I bought Fraim much cheaper in outlet of hifi studio, used but quite nice condition.
Maybe later about sonic experiences with equipment placement and anti resonation adding.
At first one question only. There are plastic parts on glass shelfs, but only on front side, on some shelfs are missing. What is the state of new one? I thing it must be on all three steel ball positions or not?
Plastic locating rings are iirc, just used at the front, if a user decides to use them or not.
There is a Fraim setup quide here on the forum, worth a read.
Which side up you place the glass, will make a difference, as many have found. Best not to assume that the previous owner put the locating rings on the better side.
Otherwise do a more general search for Fraim here on the forum. There have been many posts and views over the years.
Hi Franta,
There are 2 plastic ball locators at the front, the one on the back does not have one. You can get all the parts (metal ball bearing locator, the ball bearing and the plastic locator) from Naim. I picked up 20 of the plastic locators just last weekend from my dealer. They come in a pack of 2 with 3 little sticky rings to stick to your glass shelf. There is a retailer called Cymbiosis in the uk with a eStore that you can purchase these from ( I’m sure there are others as well) you can also get the metal discs for the feet of the base as well. Best to check online prices from a dealer as second hand prices can be inflated, especially the metal discs that I have seen at 3 times the retail price for used ones!
To be honest, these plastic discs have a history of falling off in my experience and unless you have young children they aren’t essential. The weight of the kit usually means the shelves don’t slide easily, and it’s useful sometimes to slide a shelf a bit backwards and forwards e.g. to assist with cable dressing - just don’t park the shelf against the metal retaining pillar.
Also, see the link below (if you haven’t seen it) on how to build Fraim – and you might want to check if the plastic rings were put on the better side of the glass shelves (after the ‘tap test’).
Agreed. I would recommend using them on the top shelf though as it can be quite easy to accidentally knock the unit located there when cleaning and if the glass slides off the ball bearings you will know about it! Trust me, that is not fun…
I have eight Fraim bases (2) and shelves (6) and have never used the locators for the glass and balls. I have had glass slide off the back ball when fiddling. It just makes noise and is annoying, but is put back easily enough. No harm ever done.
I believe it has been posted that if you use the locators, you have to make sure the balls don’t make contact with them as it can be detrimental to sound. I didn’t want to worry about that so left mine off as well, no issues just have to remember to hold onto the kit while doing connection changes.
It is also worth noting that achieving this exact alignment is EXTREMELY difficult to do. Not only in terms of the correct alignment; but also because the 3M pads that come with them are (a) a complete bugger to separate from the protective label and (b) very, very sticky (which you would expect) but I found they stuck to my hand more than the glass shelf!
I use a microfiber towel dampened with a water spritzer. If I think of it I fill the spritzer with distilled water. Nothing fancier than that. Same for the Naim component cases. Works great. No need to overthink it.
The reality with Fraim is that to clean it properly you need to strip it all down, clean each individual component and the black boxes and reassemble it. I do this a couple of times a year but it takes a few hours to do properly and is physically hard work.
That’s what I do, twice a year. It now takes me about two hours (six box Naim + phono–stage + turntable, with two Fraim bases, five Fraim levels and two Fraimlight levels).