with those "foot indentations" for stacking.  When I had to set gear up utilizing stacking due to space constraints, I always put a miniature fan behind the gear to keep air blowing across it.

Did it help cool it?  Who knows.  Did it ease my mind?  Abso-freaking-lutely.