Tube Monoblock location? - Rack or near speakers?

This is one advantage of balanced cables. The shorter you can keep the speaker cables, the better (more resolution, more impact). Preamps that have a low output impedance can drive longer cables, so some single ended preamps will allow up to 20 feet (although that is rare). For the most part, running longer cables than that is best done with balanced lines. My cables at home are 35 feet.

Vibration in the tubes is generally **not** a problem!

I guess the governments,industry,and tube builders all wasted their time building tubes more resistant to vibration problems and failures.

Cooljazzcat , As with everything in this hobby you must try it yourself and then decide.Because a dealer or even a manufacturer tell you that one way is better then the other does not make it so.Only you can decide what you think sounds best.

Hifitime, if you think about it, a tube amp sitting beside a speaker is not going to get any more vibration than one far away. But really, if you try the difference between long speaker cables and short interconnects as opposed to short speaker cables with the amps near the speakers and long interconnects, the across-the-band improvement is instantly audible. IOW, apparently the vibration issue does not seem to play a role.

Ralph I always wanted to ask you if you are a fan of tube dampers for pre and power amps?