I am planning to make some racks for (mainly) Naim boxes. Are there any drawings or plans anywhere showing the overall sizes of each box, and the placement of the feet?
I can, of course, measure mine, but it is a little awkward getting at everything, and won’t be as accurate. And I no longer have shoeboxes.
Thanks
The sizing is under each product on the main website (save where the feet are - - pretty easy to see), noting Fraim has quite a bit of tolerance given the glass shelves and the ability to move backwards/forwards.
I think the bigger issue is how you plan to accommodate/improve upon(?) the rear cabling connections, which aren’t always straightforward with a Fraim due to the wide rear upright (especially if you have a Radikal for an LP12 - a 90 degree plug works).
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The product Specification section for each product gives you the outside dimensions as well as the weight.
Thanks, Richard. Does it give the position of the feet?
There are four at each corner but, no it doesn’t give precise measurements for their position.
OK, thanks Richard. I will have to measure them then. No worries.
Cheers
Or one at each corner, even…
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Yes - I didn’t like to mention that…
Yes, quite right David, what I mean’t to say was that there are four, one at each corner.
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I have wondered about the logic/benefit/effect of having a shelf, with another sitting on it, with the box sitting on that. The use of dissimilar materials may be beneficial, but is it beneficial to have large surface areas to act as sounding boards? My thought beyond that was a stand that has a small support directly under each foot (whether mounted via spikes, balls or whatever). The difficulty there is different spacing of each product. Is that perhaps the design idea here?
A variation then is resilient feet, e.g. sorbothane, maybe with consideration for positioning at equi-mass points rather than simply spaced near corners.
I have been using a ‘rack’ that I built about 20 years ago that has no shelves. The equipment is supported only by the feet through specially made brackets, which are attached to the vertical supports. It looks good - all you see are the actual boxes - no shelf ,and you don’t really see the supports either. It works very well. I have sometimes put Sorbothane discs between the feet and the support, but not noticed any difference in sound. And yes, that is the design idea here - though I won’t be doing is quite the same as I currently have it - with the support being only the size and placement of the feet. There will be a straight, narrow (about 3 cm wide) ‘shelf’ running from near the front to near the back - about 27 cm which I think is the distance between the front and back feet, though that is longer than necessary for the triptych boxes. I have some thoughts on whether to avoid the feet and instead use upward-pointing spikes.
All very much in the experimentation stage at the moment. I want the rack to disappear as much as possible. It will have three legs (only one at the back). The front legs will, I hope, be the only part of the rack that is visible, the rest being within the vertical projection of the boxes. Each layer will be separated by rubber (either Sorbathane, or more likely by squash balls, sitting within hemispherical ‘cups’. The legs will be sand-filled.
Not yet sure about the material - I think something light-weight. Sand will provide the mass, but will be non-resonant.
Sounds like you’re ahead of me, with the same thinking. One disadvantage of course is the lack of instant adaptation to a replacement box if its feet are in a different position.
Another option I thought might be to support boxes ignoring current feet positions (maybe removing original feet), picking 3 support positions based on weight distribution and stability, though subject to the unit’s baseplate or chassis design and strength and any ventilation holes, so not necessarily do-able.
Meanwhile a consideration is heat from the unit below, without a shelf to deflect outwards so diluted with cooker air when drawn in above the shelf. Of course depends on the gear and stacking arrangement.
I’ve certainly had no problem with heat - in many ways it should be better, because there is more air flow, not being blocked by a shelf.
Another idea I mulled was to suspend each unit in a sort of cat’s cradle of wires of some sort - suitable tensioned the units should swing about, assuming cables going outwards and both upwards and downwards. Darned tricky to set up, but once done might be quite good. Won’t be doing that, though.
The unit I currently have is a wooden cabinet with no front or back, cast iron brackets (not ideal, but that was all I could afford when I had them cast) with, initially, bolts in the support of the brackets pointing upwards with very small steel ball fixed to the top end of the bolt, which coincided with the bolts of the feet. Eventually I removed these bolts because there seemed to be no benefit.
The whole cabinet was on bolts with small steel balls fixed to the ends, locating into cups on the floor.
When music is playing very loudly, if I lightly put my hand on the cases I can feel no vibration at all.
I am expecting a 3d Printer to arrive soon, and I shall start fabricating some test pieces to see how it all turns out.
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