Anyone?

The Fraim Ti comes next year with all parts made out of Titanium. Price will be £2599 per level.

Here're the first ones ready for finishing

Aavik made a rack some years ago with a very high pric. Legs of solid Ti and shelves of MDF whitch said so soud very good.

So why not? (Exept price)

S uperfraim!

I am trying to get a hold of a particular manufacture here in Ca..They do Ti and I want a couple shelves made.

i actually heard it will cost 2899 GBP


marc...what do you mean by the ti. shelf...? do you want to replace the glass by ti ? or do you mean the whole shelf...what would the use of ti be...

maybe i missed another thread here ?

p

pylod-

I would replace the glass with a titanium shelf.

Marc

here's a quip from the biking world:

what do call steel that doesn't rust? titanium.

the point being that the major benefit of titanium over steel is that it doesn't rust, but titanium is about 3 time as expensive as steel. is there something about titanium that makes it better than steel in audio realm?

I have a titanium tooth.

I'm sure I read some time back that Naim had experimented with different materials and found aluminium to be the best. The expense made it impractical so glass was chosen as a good compromise. I'm sure Ron Toolsie will be along shortly to confirm, I think he's been down this path previously.

quote:

is there something about titanium that makes it better than steel in audio realm?

Yes, the sound of the profit for the maker

Steel is real!

This is needle in a haystack work. But interesting...

In the context of a Fraim shelf the deciding factors for how a material sounds are the resonance characteristics (frequencies and amplitude) of the material. Which in turn is also determined by the size and thickness. And by the way the shelf is supported. And on what. An 8mm Ti shelve can sound awful while a 10mm thick plate can sound wonderful or vice versa. Make it half an inch wider or deeper and it sounds different again. There is no way of telling up front.

For the same reason there is also no 'superior' material based on its strength or weight (or price). A Stainless, bronze, brass or alloy shelf might sound good too. Or any other material for that matter.

From an engineering point of view it's amazing that the Fraim sounds as good as it does with the glass shelves. Glass is a very resonant material and the reason why most racks with glass don't sound very good. ALL materials resonate. And resonance changes the sound of a component. It's 'only' a matter of finding a/the resonance(s) that sounds nice and/or seems the most... cough... 'neutral'. Simple really

Richard.

It's a nice material for mountain bike fraims...

For race exhausts for motorcycles too... Have one on mine. Gorgeous. Sounds awesome too!!

quote:

Originally posted by gordon cavanaugh:
... is there something about titanium that makes it better than steel in audio realm?

Not at all necessarily. If titanium had been the only material available for the shelves - the Fraim would require a different design to compensate.

Of the materials we tried - aluminium (a specific grade) was somewhat preferred to glass (again - very specific) but the difficulty in obtaining a consistently flat shelf meant that expense would have been excessive.

Interesting Adam! Which specific grade and thickness would that be?...

Richard.

quote:

Originally posted by KTMax:
Interesting Adam! Which specific grade and thickness would that be?

Does Macy's tell Gimbal's?

Research is research and costs us a great deal - even when it does not immediately lead to a product.

True...


Richard.