Can using an anti-vibration platform (such as FOS-7sl Ambipad) with Naim Uniti Nova improve the sound?
I have no experience with the product. Moreover your profile makes no mention of an equipment rack, if any. For me, I shy away from footers and/or platforms that were not part of my rack. I have found these products make the component sound different and not necessarily better. I have the most problem figuring out where to place footers and cones and ball bearing devices lastly will the feet on the Naim component—assuming there are feet—be compromised on any way? Proceed either with caution. Less may be more,
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Your question very much depends on what you have your equipment currently sitting on? If it has high mass then probably yes. If it’s a relatively light table or box then the effects will be a lot less.
Naim kit generally likes to be hard coupled to surfaces and tends to sound worse if you use some sort of compliant material i.e. soft coupling.
As a cheap test try a 400mmx300mm 9mm section of chipboard with four small wooden cupboard knobs as corner feet. It probably won’t cost you more than £10 to make. Put your kit on top and see what it sounds like.
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I had mine on a piece of 10mm toughened glass sitting on Naim cups and balls, definitely made an improvement to sound quality, more detail and a tighter bass. I did subsequently use the isolation platform on my NDX2 and didn’t hear any difference in sound.
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All such products have an unpredictable effect. You will only know by trying. If your Nova is already on a decent rack then I would just leave it alone.
Exactly my own experience too.
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I tried glass and Fraim cups and balls, and it made no appreciable difference. I also tried “everyone’s favourite” IsoAcoustics isolators and they ripped the sound apart. In the end I just left it on the little wooden table.
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Judging from the System Pics thread many people seem to do this if not using a dedicated rack. I’ve never really understood why. Perhaps they think it will make their equipment sound similar to being on Fraim? But the glass/cup/ballbearings is only one element of a fairly complex rack that has been engineered as a whole. Simply taking one aspect of it is unlikely to yield anything of any value in terms of improved sound as far as I can see.
Naim clearly disagree, as they recommend this as an alternative for those who don’t want Fraim.
It may well vary from box to box, as I used Fraim glass beneath a CDS2 on Isoblue and it made a nice difference. With the Nova, not so much. The CDS2 has hard metal feet while the Nova has domed rubber feet. For me, moving away from the multibox system enabled the use of a piece of furniture rather than a proper hifi rack, so adding glass etc and making it look more techy sort of defeats the point. But of course I tried it, because it’s what we do.
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I wasn’t aware of that and funnily enough I’ve heard the exact opposite expressed, ie. they don’t recommend it, though I can’t remember where I heard it.
It’s in the manual for some gear - New Classic, Nait 50. There’s no mention of it for the Unitis, but then they never had manuals, only quick start guides.
Fair enough and very interesting. All is forgiven then!
Who is the manufacturer of your toughened glass and what is the name of the model that you use?
Thanks
I sourced the toughened glass from a local glaziers, not aware of the make and the cups and balls are Naim
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From experience: if you try any such platform and judje that is either an improvement or otherwise, give it a good long audition - at least weeks, to hear if you really want to live with it. In my experience, compliant platforms (for example, with sorbothane) invariably rob music of dynamics and can even sound dull.
Naim use Pilkington 10mm toughened glass for Fraim shelves
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