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Best way to isolate glass shelves.

Lowdenbill

Active Member
I've recently suffered a bout of upgradeitis and need to pick some brains. Cyrus CDi and Naim Nait 5si need to be on separate shelves so.....

......Has anyone replaced the small hardish pads which keep glass shelves from direct contact with metal stands?

Any advice? Any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
I bought some sorbathane sheet, 3mm I think, and popped a small rectangle cut out under my shelves in three places. At the time I noticed a difference but perhaps it was psychological. They remain in place though.
 
Make up some "Ball-Nutters". Sit ball bearings (12mm's a good size) onto nuts' internal threads so the glass can rest on them.
 
I use large Bright Star IsoNodes under most of my components, or Black Ravioli under the case of my amp. I use a Mana rack, which is a device that rigidly couples to the floor, but I ended up preferring decoupling all components in my suspended wooden floored living room.
 
Wow!

There's a broad range!

I've got some cork coasters which will be sacrificed and some sorbothane from some old running shoes so I'll give them a listen first.
 
I've recently suffered a bout of upgradeitis and need to pick some brains. Cyrus CDi and Naim Nait 5si need to be on separate shelves so.....

......Has anyone replaced the small hardish pads which keep glass shelves from direct contact with metal stands?

Any advice? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Could you replace the glass shelves with something less resonant?

Just a thought.:)
 
I've recently suffered a bout of upgradeitis and need to pick some brains. Cyrus CDi and Naim Nait 5si need to be on separate shelves so.....

......Has anyone replaced the small hardish pads which keep glass shelves from direct contact with metal stands?

Any advice? Any suggestions?

Thanks.
I've always found BluTac useful for this sort of thing...
 
+1 for sorbothane under glass shelves. For use under components just search ebay for “aluminium isolation” from China. They’re under £12 (set of 4) solid cnc machined aluminium which also look elegant in various colours.
 
I had a dealer subcontract a bespoke custom made glass shelves stand to incorporate the same principles as a NAIM FRAIM

The tempered glass shelves resonate differently depending which side you tap on. The audible differences are there and not subtle for proper placement purposes
Then the glass shelf rests on machined ball bearings wherein the rack has a shallow “ dimple” depression in each corner for the ball bearing to actually sit in

From the NAIM FRAIM commentary on the NAIM website: https://www.naimaudio.com/product/fraim-0

“... Our Fraim equipment support system has been carefully designed to provide the perfect platform for Naim Audio electronics to shine. Each level is carefully isolated from the next using a cup-and-cone interface. An additional, double-layer base platform provides further isolation from resonance. A toughened glass sub-shelf rests on minimal-contact ball decouplers, providing even more isolation...”

Done properly ..... highly recommended.
 
I can envision rigid cup and ball designs isolating movements in the x and y axis, but doing nothing for the z axis (up-down) which would seem to be problematic. What am I missing?

The rubber half ball solutions seem like they would work for all 3 axes and be a much more economical option. Then again, I haven't done any isolation (despite what Naim suggests) because I don't have a TT or any valve devices.
 
I had a dealer subcontract a bespoke custom made glass shelves stand to incorporate the same principles as a NAIM FRAIM

The tempered glass shelves resonate differently depending which side you tap on. The audible differences are there and not subtle for proper placement purposes
Then the glass shelf rests on machined ball bearings wherein the rack has a shallow “ dimple” depression in each corner for the ball bearing to actually sit in

From the NAIM FRAIM commentary on the NAIM website: https://www.naimaudio.com/product/fraim-0

“... Our Fraim equipment support system has been carefully designed to provide the perfect platform for Naim Audio electronics to shine. Each level is carefully isolated from the next using a cup-and-cone interface. An additional, double-layer base platform provides further isolation from resonance. A toughened glass sub-shelf rests on minimal-contact ball decouplers, providing even more isolation...”

Done properly ..... highly recommended.


Thanks AKG.
That's very interesting. I hadn't thought to explore the Naim site.
 


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