Racking Question

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Bob's Mods

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Is it possible for any rack mounted gear to cause another piece of rack gear to get noisey or behave funny because of heat buildup or some kind of raditation that might be occurring?

thanks,
Bob
 
Yes, it's possible for sure! Sometimes it's a good idea to leave a space above a real hot piece of gear or get it out of the rack away from everything else.

War
 
Heat build can cause weirdness, definitely. If you find that a particular piece of gear gets very hot, leave space above and below it in the rack, if possible. Above allows the heat to disperse.

Another option is to put a little fan on a hot piece of gear. I'm talking about those little personal fans that have clips on them. Put that in the back of the rack and set it up to blow on whatever piece is flaking out. That has helped me at times, although it certainly is better to set up the rack so that hot gear has enough space above and below it.

This is probably not related, but I use plastic/nylon washers when mounting my rack gear. Both between the gear and the rack rail, and between the unit and the screw holding it in the rack. In other words, the nylon washers go on both sides of the faceplate. This isolates the gear from the rack, and from any other gear in the rack.

The nylon washers also prevent rack rash!
 
SonicAlbert said:
This is probably not related, but I use plastic/nylon washers when mounting my rack gear. Both between the gear and the rack rail, and between the unit and the screw holding it in the rack. In other words, the nylon washers go on both sides of the faceplate. This isolates the gear from the rack, and from any other gear in the rack.

The nylon washers also prevent rack rash!
Click to expand...

Excellent idea.. Thanks!
 
I should also mention that the nylon washers I use have a little ridge around the hole in the center. I forget exactly what these are called, they have a special name. I think middle Atlantic makes them. The lip holds the gear in place, off the rack screw.
 
If the offending gear has an internal power supply, the transformer can actually radiate EMI. The voltage set up/down conversion is induced between two core windings without physical connection. If the transformer of one unit lines up with a sensitive section of the audio path within a second... this energy can also be introduced into the signal path.

If rack space is at a premium, this can often be resolved by moving the problem unit to a new location in the rack where it's neighboring components are less susceptible to this EMI due to a different physical layout within their cases.
 
Bob's Mods said:
or some kind of raditation that might be occurring?
Click to expand...

If thats the case your sound isnt the only thing you should be worrying about
:rolleyes:
 
On the transformers, I found that on 2 of my preamps, if I turned the transformer a few degrees the noise would go away. The transformers are inline and sitting on a shelf under my rack and just moving or turning them a few degrees either way eliminated the noise.
Peace......................
Kel (the bewildered)
 
Wall wart and lump in the line power supplies can cause a *lot* of hum. It's best to keep them as far from audio cables as possible. I've had experience with this, and the Alesis external power supplies are some of the worst when it comes to putting hum into audio lines.
 
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