Oh dear … makes sense then 
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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!
Something like the SME 20A hanging arrangement?
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But does that work? If it did putting and SME or LP12 with its isolating springs/rubbers on a Frame or coffee table shouldn’t make any sonic difference due to the inherent isolation but it still does, so it must be more than pure isolation?
So why does the statement not use a fraim? What do they do internally? I’d guess that the suspend the boards on springs like in the ND555…
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I have never understood the fraim and still dont, but it did inpove my set up, over what i had before, why that is i haven’t a clue.
Cables better now, boxes have more air around them now, or just the rack doing something?
But one thing i have also found hard to take in is, it transfers vibrations down to ground from each box?, well vibrations can surely go both ways? So up the fraim and into the boxes, from say speakers or something else? Like i said i dont know what it does, or how it does it.
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Yes this doesn’t make sense to me either. I am not doubting that it works but surely dissipating vibration is the goal not transferring them to ground, as to get to ground they would have to travel through the unit. Think of holding something that is vibrating heavily like a tool. Hold it tight and it hurts! Hold it loose and the vibrations are damped.
You can also hear the aluminium box sections ring if you get close to them and speak, as i first noticed this at the dealer, he was messing with cables at the back and i was in front of the rack while we talked.
Just to add, i also use isoacoustic orea on some of my kit on the fraim, mainly because these items share a shelf, but they work well, not naim gear just to add
It’s clearly a carefully and cleverly engineered product. How ever it does it the boxes have to deal with less noisy vibration. I’m also pretty sure that there is a big slice of placebo going on with it. When customers have bitten the chunky Fraim bullet their heads will tell them it’s made a discernible difference to SQ and this is backed up by Naim’s reassurance that it is the best support for its kit. I personally agree with that and I don’t really care exactly how it does what it does.
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I was in London and happened to be at the Sound Organisation near Southwark Cathedral with Roger Macer when they discovered that a small coffee table they had sounded much better than the expensive brick and concrete isolation table used for demonstrating turntables.
Roger was doing a number of quick A/B dems and ended up using the coffee table as a stop-gap. The trouble was that whatever turntable was on the coffee table it always sounded better, even if it was much cheaper. That was the inspiration and birth of the first light weight SO equipment stand.
Of course then Linn started using the IKEA lack table with the base cut out to demo their LP12 at shows.
The Fraim is just a 10th generation example of this.
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The design of the Fraim has been designed with Eddy currents in mind also as Naim use massive toroidal transformers that radiates magnetic pull up and down. Obviously a Statement the transformers are oriented vertically so the currents are going out horizontally.
After spending a few quid on Naim boxes and other bits the components deserve the best stand to me thats the Fraim.
Just recently I’ve split the rack this is a lovely lift over the solo stack, the NAP300 has really opened up.
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IMO the term ‘decoupled’ is oft misused and as far as I can see, there is no decoupling going on with the use of ball bearings or spikes. Quite the opposite I think.
Definitely not having a go but just trying to save you from a fishing line experiment 
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Much is mentioned about both these types of vibration with supports but I’ve never understood it technically.
The thing with acoustic vibration is that it affects large flat surfaces predominantly (windows, doors, large TV’s etc) and you need pretty high volumes for this to become an issue. A shelf is flat surface but mass has a significant effect on resonance so the range of variation with a Fraim shelf and Naim components is potentially huge. If you were trying to manage airborne vibration you certainly would manage it with spikes and ball bearings unless you specifically want the shelf to vibrate (you’d introduce damping if you wanted to minimise resonance).
When it comes to internal vibration the grounding theory doesn’t make much sense either as the vibrations aren’t transient but the transformer provides a constant source. Therefore it’s not possible to continuously drain the vibrations away when there’s a constant hum.
My feeling is that the Fraim shelves have an assembled stiffness that has been tuned to work with Naim equipment. Glass, MDF and aluminium etc. isn’t unique to furniture but the configuration is.