Given that you have roots in Europe… Do the only right thing and move and you will avoid all the problems with Focal NA 
Or I could do the other right thing. Sell all my Naim and buy American. 
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Read it first as you wrote; Sell my Naim and buy America…
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I think my Naim kit has more value.
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Talking about the frame… has anyone tested using oxidized aluminium plate instead of glass shelf? Same thickness 10mm.
When developing the Fraim, Naim tried a number of different materials for the shelves. IIRC, best of all was the very flat aluminium sheet metal that Naim used for the SL2 interface plates. These were actually used in the factory for setting and levelling the alloy feet on certain kit. Only problem was the cost - such perfectly flat aluminium was very expensive. The Pilkington glass that was eventually chosen was very nearly as good, more practical with much better supply, and and substantially less expensive
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And also provides good shielding between the components and the al oxide is much harder then glass so smaller contact area with metal balls and better vibration decoupling. Less resonant material than glass. A piece comes at about GBP 50, oxidized and anodized in black, like the 500 series. I think Naim can offer it as upgrade option, no?
You’d have to ask them, but I would doubt it. The aluminium sheet I refer to above was very specific - and very expensive. The small performance advantage wasn’t anywhere near big enough to justify its use.
Glass has never been great for hifi but it is flat and strong, plus you can get away with a small profile if needed.
It resonates like hell and is bad for vibrations. But naim found a way to use it, but everything i have placed on the fraim glass, thats not naim has sounded worse for it, especially a turntable.
I have my TT on top of my Fraim, but not sitting on glass. The top shelf is Fraimlite. That has a 17.5" x 19.5" x .75" shelf sitting on top. I put a HRS R3x Isolation Base on it and that’s what my turntable sits on. The HRS was factory-tuned for my turntable specifically.
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How do they accomplish that?
In the feet. They figure out the weight and the CG of the table and determine the ratings of the feet (and if spacers are needed). In my case they were off, only because they assumed a different orientation of the table than I actually use. All I had to do was change the feet between front and back (they had different compression).
This is what the product page for the R3X Isolation Base says…
LF: HRS Low Frequency Feet – Isolates component from below 10 Hz to above 40k Hz. Use for non-suspended turntables and when subsonic content is present and presents a potential feedback issue with the system. They are also used for custom applications where they provide additional sonic benefits. Custom setup is required for each component.
This thing is brilliant. It’s one of the best sonic upgrades I have ever done to a turntable. Bass response, soundstage, detail, everything improved once I added it. I had a isoAcoustics Delos base previously. That wasn’t even close.
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Nice!
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Its a bit like my turntable. It has a special base it sits on and this is tuned for the turntable.
It tuned to dial out a certain frequency.
Well, small performance here and there and it adds up and when we have spent a fortune already a few pounds for better shelf is a no brainer. Why having this forum if they dont listen what clients want in the end of the day we pay the bills.
Oddly enough, glass is not as consistently flat as you might think, hence why the super-flat alloy plates and not glass shelves are used by Naim for levelling up the kit with solid alloy feet.
When you say “glass has never been great for hifi”, I’m not sure I agree here as it has been used to great effect in a number of ways; Rega saw its advantages early on and used it (indeed, they still use it) for their turntable platters (and others such as Systemdek & Manticore then followed suit), and in racks, Mana Acoustics were notable is using glass very effectively. Indeed, the Mana reference table might still be the best way to support a Linn LP12 turntable.
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True, except it would not be a “few pounds”, it would be more like a few hundreds of pounds, and questions about commercial viability become impossible to ignore.
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Well you don’t see the hi end racks using glass as it certainly has a sound to it, and they try to produce a rack that is sonically natural.
As far as being flat then what is flat? it’s probably flatter than what wood is, plus it’s stable, and a bit 10mm think is very strong especially compared to wood.
But as i said, naim has found a way for it to work with it’s own boxes, but this isn’t ideal for other makes if you want them to sound as the manufacturer tuned them. But then obviously you might like what it does.
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Naim Fraim and SimRack spring to mind as high end racks.
DG…
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I’m sure it depends on the rack. Sound Organisation’s Sountstyle range of tripods all had glass shelves and indeed it made things sound a bit “splashy”. The regular ash shelves on the Sound Org racks sounded much better at half the price.
I am sure that rack design, like many things, doesn’t hinge on one particular engineering decision.