Is it bad to stack your equipment

Mark,

I can't tell you the right answer, but here are some things to think about:

1. temperature & air flow

2. vibration/physical isolation

3. ease of keeping cables well separated

(I ended up building my own flexy type rack when I ran out of room & didn't want to pay big bux).

Happy listening,

I have tried the "Twelve Step Program For Incurable Stackers" ... and failed.
I stack. Usually only two at a time. But at times I have stacked as many as FOUR items up.
Rules:
Leave the hottest one on top
Leave the biggest and heaviest one on the bottom.
Leave the preamp in the middle (shelved or stacked).
Try to alternate stacking of items in use at the same time.
Don't let the power cord of the one above run right over the inputs ot outputs of the ones below.

Well all my equipnment is stacked. Has been for years. I have gotten into tube pre amps and am now having issues. I was at my dealer about a month ago and he hooked up my system and was a/b cd players for me. he had one in the rack and one on top of the pre. after I listened for a while and decided he took the one off the pre amp and said it woudl now sound better. Couldn't beleve it! just adding air around the componment mades a big difference in sound.

For solid state I never herd a big difference but for the stuff I have now wow wouldn't of beleved it.

Bgrazman is right. Stacking can negate the very purpose of clean/dirty boxes. Also consider that the likely hood of scratching componenets or leaving traces of rubber footings increases dramaticly. This can devalue your equipment for resale. Those racks serve a purpose.