I’m a little confused, how does a shelf slide off and fall onto a metal cup? Do you mean the ones at the top of the stanchions, or the ball bearing cup. For inner shelves I don’t see how it can happen either way. For a top shelf with glass, I suppose it could happen if the front of the shelf slides sideways and drops on a ball bearing cup as it slides way. Is that what you mean? If so, maybe that’s the only place one would ever need the plastic guides.
Anyway, I think most (or at least many here on the forum) don’t bother with them. It certainly doesn’t hurt to use them of course.
As i have posted before about the fraim rack, it certainly rings, as just clap next to it, or shout, and you will hear it.
But the naim boxes also ring, especially the 500 series finish, and i think it’s all suppose too, as it makes it sound more alive and fast, which it seams to like.
This is fine for naim, but not great for other gear. Turntables generally don’t like it much, my dcs kit certainly likes my new rack much better, but glass generally is not the best thing if you are trying to dampen things, but as said, i don’t think naim was trying to dampen things, instead quite the opposite.
Oh, fair enough. Interesting, that it’s not a problem I’ve ever had. I have eight glass shelves and none are chipped, except on the front where my dog banged the front of a shelf into the stanchion (solved by my rubber bumpers). I turned those around so the chips are at the rear and not noticable.
I’ve had my Fraim now for five years, and the glass has slided forward off the rear ball many times for various shelves, but hasn’t ever chipped. No chips from cables either (which the guides won’t prevent anyway).
Is it enough to just use the plastic guides on the rear balls, so one doesn’t notice them at the front, or do you use them for all three?
I wonder how many have this problem? Yours is the first I’ve heard of it.
The height of the delivered boxed up full Fraims is about 2mts, NOT the finished set up.
From L to R, brain, braun, standard lamp, bookcase, not negotiable and wall, also not nogotiable. The final frontier.
LP12 at chest height on repositioned wall shelf: all the rest Fraimed below.
Which ever the way I look and listen to it I am a happy hi-fi bunny.
Oh, well, yeah. Those boxes are twice as high as the finished shelves.
I bought five shelves originally and looks like I have 10 of those plastic guides, and a template for placing them on the front. I am half tempted to use them on the back. It’s annoying when I insert a cable and forget to brace the component. LOL. Maybe next time I do a rebuild.
Right now I have my turntable sitting on top of the brain rack, with an isoAcoustics Delos platform. It’s about waist height, just out of range from my Rottie’s big tail.
Later this year I plan to move it all from a second floor listening room, to the living room. At that point I will attach my Solidsteel turntable wall shelf again. It’s a bit of a fuss because I have to drill into plaster on brick, and cement bolt anchors into the wall.
I’ve had Fraim for >10 years now and only ever had shelf movement and ball bearing loss down the back when rebuilding without the slow and careful placement of each level. I don’t use the self adhesive locators.
My biggest headache with Fraim has been the fore & aft placement of non-Naim boxes to ensure a big enough gap to accommodate cables around the rear leg. This has resulted in my Aura needing to go on the top shelf and KRad2 having to be slightly forward of front shelf alignment. Not an earth shattering matter though.
Good luck in your Fraim lite → FFF deliberations and investment. Your 500 level system deserves it.
What’s the hive mind consensus on leg heights vs adding an additional shelf to put some air/space between black boxes?
The reason I ask is that my thinking was to add some empty Fraim Lite shelves to put space between boxes. Is there any negative impact of using a Fraim Lite as a “spacer” shelf?
If for example, you look at the marketing material for Series 200, they have an empty shelf underneath the NSC 222, but it’s a Fraim with glass and balls and nothing on it!
Just a query which probably hasn’t been tried.
If you had a full fat Fraim for the Brains & the lite for the Braun.
Do you think you would get the same uplift in sound quality as using two full Fraims.
As I would think it’s only the Brains that would need the best isolation.
Actually you have music signals going into your 552 PS through the Burndy even though it being a “power supply” so I would say all boxes benefit from it but individually not up to the same level.
Resetting your Fraim is a project. Adding the glass and balls is a nice upgrade. Just do it while you are young enough to enjoy it. I adopted the Fraim in 2013 and reset it completely in 2021. I erred on the side of making it too tight, but it loosened up to sound great. The whole reset takes more effort than I would have imagined but it sounds great now. I had a pair of high school students to help. Help makes all the difference.
I have a half 500 series system, so have a half full Fraim set up
The 552 is on a full Fraim base. The other five boxes are on a Fraim Lite, but I’ve added as a DIY glass shelves with stainless steel nuts and ball bearings.
I’m quite happy with the set up and it sounds delightful.
So without wishing to over complicate this, for someone like me that also has a mix of FFF and FL, how much of the sound improvement of the FFF to you guys attribute to the double base level that comes with full fat, and how much to the extra glass isolation? The reason I ask is because I currently have FFF shelves on a FL base and I wonder if I’m losing much by doing it that way?
Thanks!
