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Glass shelves

T

thranderson

pfm Member
I have two items of Naim kit currently housed on two (separate) Apollo wall shelves. I have been led to believe that there may be shelf materials superior to glass for improved sound reproduction. I welcome your views. Thanks.
 
I'm not alone in preferring lightweight 'wooden' shelves for Naim kit. I currently have a combination of both, though the glass is 6mm on a table and the MDF (or whatever) ones are on Target shelves and a table
 
Definitely a conundrum. Glass is the worst and best sounding support surface I've used under systems. It depends on what's on either side of the glass (equipment and supporting structure) as to whether you'll achieve bad or good performance so a roll of the dice at best unless you're prepared to experiment.

Personally I'm with Mike that wood typically sounds best under Naim using a lightweight, rigid, wooden sub-platform if the supporting structure is a piece of heavy wood furniture.
 
The fraim has glass shelves which was purposely designed by naim for supporting their gear so i dont see how wood would be better ?
 
Perspex. I was amazed how things improved when I moved from metal and glass to wood and Perspex. However, it's difficult to look after, so quite rare in commercial products.
 
scottyhammer said:
The fraim has glass shelves which was purposely designed by naim for supporting their gear so i dont see how wood would be better ?
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Wood isn't better IME using various bits of wood furniture/purpose-built stands, with and without wood sub-platforms vs glass but as I mentioned, it depends on the supporting structure.

In the case of the Fraim, the entire structure was designed as a whole which includes the supporting piece of glass. Glass wasn't an afterthought (chosen by throwing a dart) in this case so no big surprise it outperforms most if not all wood applications at least that I've heard.

Wood is simply more affordable than a Fraim for many folks which makes it a more realistic choice. If you can swing it -no contest -the Fraim beats everything I've heard.
 
Another vote for acrylic from this guy.

Scientifically unproven to be the best looking thing you can plop your hifi on. Awesome urinary splash back properties, as well.
 
Yes, I have a Naim owning friend that has found acrylic beneficial over the standard Target MDF. Worth experimenting if you have a local company selling/forming acrylic.
 
Perspex/acrylic can be drilled easily enough, but it's prone to chipping/cracking if you handle it roughly. A thick sheet might be better though. I'd probably opt for a step drill and go very carefully. Polycarbonate would be a better choice in terms of cutting, but it might not sound the same as acrylic.
 
Mike g said:
What thickness did you go for? And how difficult would it be to drill holes in this? I have some quadraspire legs kicking about and thought that if I bought some sheets I could turn them into a three legged rack.
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Mike
I got 12mm but no drilling done.
 
Hi All,
Drilling Perspex can quite easy if you follow a couple of rules make sure your drill is sharp and if possible use a Drill press a drop of paraffin or turps as a lubricant, don't use too fast a drill speed as this will melt the perspex onto the drill bit and let the drill determine the rate it cuts at ( don't push to hard) the problem area is when the drill breaks through as this force can crack and chip the Perspex. An old trick we used to use to alleviate this problem ,is to clamp two bits of timber/MDF over the area you wish to drill and just gently drill through it all, the timber act's to support the perspex and greatly reduces the possibility of fracturing.
I changed over to 13mm perspex sand blasted to hide any scratches that might happen, to support all of my kit about 15 years ago and due to it's inert properties I believe it makes the very best supporting material you can get.
oldie
 
My shelves are 20mm thick cantilevered from one edge from slots in a huge oak post. Looks lovely and aligns with the walls of my house which slope quite alarmingly. Built for the looks, but made me realise that the old metal and glass stuff wasn't doing me any favours.
 
I would just love to see/hear a convincing demo of glass/wood/anything else except probably paper shelving affect anything other than a record deck...
 
packtech said:
I would just love to see/hear a convincing demo of glass/wood/anything else except probably paper shelving affect anything other than a record deck...
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On similar lines I was musing on how a lot of these threads are like The Terminator you think they have been comprehensively killed and then they come back to life!
 
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