I am about to move from a single Fraim stack to separate Brawn and Brains Fraim stacks in my carpeted (and underlay) listening room.
Does the addition of Naim Chips under the carpet/underlay (having cut slits) make a difference to the stability of the Fraim, and hence SQ, rather than relying on the Fraim spikes to penetrate through to the floor boards? My house is very old and the floor boards are very uneven, and all the floors slope.
They won’t help with stability per se, because as a tripod the Fraim is always stable. But they will stop the spikes sinking into the floorboards and will ensure that the Fraim stays level. With old boards, the chips would, I feel, be a really good idea. I’d imagine you’d cut out discs from the underlay and then slit the carpet. Just make sure you get the Fraim stacks in their final position first. If you keep the discs of underlay you could always fill the holes later, should you need to move it all.
Thanks for the reply Nigel.
I was planning to cut slits in the carpet and underlay, and slip the Chips under both, but that is probably easier said than done.
I don’t want to pull the carpet up if that can be avoided, so not sure how I would be able to cut Chip-sized circles in the underlay, unless a X shaped slit in the carpet will allow this.
Why cut slits in carpet and ruin it. I thought the idea of the spike was it went through carpet and was stable on floor boards.
Actually it is a rather thick carpet and the slits won’t be seen. A Fraim rack is very heavy, particularity when housing the bigger bits of Naim kit and their power supplies. That weight will certainly cause the spikes to sink into, or possibly even split, the floor boards, especially if they are old like mine. This is where Chips help.
I have a concrete floor with hard bitumen tiles that were glued to the floor when the house was built. On top of that is carpet, a nice quality 89/20 mix, and thick wooly underlay.
If you just push the spikes through, they will leave round holes that will never go away if you move the equipment. It’s also impossible to level speakers on stands, especially when the speakers are small and light. If you cut small slits with a very sharp Stanley blade, the spikes go through to the floor. It’s much easier to level the equipment and ensure perfect contact with the floor. Best of all, when you move the equipment, or sell the house, you just rub the carpet with your finger and you’d never know that the spike had been there. So, perhaps counterintuitively, it makes far less damage.
In Nigel’s case I’d be lifting the carpet and cutting out small pieces of underlay. It’s much better than cutting long slits and trying to poke the fairly substantial Chips through.
The problem is that unless you cut a slit the spikes tend to either couple to the carpet or float on it above the hard floor below.
If it’s floor boards beneath the carpet then if you can get Chips in that would be best.
Slits cut into carpet are the best idea and tend to be nigh on undetectable (from someone who has cut a lot of slits in a lot of carpets).
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.