Siding the Fraim glass

Kiwi cat, I've had to make a change to the thread title and also a small edit to your post.  Otherwise it would keep getting caught out by the naughty word filter...

On the subject of "siding" Fraim glass, yes, very worthwhile; I rap each side with a knuckle and pick the most tuneful side.  The sound you want to hear is a "dong" rather than a "donk".  It seems to make a worthwhile difference an certainly this was borne out when we did some A-B listening tests some years back.

Presumably the dong (brighter) sounding side goes up, donk (dead) side down?

What of the front to back orientation? Never heard of this one before.

Thanks Kiwi,

I've got Isoblue with a few glass shelves, so I'll pay heed to this suggestion. Difficult to do alone though. Might try it when my son is home at Xmas. He actually enjoys participating in my audiophile tweaks to see if he can detect a difference. He's got good ears and has helped me rationalize some of my rather obscure tweaks.

I originally set up my fraim using the "dong/donk" method then with Steve using his method. Each glass was tried, in turn, in four orientations under the NDS then moved to it's  final shelf.  The end result was better than I had achieved  earlier. Painstaking process though with two stacks of Fraim. Kiwicat I was watching your journey with the Tellurium Black with great interest - thanks for publishing it.

Joe, yes, you're interested in the top-side of the glass.  The "dong" side is the top-side.  If you can't get a nice "dong" then you should try also flipping around front to back and also ensuring balls and cups are OK.  If still no good, check the Fraim level itself for tightness of cones and that the points are centralised.  Then try again.

Prepare for your spouse/partner to gaze on in wonder (and presumably admiration) as you do this...

Thanks for the clarification Richard.

In my case, it's concession more than admiration from my wife.

And rotating a piece of glass has little monetary cost.

Sounds a bit like Voodoo, but i have learned to appreciate Voodoo 

Just occasionally you stumble across a thread that would convince an average person that the denizens of this forum are all mad, one of the reasons I love this forum

:-))))

C.

"Dong" and "balls" not setting off the naughty word filter??

Now, final word is up to you DB

R.

Oops, not done on mines, and already glued the security rings on the glass. But if it is important why Naim didn't mentioned into instructions and do a mark on the correct side? Ciao, Maurizio 

What are these please?

Chris

Ok, just found them on a Naim retailer site.   C.

Maurizio,  it's different and can change depending on the rest of the fraim, balls etc.. so you can't just mark one side is good and the other not so good - it can only really be done as you build up the Fraim. 

Quite apart from that, it's perhaps a little bit crazy in the eye of many.  And maybe steps into the realms of the ridiculous for a few.  Naim are passionate about what they do, and why they do things the way they do, but probably best they try not to appear as a bunch of eccentrics.  It's hard enough sometimes convincing people about wobbly sockets, decoupled IEC plugs, and even the benefits of DINs...

Quite apart from that, it's not as though the Fraim sounds "bad" if you don't bother doing this - it sounds great, it's just that by doing the "siding", to my mind, and to the mind of some others I know, it just sounds even greater...

<devils advocate mode ON>

it could be argued that all that powering down, disconnecting cables, reconnecting and powering up, is doing far more good from the point of view of plug/switch contact cleaning...

just sayin...

Good point John.  You may be right, although I do recall when I did some tests some years ago (albeit in another country, indeed hemisphere) we were using a well run-in and warmed up system and lifting and flipping glass and kit while everything remained powered up and connected. Specifically we were looking to see whether it made any difference at all.  It certainly seemed to.  But you're right, there's enough room for variance in so many places that any scientific comparison is nigh on impossible.  So could well be imagined.  Indeed, just the act of doing it maybe conditions us to expect things to be better, so they are...

Bottom line, as ever, is don't sweat the small stuff too much. But do it because it's easy and ultimately it's worth doing, if only because it introduces consistency and that tends to soothe nagging doubts. It's the end result that matters, so if that's good, it's all good.

Thanks Richard, glass (tempered) aren't perfectly flat due to the thermal treatment, maybe this also add a point to the reasons for. As far as I see balls aren't adjustable and so some glasses could needs to be placed according to its curvature that I suppose began a sort of production tolerance. But for 3 points theoretically only one plane could accommodate... Thank you again for your kindly answer.

Or incredulity Richard. I save these sort of chores for when my wife goes to visit her mother for a few days. My next system rebuild is in two weeks.

Would that be around the time of the Watford v Man Utd game Steve? Have fun 

More low cost tweaking nice! But if you have the plastic Things glooed on that keeps the balls in place, does this not suggest the check has been done at the factory? However my Fraim is  more than 10 years ol´d maybe before this was discovered.

Claus

Claus, the plastic rings are not a factory fit item - they're optional and really only recommended if your home has curious children, dogs with thick waggy tails etc...

I have...

Sounds like A Crocodile Dundee script, "we have a Donk!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDTDUPZrag