We’re having a new home built. Both my wife and the builder want the hi fi boxes inside of a ‘closet’ that he’s happy to custom build. Personally, I would be happy to recover the floor space lost to 2 racks of Fraim. As in our current home, there will be a fireplace on an outer wall and the natural place for the speakers will on either side. But if I don’t have to take up so much volume with 2 racks of Fraim next to one of the speakers…fine with me!
Any of you with this type of arrangement? Any photos? If he can find the space, which I think he can, he can build whatever we want. Can have nice doors (that won’t jar and thus skip an LP), nice lighting, and we can run conduit for speaker cables. And run ethernet in.
I’ve not measured the length of the run to the far speaker; is there a max length??
I’m planning on doing something similar myself with timber framed glass doors so you can still see the system, but the Fraim and components will be encased in a cabinet. I have seen others do this on here, with the top of the unit removable so the shelves can be removed for rebuilding the Fraim.
Some sort of glass door might be a nice touch. But since the tt is probably one of the few pieces that still requires “hands on” have you considered a wall shelf for the tt just outside a closet. Granted that cable should be kept relatively short, but if planned for in advance (?). Also may have to have some sort of repeater/receiver out in the open so remote controls will still operate.
From what I have researched clear glass should work okay with remotes, frosted or smoked glass won’t work as well. I would move my CDS3 to a wall shelf and the LP12 is on a turntable shelf as it is.
Not Fraim and no pics, but about 25 years ago I put a Sound Organisation rack inside a cupboard jointly to make it toddler-proof and reduce sound energy from the speakers only a couple of feet away. I used a holesaw to make oversized holes in tge cupboard base shelf, so the rack was still spiked direct to floor while also not affecting cupboard rigidity. Took cut away a large area of the flimsy reat panel, allowing airflow via the inch or so gap to wall, and easy cable routing. Cupboard walls, doors and shelf above the rack lined with sound deadening non reflective material. Worked fine, though the TT was a tad awkward to access.
I’ll have to build in a spot for the tt inside; right now it’s happy on top of Fraim and I’m sure it’ll be happy in a closet that way too.
Volume control via system automation and the Naim app is pretty good. I don’t use a remote for input selection or anything other than volume control, so I’m not too worried about the IR getting in there. But there are solutions for that if needed.
Just out of interest …If the hifi electronics (source and amps etc) were in a completely different room, with the speaker cables fed through into the “listening room”; would it make any difference what the equipment was sat on (next door)?
They certainly wouldn’t be affected by any sound waves or vibration.
Equally, if it’s in a cabinet, perhaps the same applies?
I had a similar need when we moved to our current home, although the rack in question isn’t a Fraim. My solution was to install my existing pair of Sound Factory Tripod racks and have a custom cabinet built in situ around them. The cabinet doesn’t touch the racks at any point, and the top and side panels are removable, for access.
The two photos are from 12 years ago (the fig tree is now about three times the size, and is big enough to support my indoor antenna), but the fundamental setup is unchanged. Some minor refinements include adding Dedshete to the inside of the right side panel and the underside of the top, to absorb and dampen vibration, and replacing the 80s style floor screws with upside down Fraimchips.
If you look closely you can see sheets of glass on most of the shelves. These are 10mm toughened glass on tiny ceramic “ball nutters” (vertical space is very restricted), with the existing fibreboard shelves separated from the frame members by more ceramic balls, which sit snugly in existing pre-drilled holes. This has been one of the most cost-effective upgrades I’ve ever made.
I occasionally hanker after a Fraim. I’ve never heard one, or even seen one in the flesh, so I know it only by reputation. Aside from the expense, getting one would mean demolishing the cabinet and taking up an appreciably bigger chunk of the floor, which would be problematic, as I’m already constrained by an open stairwell, which is just out of the shot on the right.
Aside from all that, this has been a good solution, and I’d recommend it, although the custom cabinetry (solid walnut) isn’t cheap. If I was doing it again the only change I’d make is to add a few inches of clearance at the back. I had it built long before I knew the value of cable dressing, and getting at the back of the lower boxes is challenging. The only way for me to get anything close to optimal cable dressing is to rebuild the stacks from scratch, and carefully dress the cables as each stack rises. I’ve done this a few times, and it takes at least six hours, and is exhausting.
Purely out of curiosity, why do you feel it is natural for a fireplace to be central in front of you, which is what this implies? In days of old, before TVs and music systems, the fireplace was the focal point, but it needn’t be. In so many homes I’ve seen positioning of other things compromised by the existence of a fireplace (e.g. a TV too high on the wall above fireplace), caused by the fact of the fireplace’s existence and other limitations of the room.
Ignoring a TV or projector screen, to me a more a natural focal point than a fire is a large window with a nice view, whether garden or further, so you enjoy that from where you sit . If a projection screen is wanted it can double as a blind in front of window. Just an observation. (pun not intended!)
Having a home built to my requirements is a long standing dream of mine, unfortunately not likely to be realised due to unavailability if suitable land where we want to live. (A purpose-built music room with due attention to acoustics would be a key part if we ever were to do i!) All the best for yours!
Given that you’re having the house built to your requirements, my approach would be to avoid a cupboard/closet arrangement, as I think the doors would provide limited sound/vibration isolation. I’d put the rack in a separate room with a wall in between. All you need is speaker cables running through the dividing wall. OK, so for vinyl you would also need an interconnect running to a turntable, perhaps on a wall shelf well away from the speakers.
Putting the rack in a different room like this means that:
You won’t hear any humming PSUs
The system will be well isolated from vibrations caused by the speakers
The rack doesn’t intrude into the living space, or require doors leading off it that eat up wall space.
I would guess that you’d still get some benefit from using your Fraim. Big PSUs certainly vibrate audibly, so I presume isolating them from the delicate source/preamp boxes would be beneficial.
In the old Naim demo room, there were Naim Fraim stacks built into cupboards. I never took any pictures though, but perhaps a member here reading this did so and can post here?
The max length would depend on the diameter of your wire. As @Suedkiez already pointed out, for NAC A5 (12 AWG/4mm2) you shouldn’t really go over 20m as the signal loss could become audible. But if you get 10 AWG/6mm2 wire, that shouldn’t be until about 30m. I can’t imagine you’d need a longer length domestically.
@anon56221831 seems really pleased with the Blue Jeans one, he has the 12AWG, but they have the same wire in 10 AWG as well.
I dream of something like this where it can get out of the cavity easily for re-configuration. Alternatively, with dolly wheels a little like a fridge that can be jacked up and wheel out on demand; otherwise dropped and rests on spikes. Perhaps even a beefy computer server rack but of course they won’t provide the isolation nearly as well as a fraim would. @Bart, as you pointed out already, ventilation is definitely an important consideration.
I used to have my Naim equipment on quadraspire shelves inside a faux “Gents Linen Press”.
It had effectively no back to aid ventilation, a pull down front to access the power amps, large double doors to access the LP12 and CDS3 CD player and pre-amp, plus, storage for a few hundred CD’s.
The shelves were screwed to the wall so were well isolated. If I can find pictures, I’ll post them but it was over 6 years ago and the “Gents Press” is currently sitting in my garage!
