Naim Glass Locators. Advice needed.

Tony,

Though I haven't done any tests, I would be very surprised if they improved the sound!  I don't use them at all but would suggest they are useful if you have children or pets that may inadvertently knock your Fraim; otherwise, I'd put the £14 towards some more music!

Cheers,

Ian

Thanks, Ian. No kids or pets around so should be safe. 

Tony2011 posted:

I just bought a extra Fraim level but the glass locators are missing. Are they really necessary or  should I invest on a a new set? £14 for two bits of plastic seems a little excessive. I don't suppose they'll make any difference sonically, will they?

Thanks.

 

Was it from the secondhand market?

How to confirm its real fraim glass?

My suggestion is that you simply stop agonising over this and just look upon it as £14 worth of cheap life-long insurance from damage to your gear. I can think of at least two instances where it has saved me!

D

Sounsfaber posted:

Tony2011 posted:

I just bought a extra Fraim level but the glass locators are missing. Are they really necessary or  should I invest on a a new set? £14 for two bits of plastic seems a little excessive. I don't suppose they'll make any difference sonically, will they?

Thanks.

 

Was it from the secondhand market?

How to confirm its real fraim glass?

Secondhand  from an authorised Naim dealer and the glass still has the ring marks from the original locators, ex display units. A trustworthy dealer.  

Tony2011 posted:

Sounsfaber posted:

Tony2011 posted:

I just bought a extra Fraim level but the glass locators are missing. Are they really necessary or  should I invest on a a new set? £14 for two bits of plastic seems a little excessive. I don't suppose they'll make any difference sonically, will they?

Thanks.

 

Was it from the secondhand market?

How to confirm its real fraim glass?

Secondhand  from an authorised Naim dealer and the glass still has the ring marks from the original locators, ex display units. A trustworthy dealer.  

Awesome. I would get the locators myself. 

In all my years of building and using Fraim I've never yet fitted the little plastic "Fraim protectors" on any of the glass. 

I haven't lost a shelf, piece of kit, guest or member of the family yet due to not having fitted Fraim protectors. 

Thank you, Richard. That's very reassuring. 

My buddy has a fraim balls and cup glass set up no locators. We just had a 7.8 earthquake 100 miles up the road last week The weight/ friction of the gear kept the boxes from falling. Our experience where we live was a rolling motion, but if it was up/down like a jack hammer (really not fun) I'm sure he would of lost his gear to gravity. No locators are going to help. Had to clean up that "bacon sandwich" 

think I'll retune my mana racks.

imo if the rest of the fraim has the locators, my OCD would get the better of me. Dropping £14 on a set of locators small price to pay when talking to the Insurance man.

I think there's very little chance of an earthquake of 7.8  here in North London but one never knows and  I do see your point of view. 

I tried putting the locators on when I first got my fraim.  I found it difficult to place them in proper position so that the glass shelf lined up properly in relation to the wooden shelf that it sat on.  I admit my OCD regarding having everything lined up perfectly. 

I have since not used the locators.  Not for me. One needs to be very careful when setting up and taking down a fraim system. Once all is set up it is very sturdy.

david

I just converted my 5 Fraimlite shelves to "full Fraim" and I made the cups myself,bought the balls and glass locally...works real good.The only shelf I am really concerned about is the top one,that somebody could accidentally bump,but I did not install any locators and everything seems really solid...no kids though.

NQ, I saw your thread and your journey with the Fraimlite, all the good advice you got and it's good to see you are happy with the results. Kids are optional by the looks of it, Fraim or not.

Thanks Tony,yes I am very happy with the results,and I do hear a difference now...everything seems more tight and pin point focused with the sound,and the look is glorious with the glass shelves added.I missed the boat with kids so far,but my dog keeps me busy and happy,he loves to sit beside me when I listen to the system.

I had an ex demo fraim a few years back but sold it all. That didn't have the locators.

This year I have bought brand new fraim and was happy to find there were the locators and I use them. 

I did knock a shelf off the balls on more than one occasion with the old set up. If I were you I'd get the locators for peace of mind. 

I tried them on one shelf, when I had Fraim, but found it impossible to get the balls in the middle so they didn't touch the plastic. So I took them off, and never used them again. They look horrible anyway.

My thoughts are I would try them out but if they then marred my sound then I wouldn't but then if they were necessary for the safety of my system then I would look at other forms of isolation. I do not have glass shelves any more (I once had a Stands-unique rack) as I found they did my system no favours at all but as I have never tried Naim ball and cups and glass I have no idea what they might offer if anything over the oak cones I do use. I use a rubbishy Ikea rack that looks great and though its not exactly a Fraim it works really well. It has chipboard shelves that my cones sit directly on and no isolation boards I have tried have any positive effect that I can hear though the oak cones are well worth the faf it is to install them. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I tried them on one shelf, when I had Fraim, but found it impossible to get the balls in the middle so they didn't touch the plastic. So I took them off, and never used them again. They look horrible anyway.

Did you not have the paper template to position them? Mine don't touch the balls at all. 

Yes, I did use it but it was still really fiddly. Anyway, I took the view that the protectors were pretty pointless. 

Thanks everyone for all your contributions.  I think I'm gonna go commando and hope for the best. As soon as I get a pet or "little people" running  around here , I'll get them in place. Thanks again.

I invested in these plastic circles for the shelf that holds my NAP500 which I was elevating from the ground floor to the first floor, so to speak.

I have to admit that manouvering a NAP500 at my age  is a bit of a risk, hence the plastic rings to keep the glass where it should be as I gently lowered the amp down onto the shelf.

Did it work?     

Not a bit of it.  Struggling with the weight of the amp and dropping it down on the glass on the second level, everything went tits up. Glass crashed down at one end, balls went flying off, NAP500 laded skew whiff onto of the tilted up glass. Total fekin disaster !

Never used plastic rings since.

Hope this helps anyone thinking what a bargain these £14 'safety' rings would be  

PS - only good thing to say is this experience showed just how tough the genuine Naim glass shelves are

And don't those bloody balls move fast. They're off across the carpet before you can say oops, or something else. 

Nigel, sounds like you need one of these:

Ah, a pétanque ruler, you still have some from Phonosophie?

I live in Nelson which is near the top of the South Island and that earthquake last Monday morning was the worst by far I've ever felt. The house rolled like an old sailing ship creaking and groaning.

When the shakes died down a bit I checked my two stacks of Fraim. All shelves bar one have the plastic locaters fitted, and the shelf without them (housing a Hi-Cap) was perilously close to sliding sideways off the ball bearings. The other shelves with the locators had moved but had stopped when the locators touched the bearings.

The front feet of my NDS was millimetres from sliding off the front of it's Fraim glass shelf which had the locators fitted.

I found the easiest and most precise way to fit the locators is to first 'sex' the glass shelf, then flip it sideways 180 degrees. Then you can stick the locators onto the bottom of the shelf by eyeing them up with the ball bearings, then flip the shelf back 180 to the correct side and presto, the locators all line up with their bearings.

From memory this method was suggested by someone on the forum when the Fraim was first released.

Cheers

Ricky.