You can try this at home.

Posted by: Vik on 02 October 2000

Well at least I had to, because there was no more space for another Mana.

I've a Mana 6-tier and a Phase 3. On the Phase 3 sits the CDS1.

Up until last week, the rest of the equipment was placed like this:-
1)NAT02 (topmost level)
2)NAC 32.5
3)CDPS
4)SUPERCAP
5)135
6)135.(nearest the floor)

In being denied the space for another Ref Table for the CDPS, I REVERSED the order of equipment like so :-
1)NAT02 (topmost level, no change)
2)135
3)135
4)SUPERCAP (no change)
5)NAC 32.5
6)CDPS.(nearest the floor)

The improvements were staggering. As an ex-82 owner my feeling is the changes approach an upgrade of the 32.5 to a 102.

It's essentially a source down approach treatment for component placement - with respect to rigidity. In other words, the nearer the bottom, the more stable.

Hope it works a treat for you too.

Best to all,
Vik..

[This message was edited by Vik on TUESDAY 03 October 2000 at 15:59.]

Posted on: 03 October 2000 by Darren Miller

I found the exact opposite effect - though with completely different and fewer components.

102
Hi-Cap
250

sounded much better than

250
Hi-Cap
102

Regards

Darren Miller

Posted on: 03 October 2000 by Former member

Vik,

Something else must have changed along with your reconfiguration as it can't be a good idea to sandwich your 32.5 (why are you an ex-82 owner?) between 2 whopping power transformers.

I have a 5-Tier Mana, and I have configured my bits in the following manner:

82 (top level)
blank
Armageddon & NAPSC
Hicap x 2
250 (bottom level)
CD2 on a separate Mana Table
LP12 on Mana Shelf

When I get my 135s, I'll move the lower bits up one level and Reference Top the 82 to get it away from the 6 transformers below.

James

Posted on: 03 October 2000 by Former member

There is always a logical explanation for 'improvements' of this sort.
Sometimes they are simply due to your state of mind on a particular day - you feel good, so your system sounds good.

But, Vic, I presume that you disconnected all your cables during this change-around.
Inserting and removing Din and phono connectrs cleans them.

Suddenly your system sounds better as if by magic.

Rob.

Posted on: 03 October 2000 by John G.

Vik,

Glad your rig is sounding better. I was wondering if you re-tuned the Mana before doing the reconfiguration or was this not neccessary?

Cheers,
John

Posted on: 03 October 2000 by Vik

Darren, James, Rob and John....

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify things. I'm sure others are feeling the same way as you are.

Believe me, nothing else has changed.

In fact - I have not retuned the Mana, which was already optimised.

My contact points are unscrewed and re-screwed to clean them - as Naim suggests, the frequency being the 1st day of every 2 months.

One of the resons why I tried this is because (it was explained in the old Conference) that the magnetic fields travel more horizontally, than vertically. So sandwiching them is not a problem. Besides, the platforms between Mana racks are very close to each other. Last year when I was in a far bigger house I took the liberty of sprawling the equipment around, as far as the leads would allow.... Really, not much diff for me - and I'm a pretty exacting person in these things.

The one thing I have not done yet is to isolate the cables. Let me explain. The 6 tier is close to the back wall. To avoid cable from touching each other, I run them through little 3M stick-on the wall sockets - and even then, space those out as well, from each other WITHOUT tensioning the cable. So there is room for improvement (to be done soon).

Lastly, I waited at least a week for consistent results before I presented it to the Forum.

That said, I fully accept Darren's results. I think it's important he wrote them too.

It just worked for me, and there's a possibility it could work for others.

Best,
Vik.

Posted on: 04 October 2000 by Martin Payne

Vik,

it's my understanding that the fields from transformers are concentrated in a vertical direction, not horizontal.

It is recommended to place items side-by-side rather than above-and-below for this reason.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 05 October 2000 by Former member

Hi Vik,

The lower the component on the Mana stand the better it will work. However, it will vary from set-up to set-up as to whether the whole system will work better. This could explain why Darren found the reverse effect.

Determining what is the best layout is a time consuming process and obviuosly one you want to try out. I am too lazy and would wait until I could buy another soundstage and have every component on the rack working better!

Ian