I just bought a DW Fearn VT-1 (yay!) and I’m trying to figure out how to integrate it into my studio in a purely physical sense.

The manual says there should be one empty rackspace both above and below the unit. I can do this if necessary, but it will require some finagling and re-racking of existing stuff. Two possible cheats would make things easier, and I’d love some advice as to whether either is advisable.

Cheat #1 would be to put a Furman power conditioner under the Fearn at the bottom of a rack. The Furman, which is only about 3.75 inches deep, would overlap with the bottom vents of the Fearn by a little less than 2 inches, leaving about 4.5 inches of unobstructed vent.

Cheat #2 would be to place the Fearn in the bottom space of the rack. This is an SKB rack with corrugated top and bottom panels. This would mean none of the air vents would be obstructed, but there would be only about 5/8 to 1 inch of vertical space beneath the unit, as opposed to about 2.5 inches of space beneath the unobstructed portion of the vents in Cheat #1 .

Would either of these be safe? Does one sound safer than the other? Should I just bite the bullet and move some things around?

Sorry if this comes across as comically OCD, but I just spent quite a bit of coin for this thing and I want to be good to it.

Thanks!

Congratulations on acquiring the best preamp in the industry. VT-1s don’t get very hot. I wouldn’t worry about leaving space below. Just make sure the vents on the top aren’t blocked. It doesn’t need a whole rack space clearance.

I would also not worry too much about having a rack space under your VT-1 occupied. I have a similar issue with one of my rack cabinets and i can confirm only leaving 1 space above the preamp is more than enough ventilation for the VT-1

Fearn is a great preamp, its very clear with a saturation that is hard to describe lol. Its there but its not there