My Fraim and setup is in one corner of my room, and needs to be in the other. Pete at Acoustica set it up for me, and will be coming back soon - but in the meantime, how easy or not is it to move the full rack? Have moved the dedicated mains power sockets, so it’s the Fraim next.
4 shelves plus top.
Is there a recommended way - all gear disconnected from each other and off, or some disconnected but others not? Moving the Fraim - I assume dismantle and rebuild - and then refill and cable dress.
Or do I wait for Pete?! Generally fine with DIY but can see cups and balls and glass going everywhere…
Once empty of the hi fi boxes, and the glass and balls have been removed for safety and convenience, the individual levels are easy to just pick up and move.
This is a good time to check the tightness of each of the 3 legs of the Fraim levels. It’s interesting how some just seem to work themselves loose over time. Get out the little metal rod that came with the base and use it to tighten down the cones while ensuring that the legs are well aligned with the wood shelf. I do a ‘pretty firmly hand tight but don’t really crank is down as hard as you can’ tightness.
Plan ahead. Find where you’ll put the glass shelves to keep them safe, the metal balls so they won’t roll away, and be careful as the cones are sharp and can pierce furniture and scratch the floor.
If you have somewhere you can put a shelf down where neither it nor the surface will be damaged you can move it a shelf at a time to an intermediate stack, unloading as you go. Then move the base to the final position and rebuild it there, centring each shelf before loading it. If it’s been together for a while check the tightness as you go.
Pete at Acoustica also set up my Fraim in a corner
I then moved it myself after a few months
No issues at all as long as you take care not to send the little balls flying across the room and under a piece of furniture where you cannot get at them again.
It maybe looks a bit daunting before you start but as long as you keep checking the level as you reassemble each shelf there will be no problems
Dismantle each shelf by removing the glass, balls, cups and rear shelf pin, keep the 3 leg sections together.
Strip out all electronics and cabling as you go and set all parts aside safely.
Take time giving all the parts a tighten up, they do loosen off over time.
Pay particular attention on getting the two base shelves level, use a good spirit level and double check on your phone (iPhone has a compass/level app)
Get all 3 base spikes that connect to the floor or chips/equivalent to a level position then tighten off and check them again.
Once you have the base properly level it makes building the rest quicker and easier, don’t build the whole rack and then level it.
As you add each shelf you can verify the level again, tighten off the 3 corner spikes on the shelf if needed.
As you add a shelf add the equipment for that shelf and connect any cabling.
Check the rack as a whole again once it’s finished and do a final level check and adjustment if needed, hopefully not if you’ve done the double base properly.
Take your time, have a break or two as you go!
I’ve found things easier to only adjust the base spikes. Leave them loose until the rack is built, then final adjust, tighten accordingly, as in Richard’s guide.
Key thing being making sure it’s all level, I certainly found once the base was level the rest would typically follow suit. That and being patient, the glass is slippy on the balls for one.
thanks all. Since I hope he can be here in a few days, it seems like it’s one of those things that I could do, but which will take me a few hours, and which he’ll be able to do probably better and quicker… and since I need two of the legs changing, I’ll wait a bit…
A Fraim is not much more than a bit of overpriced Ikea tat that happens to work well anyway. Moving it is trivial, moving the equipment on it isn’t much harder; Mr M has described how to do it above. The idea that it needs a man in to do it is frankly ludicrous.
Well said straight to the point get on with it not difficult yes fraim is seriously overrated overpriced. I have fraims bought used on the bay cannot justify over £600 per shelf
Tbh I didn’t claim it was overrated; it does its job very well and does offer an improvement. It is massively overpriced for what it is.
There’s no reason for this. Every household has a suitable Fraim cups balls & pins receptacle - it’s called a tea cup, or a breakfast bowl, or a takeaway tub. Problem solved.
Start at the top. Carefully disconnect each lead and for each level as a lead becomes disconnected at both ends place it somewhere out of the way in a logical order with its siblings.
Place the black box on the floor out of the way, lift the glass shelf away and put it on a soft surface, with a towel or similar between each glass. Give it a clean while it’s out - the rubber feet on Naim boxes always leave a mark.
Carefully collect each cup & ball and the pin and drop it in your receptacle for safe keeping.
Lift the shelf away, check that the feet are still tight with the bar then put it out of the way.
Rebuilding is the reverse. Allow a couple of hours so you’re not rushing and to give time for all the cleaning and checking that leads are in the right place and the right way round, and it’s easy. And more importantly, satisfying. You want a job doing properly? Do it yourself.
yes fraim is seriously overrated overpriced. I have fraims bought used on the bay cannot justify over £600 per shelf