After much ado following change of home in January, I am finally re-assembling my two fraim stacks.
Due to slight reconfiguration to allow incorporation of the Innuos boxes, I have a slight loss of free space on the left stack. It is not ideal but these are the parts which I have no choice but to try and fit in. It would be much appreciated from those in the know if and where I should make use of a free shelf.
The components will be placed top to bottom in the following order:
cd player
streamer
pre-amp
phono amp
phono amp power supply (it can’t go on the other stack!)
power amp
My inclination is to put the spare shelf between phono power supply and phono amp. But genuinely not sure if the pre-amp would better benefit from more isolation either above or below.
Any informed suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks.
The right answer is probably to try a couple of options and stick to what sounds best.
Having said that, my first attempt would be to have any power supplies and the power amp separated from the rest as much as you can. Given what you have on this stack, that suggests 4 boxes above then an empty shelf then 2 below.
The fussiest is your NAC552, which likes space around it. So that’s where I’d experiment with the empty shelf, though I have know idea about how fussy the Groove is in that respect.
Maybe:
cd player (no choice there with the CD555 loading)
pre-amp
empty shelf *
streamer
phono amp
phono amp power supply (it can’t go on the other stack!)
There have indeed been many questions on Fraim stack arrangements. But I could not find where there has been a specific question like mine, with the problem of having to accommodate a bulky phono power supply on the left side and the limit of only one spare shelf. Which is why I asked the question, as there are several folks on the forum much better tuned to finite details than I ever shall be.
Thanks Nick and Michael - your suggestions were my initial Plan A and Plan B! There has been much written about how the 552 enjoys a bit of breathing space. The mastergroove power supply is a bit of a brute and neither the phono stage nor the power supply fit under a standard shelf. My suspicion is that the phono would benefit most from a gap, but then again the pre amp is the one component used each and every time music is played. I suspect there may be no clear answer, but very conscious that I know very little about electronics and how the different boxes interfere with one another. Equally, I don’t want to be disconnecting/ taking down/ re-assembling and reconnecting boxes - I’m far too lazy for that!
The real world impinges on audiophile theory once again!
I would not be surprised if some distance between phono stage and pre-amp and/or between phono stage and its own power supply would help keep any hum away and would generally get the noise floor down. However, that’s a guess from an amateur and best tested by giving one or two options a try.
After a bit of trial and error, you might even end up (as others have done) with the 552 on top and with the phono stage power supply on the floor somewhere out of the way.
Is it worth having the phono amp supply underneath the 500 head unit. That way everything above has no power supply attached.
The 552 should be below the CD555 with a spare shelf underneath as you say.
Look I am not an expert but it makes sense to give the 552 space and I have done the same. And others often have the Radikal under the 500 head unit. It’s a mix of how it sounds and if it looks right.
I seem to have thwarted myself on that front also! The left stack is in danger of becoming a ‘wibbly wobbly wonder’ as each of the boxes on the lower shelves - power amp, phono power supply and the phono amp itself - all require intermediate legs as a minimum to allow the shelf above to clear them. Hopefully they are ‘breathing’ a little more easily with this and my inclination is very marginally swaying towards having the spare standard shelf between phono and phono power supply. But I am not at all certain if this is better than deploying space above/ below the pre-amp!
