Naim Fraim - is it worth it really?

Is this a serious statement or are you taking the p1$@?? I’m trying to figure out what the fraim does that is so special.

True. It’s part of the assembly. Tap the glass both sides for the best ‘ring’, should be a ‘G’ I think. Don’t forget to also polish the balls, I polish mine…

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I see so the unit is decoupled, as in completely free from damping. Interesting so technically you should get the same result if you were to hang the component in free space using something like fishing line. :joy: I have visions of me trying this.:joy:

Thought you preferred your own DIY version in the cabinet with glass shelves and balls :grinning:

Did you actually try a Fraim and find a huge difference in SQ or simply acquiesce to the Naim user preferred rack?

Genuinely interested in your decision to heavily invest in the Fraim

Nope this is a known fact and part of the setup instructions.
It’s not just about decoupling with the Fraim, all materials have been selected for their sonic preference from the ball and cups to even using glass. Glass normally can make the sound, rather hard and brittle. Plus Naim have selected Pilkinton glass specifically.

Best

Popeye

It’s come about as a result of deciding to swap my systems between rooms and needing a new solution for the main system in the smaller room where there is less space. For the better options of good quality racks available in New Zealand it came down to Quadraspire or Fraim and I decided on a Fraim Lite and will use my glass shelves and balls, as I preferred the Fraim aesthetically. You can read the full journey at this thread:

Are you absolutely sure that Naim selected all the materials for their sonic performance? Sounds like a bold statement to me. I thought i read somewhere that a sheet of metal was used instead of glass in the design process but was to expensive to produce with…?

Cool … thanks for the insight :grinning:

No desire for Steve’s Soul to Soul wooden racks …

Sorry Mark84 this won’t work. There are two types of mechanical energy that the Fraim is trying to deal with. Firstly, you have airborne vibrations generated by your speakers. Some of which will resonate particularly badly within any equipment in the room. This is easily over come by just putting your equipment in another (possibly soundproof) room?

The second, and more subtle energy is micro vibrations generated in the equipment itself i.e. the hum from transformers and individual electrical components. The idea is that this energy is sent to ground as quickly as possible.

The Fraim seems to achieve this more efficiently than most, hence why it’s so popular. Hanging a equipment on bits of string would prevent this second type of energy from dissipating and could make queueing a record a bit tricky?

I was very tempted, but they come assembled and the dealer wouldn’t deliver from Auckland to Whangarei, so it was going to be quite awkward. I also felt that the Fraim would be better for my level of system and I didn’t want HH. breathing down my neck :sunglasses:

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Good point and wise decision. :grin:

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Do you know where that came from? If true it may be that the metal (non ferrous I assume) had no advantages over glass or the advantages were so minimal they probably couldn’t be heard by the human ear, an absolute guess, I don’t know. I certainly remember reading in HiFi News years ago that Mana tested metal, wood and glass shelves and thought glass were the best, something about the ring of it and exciting the electronics or some such.

Personally I don’t think that HiFi needs such support and much simpler racks will do sufficiently well as for most people not to be able to tell the difference with a simpler design even in a blind test. However I do love the concept and the look of Fraim even if I probably could no longer afford/justify the expense of changing, if I was still working I might well change for the look alone.

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Colin - when I went on a factory tour many years ago we discussed the development of the Fraim and how the various materials complement each other - the glass, the MDF and the metal parts. A metal platform was indeed found to be the best - similar to the interface plates used on the SL2s I believe - but it was unfeasibly expensive and so glass was chosen as the next best thing and at a more sensible cost.

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Oh dear … makes sense then :grinning:

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Makes sense, I can imagine beyond the casting process a fair amount of hand work involved in finishing them off on a relatively small scale

I think it’s also really hard to get sheets of metal dead flat, so the rejection rate would be high, further increasing cost.

Yes, Naim tried a number of different materials for the platforms. IIRC, best by far was the special aluminium sheet, made to be perfectly flat and even (you can still find sheets of this at Naim used for levelling up the feet on kit). Unfortunately, it’s very costly stuff as it’s difficult to get enough area perfectly flat - the SL2 interface plates used similar sheet, and they had to be flat to within ridiculous tolerance in order to work properly. However, quite to everyone’s surprise, a very close second came one of the glass samples, and this was not only less expensive but also far easier to supply consistently (thanks Pilkington).

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Yes, even over time metal castings will move as cooling stresses relax in them, how much I don’t know. Certainly a long no7 woodworking plane continues to bend over at least 15 years

I think a platform suspended by something like springs would have the same effect. It sounds like the resonating platform is the key. Like an undamped tuning fork can “ring”.
Preventing vibrations to or from the source.

Sorry just my DIY brain ticking away.

The Fraim works through the way it channels vibrations to ground - not so much about isolating the boxes from vibrations in the first place. If you consider a box hanging from the ceiling on thin wires, or sitting on a sprung base - it picks up vibrations through the air and along its connected wires. The vibration has nowhere to go and therefore whizzes around inside the box wreaking sonic havoc. Whereas on the Fraim it’s channeled to the ground in the least damaging way.

I’ll make a disclaimer here that I’m not an engineer!