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I have heard with high powered stereo components it is unwise to stack gear on top of each other due to EMI. Is this a concern with low powered headphone gear? The gear I would be stacking is JDS Labs Atom + Topping D10S. Also if stacking is okay, which unit should go on top?
100% BS. It's more about heat dissipation rather than EMI. DACs normally run cooler than headphone amps therefore, the headphone amp should be placed on top of the DAC for better heat dissipation. It's important to have enough clearance in the form of the rubber feet between the stack as to not cause heat transfer from amp to DAC
I have heard with high powered stereo components it is unwise to stack gear on top of each other due to EMI. Is this a concern with low powered headphone gear? The gear I would be stacking is JDS Labs Atom + Topping D10S. Also if stacking is okay, which unit should go on top?
Sometimes the rubber feet may not be tall enough. I use 1/2 inch thick acrylic bars for stacking
things that get hot for more airflow. The gear I have used this technique on is full 19" rack mount
stuff so YMMV. I thought it looked cool and it really worked well. I know stacks are considered cool
but mounting side by side may be ideal in some cases. Especially when both units get warm.
Be a rebel...resist the stacking lemmings!
I have heard with high powered stereo components it is unwise to stack gear on top of each other due to EMI. Is this a concern with low powered headphone gear? The gear I would be stacking is JDS Labs Atom + Topping D10S. Also if stacking is okay, which unit should go on top?
Apart from the heat which shoudn't be much of a problem neither in an headphone amp nor, even less, in a dac, the shielding of the units might be taken into consideration: is it in a metal case or in a plastic case. Metal cases are grounded (to signal ground) and thus short induced currents to ground. Plastic cases don't do that. Nonetheless, an amp or a dac in a plastic case may be sufficently shielded if it's constructed well and has e.g. a groundplane. (If you've still got noise after having put them them in a rack, a solution might be simply adding a ground plane between them, but i guess, it won't be necessary.)
I have heard with high powered stereo components it is unwise to stack gear on top of each other due to EMI. Is this a concern with low powered headphone gear? The gear I would be stacking is JDS Labs Atom + Topping D10S. Also if stacking is okay, which unit should go on top?
I stack a Topping D50s on top of a JDS Atom Amp without any problems.
All things being equal I would stack the amp on top of the DAC, but that simply wouldn't work with my set up - nor I suspect with yours. The D10s is bigger than the D50s, but as @jimbob54's says above, the Atom benefits from a bit of weight on top.