Best way to arrange rack gear?

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riverdragon

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I'm trying to plan out a rack system and have a few questions as far as placement of the different components. The setup will include:
Egnater M4 (2 spaces)
Randall RT 2/50 (2 spaces)
Rocktron Xpression (1 space)
Korg DTR-2000 or 1000 (1 space)
Furman PL-8 II Power Conditioner (1 space)
Some type of 2-3 space drawer
How should I arrange these within the rack? Should the power conditioner, preamp and power amp have a space between them for heat dissipation or can they be right on top of each other?
 
I have a pretty similar rack set up to yours. I have in mine:

A Behringer rack tuner
My wireless receiver
Randall RM4
Rocktron Expression
VHT 2/50/2

1. Let me warn you, your rack is going to be HEAVY! I originally was going to put in a rack drawer too, but after feeling the weight of the rack with all of the items above in it, I couldn't stand the idea of adding another 20 lbs or so to it.

2. I put the tuner at the top because it has lights intended to illuminate everything below. Trust me, you will need that light on some stages!

3. Except for the tuner (because of the lights), everything is placed in the order of the signal path: wireless - preamp- effects - power amp. This will help with the connections in the back of the rack; you don't want a bunch of cables crisscrossing each other if you can help it, one cable going from one rack item to the next item below it will help keep things clean back there. Believe me, even a "clean" rack has enough cable spaghetti going on back there, so don't make it worse than it has to be! Also, you want your power amp to be on the bottom since it will be the heaviset piece in there and you don't want your rack to be top heavy.

4. Most folks do not leave spaces in there racks for heat purposes, but I DO! I guess I'm paranoid. I even left a half space under the power amp in the bottom of the rack so air could circulate under there. I put furniture pads under the power amp at the back end to support it since its not laying on the bottom of the rack. I also mounted some brackets into the sides of the rack to help support the back end of the RM4, since it is pretty heavy as well. I have seen bent/broken rack ears before, so I try to lend extra support to the back end of the heavier units. If you leave no spaces in the rack, I guess this sort of thing is unnecessary, since all of the gear is laying on top of each other, but I was too worried about heat build up to do that.

Anyway, those are my thoughts -- hope it was helpful.

Gary
 
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