Physically awkward components...

Yes,speakers with high centers of gravity.

Wait until you attach some stiff cables to the Bel Canto DAC! I had one, and thick, stiff cables made that little, black, brick float in the air!

I agree with the Marquis de Aleph statements as well. I loved the way those hot, spiney heat sinks left red, hot indentations on my forearms. Everytime I needed to access the power switch, I was reliving the beginning of each Kung Fu episode when Kwai Chang Caine picked up the molten urn with his forearms and they left brands of the tiger and the dragon.

And, since I'm made of green clay, you can imagine the damage they inflicted on me.

Cogan-Hall cables. I borrowed some to try. Never could bend, fit, manipulate them into place. I spent hours trying to no avail. Never did hear them.

My favorite is the Nagra PL-L preamp with all the inputs on the left and all the outputs on the right. Of course, all my sources are on the right and all my amps are on the left and, because it is a tube preamp, I could not really invert it!

Best solution: Face it away from the front of the rack with a mirror behind it! ;-)

You crack me up green man!! I always had the Kwai Chang Caine thing in the back of my head too! "...snatch the Shakti Stones from my hand young Gunbei and it will be time for you to leave...."

I've got this isolation platform in my work system. It is a laboratory grade isolation platform from a physics lab made from steel and lead which fortunately comes in two separate parts. It has four small shock absorbers as legs. It holds my preamp and my CD player. It weighs in at over 300 lbs!!! It is affectionately known by my friends who've helped me move it at one time or another as "The Widow-Maker".

Marco