Advice on stacking equipment

The 'Inverse Square Law' states that the strength of a magnetic field diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance. In other words: Your components' separation needn't be large when they're placed side by side. The transformers, microprocessors, and circuitry will have more distance from each other automatically that way. Also- Dress your power cords/interconects/etc accordingly(don't parallel any AC wires within 6in of your signal cables. Anything that HAS to cross, should do so at a 90 degree angle and, at least, 1 inch away.

"How close do you think its safe to go before interference kicks in?"

No simple answer. You have to listen. IF it sounds clean, then it is.

OR, you can get a meter to measure magnetic fields at key locations if that makes you feel safer.

Ok I think I'll put the stacking idea on the back burner. I'm also thinking of putting all the equipment along side each other. How close do you think its safe to go before interference kicks in?

Not only interference. Stacking reduces surface area and makes air flow - convection cooling very difficult. Electrolytic caps' life is temperature dependent (2x shorter for each 10 deg C increase).

That's also an excellent point; generally, stacking electronics on top of each other can result in increased electronic interference between the units vis-a-vis each other which has the potential to degrade system performance.

Stacking a device with a low level phono stage in it near a power amp other powered components or devices is the main problem I've encountered, but certainly many other similar kinds of problems are possible when multiple electronic devices are in close proximity to each other.

Having said that, I have my components stacked pretty tightly and there is no trace of noise or distortion as a result in my system currently.

I did have to move things around a bit recently and add some external magnetic field shielding to my step up device for my low output MC phono cartridge to eliminate very noticeable hum otherwise (see postings on my system for details).

In general I would recommend avoiding stacking components in close proximity if it can be avoided.

Besides the mentioned issues: Your equipment(digital OR analog) is emitting interference that will be absorbed by other gear(especially if stacked), and will affect your music signal. Digital circuits are really good at generating interference, as are the power supplies/transformers in any kind of gear. (http://www.peprollc.com/about/technology/threats/) I've always used Texas Instruments' TI Shield, over and under my individual components, to block any RFI/EMI. See page 14 of this catalog: (http://www.percyaudio.com/Catalog.pdf) The Stillpoints Suppression Cloth looks interesting too, but- I've not tried it.

I stack my Innersound preamp and phone stage (they are both slim and light and exact sizes). Roger Sanders said they were designed to be stacked (he used to own Innersound-the electronics are made by Coda). I had them stacked for years but recenlty (3 months or so ago) I placed symposium fat pads between them (I always had them under the lower component). It did make a very nice change in sound (more detail, less phono noise, wider phone soundstage, seems to have tightened up phono base and widened soundstage on all sources). I wouldn't stack anything over a CD player. I have had some CD players, in the past, stop working due to weight issues on the player. I do have my squeezebox on top of my Benchmark (SB is very light) and have had nice improvement since I put squeezebox on a symposium svelt shelf and vibrapod disc under SB. My suggestion is perhaps ok to stack light gear but use isolation devices.

I use hockey pucks between units when I stack

Be careful as besides the isolation aspects, you're also putting a weight on top of a piece of equipment which often has as obvious audible effect (which may improve or deteriorate your system's performance).

Hobby Lobby has sheets of felt 5/$1. Takes 2 between each unit. The sonic result is a superhuge soundstage with heavenly highs and thunderous lows. It's what I use.