Racking order....?

Just get all three boxes separated and you will be fine. Don't bother with glass, balls and so on, but put the money towards a decent stand. 

I agree with HH, don't spend money on glass if you are soon going to replace with a good rack.  Use the glass and balls only if you are committed, for some reason other than sonics, to your existing furniture.  Know, however that you will probably not get the best performance with what you have (I have not seen it, or heard it - obviously).  In my opinion, a proper rack will deliver a similar sonic upgrade per cost as does a black box upgrade.  Try to listen to your same kit on Fraim at a dealer, if that is possible (speakers maybe a challenge, though).

Charlie

Or on Isoblue, Hutter, Quadraspire SVT.....

I have almost the same setup, on a slightly modified ikea Corras (ie cheap but usually seen as half decent to use as a rack, as cheap furniture goes). Until recently I had the 250 on the bottom, 172 above that, then a Fono mini and a network switch, then turntable on top.

Not long ago I swapped the 172 and Fono mini shelves around to try to put a bit more distance between the 172 and the big transformer in the 250 (ie with the Fono mini on the shelf between the 172 and 250), and noticed a slight improvement.

Basically you want a decent vertical gap between the preamp/streamer and the power amp. Or if they're next to each other horizontally, then you want the 172 to be to the left of the 250, since the transformer is on the right hand side of the 250 case as you look at it from the front.  Any amount of distance between the components will likely be better than having them sitting on each other.

Posh racks may be great value, but nothing wrong with trying to optimise what you have for free by moving bits around, or cheaply by trying glass etc. So long as you don't pay too much. I tried a glass shelf on ball nuts beneath my 172 and decided I wasn't keen on it, so it's now sitting under my (only occasionally used) turntable because I think it looks nice.  I won't be in a position to accommodate or spend much on a rack for some time, so it was worth a go.

Many thanks for the advice. I can now get a good good gap between pre and power so hopefully I will notice some improvement when rearranged. HH basically confirmed my thoughts and very much appreciate Dave***T's comments having such a similar setup to mine. I will keep pre on top, power at the bottom and Fono in between.....time for some tinkering methinks :-)

Can you get the phono stage further away from the power amp? This, and it's lead from your TT, are the most sensitive areas, best kept away from mains leads, amps and power supplies if you can. Easier said than done, but worth experimenting with if you can.

Some turntable wall shelves have a smaller shelf underneath for the phono stage, which is an effective solution, although to my mind, looks very messy.

Yes I can Chris. I can probably mount it somewhere under the TT shelf.....as neatly as possible!!  Thanks again