I really need to consider new supports - curretnly I have an old 3 tier Sound Organisation rack which has LP12 on top, Nova on middle shelf, NAP 250 botton shelf and HiCaps on the floor beneath. The NAC 282, Linn Lingo/Linto are on a cheap Ikea occasional table with an underhanging shelf where the Linn equipment resides. I have a horrendous 6 or 7 tier tubular metal rack in the garage with glass shelves which worked after a fashion but I never really liked it and footfall cause the table to move more due to the height (should wall mount but may not be easy).
I downloaded the setup/product PDF and this suggests an upgrade path on a tier by tier basis - now to my eyes the cut of the shelf for the Fraim Lite is quite different (squared at the back) to the Fraim shelves which are curved.
Is this suggesting that due to certain common components you could replace the Lite shelf alone with a Fraim shelf, then buy the cups/ball bearings and glass to upgrade that tier? Or is it simply saying if you have a Fraim Lite you could buy a full Fraim tier and slot it in with Lite tiers? Suspect the latter.
Also, are spares freely available for the supports between tiers - say you decided you need a larger height or change of colour - can you modify an existing Fraim level to suit?
Is a base level essential or simply desirable if funds are tight?
You can mix Fraim and Lite. You can add glass and balls to Lite but it doesn’t have the cutouts for the cups or the little pin at the back to stop the glass sliding backwards. You can buy new legs and just the wooden part of Fraim. The base is part of the design and Fraim works best with it.
If cash is limited the best solution is second hand Fraim. My base and four levels cost me £1,250.
I’ve just ordered a Fraim Base + 5 Levels + 1 (top) Lite Level. I just didn’t fancy the idea of my deck on the glass/ball bearings - full Lite shelf at the top feels a bit more ‘secure’. I’m sure it will still be better overall than the Isoblue rack it is replacing - even if it is not as ‘good’ as it could be.
I was advised that the base level - particularly the full Fraim version - is a very important part of the whole.
Thanks - but that is a no no for the lady of the house - and actually I used to have one years ago and I did not notice any difference when the deck moved to the rack.
I seem to remember someone from Naim saying the MDF was different for Lite and FF Fraim, or am I imagining it?
I mix the two too and use old lite shelves as the bottom shelf of the bases because I’m too tight to see them go to waste and a couple of glass and ball sets gave me two more FF shelves. It’s hard to think it makes much difference but that goes for a lot of things that do.
Another question - how rigid should a Fraim be - I saw one recently which visibly wobbled when I nudged one of the upper tiers - perhaps that’s how it should be but I can’t glean that from the downloaded info.
Is it something that should ideally be set up by your dealer?
I seem to remember someone from Naim saying the MDF was different for Lite and FF Fraim, or am I imagining it?
I mix the two too and use old lite shelves as the bottom shelf of the bases because I’m too tight to see them go to waste and a couple of glass and ball sets gave me two more FF shelves. It’s hard to think it makes much difference but that goes for a lot of things that do.
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I’ve been on Naim’s band-wagon for nearly seven years and I enjoy the Naim Sound whatever that is. Point being, I trust Focal/Naim’s engineers and research development that is responsible for that Naim Sound that we constantly tweak and upgrade! With that being said, this is Naim’s take:
""For entry-level Naim Audio systems, our FraimLite features the same tripod-style configuration, carefully optimised shelf spacing and high-quality material construction of our reference-quality Fraim.
It retains the cup-and-cone interface system used by its bigger brother too, but omits the dual layer base and ball-bearing decoupled glass shelf. Reference Fraim levels can be incorporated into the same system as FraimLite so that you can upgrade to our top of the range equipment support on a level-by-level basis.""
Personally I prefer Naim’s Fraim as opposed to their entry-level. I would imagine, a keen sense of hearing would be necessary to distinguish the difference between Fraim & Fraimlite.
Not being born with a silver spoon I chose the latter!
I have Fraim bases and levels for gear (two stacks). I use Fraimlite levels to top the stacks. On one I put nothing (no room to). On the other I have a small record rack.
