Naim Fraim - is it worth it really?

Most systems it can’t be helped unless everyone lives in mansions.

I get your point re the positioning of the baffles and agree it’s the way to go

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I’ve seen some pretty huge rooms (& gardens come to that) here…so, yes! Most Naimees appear to live in, if not mansions, large-ish country houses :wink:

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Lucky devils they are steviebee

True but I’m only allowed to use the West wing for hifi!

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Indeed, living rooms as big as our whole flat :rofl:

The Forum FAQ around Fraim doesn’t suggest a strong tightening i.e. pinch tight + 1/8 turn (with revisit after initial settling in). I’ve had to undo a Fraim which had been ‘fully tightened’ and the tommy bar was significantly bent, and it was very much a struggle to break the Fraim down.

The words and tools supplied are appearing to differ here?

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Re Mana, the first time I heard one was around 1990, and I wasn’t greatly taken by it, rave reviews notwithstanding. I now suspect that the table I heard was a victim of the “Linn-tight” school of thought that was prevalent at that time.

During the Mana’s twilight years – early 2000s – the accepted wisdom of the their forum experts was that the nuts should be barely nipped up. Over the course of several rebuilds of my own Phase Four shelf, I found that less tight was generally better.

I was always uneasy that if I didn’t give them a good nip they would gradually come undone, but that never happened, so I eventually just did them up finger tight, followed by the tiniest possible turn of the supplied spanner, just enough to feel resistance.

At one point, somebody claimed that they got the best results by just doing them up finger tight and skipping the spanner entirely. I never had the nerve to do that, but I now think it would probably be fine.

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I suppose folks will have to either experiment for themselves or leave finger tight as per some forum suggestions against the Roy George method and tighten (without over tightening) everything up.

As Gunnery Sergeant Apone in Aliens would say

“Are you reading this? Keep it tight, people”

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I think the problem there is that with the wood veneered shelves giving a consistent torque figure is difficult.

When tightening the nuts, I find that the supplied thin spanner is as good an indicator as anything - try to over tighten and the spanner will begin to deform. However, I use a good quality Britool spanner and you get to a point where you learn the feel.

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specifying a torque is always difficult. Threads oiled or cleaned, or full of dust? The lower the torque required the more these things become significant.

Times have changed a bit, there are TV:s that mount tight to the wall. There are pretty open racks with not much surface to bounce on and as you say, have the speakers infront of the rack.

I you want to really go all-out you should go single-speaker (no TV-speakers, no laptop with speakers, no phones and not even an electronic summer on your wristwatch).

One of my first Linn/Naim demos (early 80’s) had the dealer running in/out of the listening room with a phone eagerly asking if we could hear the difference. This was of course after first having us leave wristwatches outside the demo-room :slight_smile:

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Nah, not on this forum ! I’ve found 12.837425nm works the charm. :innocent:

Just on my way out.

ATB, J

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Torque figures can always be specified dry, or wet, etc. But I guess Richard’s point also applies if the veneers give by different amounts. Perhaps it has to be a feel thing, which is tricky if you only do your own set of shelves and then only occasionally. I’d say “Perhaps it doesn’t matter?” But suspect that might end in forum ostracization! :wink:

Oh I think it matters, tight is good, loose is bad. The problem is specifying torque values at low levels with too many variables to take into account. The feel and the slight squashing of compressible material seems to me to me to be a good guide.
(Conventionally you would specify a torque to pre stretch the bolt against a non compressible material).

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Nip plus a smidgen sounds about right. Also I find you only need to rebuild in the early life of the Fraim, thereafter it doesn’t seem to loosen easily.

:joy:

This is taken as gospel here, but I’m sure it’s worse to have your gear all to the side in a corner, living within all that corner loaded bass, or out beyond the speaker baffle on the side of the room being hit full force by the output of the speaker. Not to mention the asymmetrical refraction of having the rack on one side with no rack on the other.

But this is a different subject I suppose.

So, ideally, all kit bar speakers should be in another room!

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Yes, extremely good idea! This should be taken as gospel here.