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!
At first I was assuming I didn’t – could do slide-out shelving or something. But then I thought the easiest thing might be to just put the whole thing inside a closet. No clear answer in my mind.
It’s just room layout; the fireplace will be on the wall that is facing into the room the ‘long way’ – the way we’ll live in it. We need the fireplace there due to overall layout of the home. It’s a combination kitchen / family room open space, and when we’re in the kitchen end we like to hear music. So if the speakers are not on either side of the fireplace, they’ll be firing the ‘short way’ and at 90 degrees to where we’ll be. Not a travesty, but I’d rather have the speakers firing at us than not.
I echo @ChrisSU. I place my racks in the lobby to the stairs to the winter bedroom. I do have a rack under the stairs as well for the Unitiqutes, switch and music server.
A great question. I have thought about this. I seem to prefer to listen IN the home, in the living space, vs. in a more isolated space. Maybe akin to why I’m not a fan of headphone listening; I feel isolated.
We have a very large area that is below grade (“Basement”) that could contain a music / media room, but I dont want to go down there to listen to music in relative isolation.
Much of our music listening is while working in the kitchen; this obviously is not “critical listening.” But having the main hi fi where we can use it for kitchen listening, and also sit on a couch between the speakers when we want that critical listening experience, has always seemed preferable to me.
My second system (UnitiQute2 based) will be upstairs in my office/mancave space. That’s also a nice space, but not where I want the “big” system.
Paul McGowan, the founder of PS Audio suggests to unplug everything once a year and plug everything back in again will improve SQ. Also, tweaking, experimentation with different gear like cables, network switch, streamer, DAC, etc is much easier and tidier if the rack is like a pull out pantry.
We want this main living space to be free from tv/video; tv/video is relegated to dedicated ‘watching’ spaces; another “den” in the rear of the home (where we can entertain guests who come over to watch American football and eat our food, with a door to a patio where we’d smoke cigars, except that I hate smoke), and my office/mancave upstairs.
As this photo shows, the door to the stair lobby is between the speakers. The speakers’ cable goes through the wall behind each speaker, as do the internet / IR control cables that go back to the network switch under the stairs.
The downside is that if I wanted to add another amplifier I would have to trail the cable over the door jamb rather than under the floor as now. All this despite installing conduit fasciae behind each speaker (active Ovator 600 with 4x135s).
Something else to consider, is how often do you change /service equipment? It’s nice to “design” a space that just fits your system, but will changes or servicing need to be done, can it accommodate future changes ? I know this from my fathers h.h. Scott system built into a false wall , looked super-cool, but reliability and improving audio meant it was obsolete and not readily changeable or even useable.
@benjy Yes; this is why I’m leaning more towards a general use space that can house the rack(s), vs something more customized. At a 500-level system now, the only direction I could envision moving is to a lower boxcount alternative. There’s a reason you see discussion of high-end integrateds here from time to time! Or maybe Naim will actually do a 2-box ‘mini Statement’ in 2021!
Once it’s all set up, I dont need to get behind it very often however!
