Now I’m at a full 500 series system my dealer is telling me the last step of the journey is to “upgrade” my current Isoblue rack (which has grown with me from my XS system) to full fat Fraim.
Unlike electronics this is much more difficult to home demo before deciding on whether or not to make the change/investment.
Has anyone made this change ? Can you offer any insight as to its impact ?
If you had something other than Isoblue I’d say do it without hesitation. But Isoblue is excellent and in some ways possibly better. I swapped from Fraim to Isoblue and it certainly didn’t sound worse. Keep the money and have a nice holiday.
Work out the cost of Fraim for your present system.
Consider what else you might do… with the same money… 
[Isoblue User]
Your system looks great in the system pics topic. I’d certainly not replace the rack. Have you considered going active with the titans?
Aye, I admit to a quick look too, 2 bases, 7 shelves IIUC. I didn’t do the sums. I’d leave as-is too. But then I don’t own such an awesome setup as the OP!
One possible way to get a feel for the Fraim is to test maybe just your source on a Fraim vs Isoblue. This was how I discovered that the Fraim was quite a bit better than Quadraspire I was using. I also had a 3 tier Mana table as well. In fact he Mana was marginally better sounding than Fraim with my CDP555. The Mana was just a bit to ‘hair shirt’ and impractical, so went for the Fraim but it was pretty easy just to move the CD player from one rack to the other to listen to the differences. If it works on one thing it should work on all was basically my thought!
Thanks all. There was a generous discount/trade in but it was still north of £5K to change. My instinct was not to bother but as Fraim is so lauded on here I thought I’d at least as for opinion/previous experience of making such a change.
Trust your instinct! As well saving money you’ll save a lot of time on setup and subsequent dusting. Isoblue is much easier to live with.
If you are seriously thinking about it you might want to taje a look on the fishy forum as one for sale.
Plus you will save £1000’s on new price and then might just be worth doing over what you have now, but i certainly wouldn’t pay new price for it
I’ve lived with both, Isoblue is easier on the eye and easier to clean and adjust as needed.
Fraim is designed for the job but it’s a fiddly faff if you need to move it about or clean it.
Trust your ears and wallet and (probably) not worry about it as others rightly highlight!
There’s nothing wrong with your rack, I’d keep it and use the money for new music or a trip. I had a fraim and found the SQ benefits to be largely exaggerated when compared to similar hifi racks. It’s a nice looking piece of furniture though. I’d definitely consider s/h if you’re going that route.
Go for the Fraim. It far out classes any rack that’s on offer in terms of a ‘full Naim’ system. It can truly breathe…a sigh of relief 
Having owned both Fraim and Isoblue, that simply isn’t the case. As I recall, you’ve not owned Isoblue, so any comments are merely speculation and, perhaps, an excessively pro-Naim bias.
Each to their own of course but IMO Fraim is far nicer to look at than the isoblue which I’ve always thought looks odd. I’d also be surprised if the thing actually designed to work with Naim boxes sounded inferior to isoblue but as I’ve not owned isoblue I can’t say for sure.
You’ve certainly been around the blocks. Enjoy 
For that money , having your system, I would go for an Etheregen switch with Sean Jacobs ps and Chord M6 powerblock into Chord signature x cable. Around 4k. Would give a much greater upgrade than going from Isoblue to Fraim. IMO.
My dealer was very dismissive of the Chord power blocks, and says the MusicWorks is far better. Worth trying both.
In the case of @Buryfc that still equates to at least a £6541 experiment at new retail prices, less used of course but still in to the thousands so not something to do on a whim (based on 2 bases + 7 levels at standard height 115mm legs).
Might be worth a trip to a credible Naim 500 Series dealer that stocks Isoblue but likely has Fraim onsite also, Cymbiosis springs to mind as one example.
Fat Fraim looks better, it’s a nice piece of furniture.
