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Fraiming your Naim
The ultimate equipment stand?
By John Groom
August 2002
What
to sit hi-fi gear on is a problem, as the equipment tends to sound like
its support structure. Sitting on concrete blocks, the sound is solid,
flat and lifeless, on a flimsy support it is light sounding and ungrounded.
Even on custom made supports of steel and glass the sound can be coloured,
ringing and metallic.
This phenomenon has intrigued me for many years and led to some obscure experiments involving cones, sorbothane pads, slate and blutak. Even the mini system in my office sounds better if I isolate its supporting bookcase by using two dollar coins!
The English hi-fi company Naim has traditionally used Mana stands, and more recently Hutter, in their attempts to neutralise the stand effect. As Naim’s own equipment has focused increasingly on the problems of controlling vibration, resonance and microphony, it was natural that they would develop their own stand.
There
are two contradictory directions that Naim could have gone. One was to
control vibrations through a heavy damped structure from materials such
as granite. The alternative was to “funnel” vibration down to
the ground (like the spike at the bottom of a cello). Naim chose the second
approach.
The stand is a majestic piece of home furniture with great veneers available in maple and cherry. Each shelf sports stylish brushed aluminium ends. The level of engineering for the spikes and ball bearings would not be out of place in the aeronautic industry.
Most importantly: what does this entire do to the sound? My current favourite classical recording is Augustin Dumay playing Mozart’s 3rd and 4th Violin Concerto’s (DG 457645-2). Dumay draws raw emotion from his violin solos. The sound can easily become thin, strained or compressed.
The previous limits that I had assumed to have been in my equipment disappeared with the Naim Fraim. Dumay’s playing now floated freely and movingly into the room and the background strings opened into a full world of sound.
On the Johnny Cash A.R.C. recording American3: Solitary Man (CK 69691) Johnny is now present in the room and every nuance of his rich aging voice is laid bare along with his masterly guitar touch.
On
Patricia Barbara’s Companion recording (Blue Note 7243522963230)
her voice losses it’s sibilant edge and we are present in the night
club now warmed by her smokey timbre. On track two of the same recording
we are given the wonderful opportunity to follow Bill Wither’s bass
line solo exposing the texture of his dynamic fingering technique.
The improvements with the Naim Fraim are in every area: timing, bass extension, treble clarity, midrange openness, and tonal accuracy.
Could there be a downside to all of this? Particularly for something with a high Domestic Acceptance Factor. Only the price. A base unit and four shelves comes in around the $6000 mark. The difference however is so large that I think it should be top of the shopping list for all systems over about $12,000, ie it is worth spending a third of your total budget on the stand!
Hey, if you can’t afford the equipment and the stand... just buy the stand and sing to it. I guarantee that it will sing back to you.
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