very much like the Mapleshades, used for decades with many speakers...never heard the Gaia ...very different concepts...I believe Mapleshade has full return policy...
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I used brass cones 6mm thread with “t” nuts on my former Odyssey Kismet Floorstanding reference speakers and used them with the protection cups sitting on a slab of polished black granite. I had no concerns about the sound. I replaced the speakers with GE Triton Reference speakers and use the GAIA II with them and their carpet spikes. I can’t compare the two but the GAIA made a noticeable impression which I love very much. |
If you call Mapleshade, Eldon, the owner is a very nice guy who will be happy to expound on why he believes his products are better. Unless you're already committed to the Sapele, I'd consider Mapleshade's Ambrosia Maple platforms also. I just finished upgrading all three(one at a time) racks in my system with their Samson racks and isolation feet, and wife and I are very happy. |
I think it most lucky depends on what type of floor you have whether it’s best to couple or decouple. If your floor is very solid, cement slab topped with tile or wood or even carpet, then coupling to it w/ spikes & the like works well. If your floor is a suspended floor w/ long floor joists like most homes have other than the basement, then decoupling the speakers from the floor can work well. My own experience w/ both types of situations over several years has shown this to be generally accurate. |
I have Gias on my Spendors and my friend has a whole host of mapleshade stuff. the down sides of gias are they are not very stable and your speaker’s feel mushy/wobbly. Did they make a difference no idea i don’t think much other then raising them up a bit and the associated change in sound due to that. They do isolate the bass from the people below me in my condo quite well. the Mapleshad stuff is just butcher blocks IMO i don’t see or hear the difference to any other wood shelf/stand that’s similar. We tried moving my friends mapleshade stuff around, taking it out, etc. and didn’t hear a whole lot of difference. minor stuff for sure. His system was in a fully treated room as well. Personally i think the mapleshade stuff are a "nice to look at" items but i don’t hear much difference if i was honest over any other higher mass shelve/ speaker stand etc. I really think for the speakers its the added height that’s making the largest difference to both products. One area that actually stuned many of us was when he took out themapleshade shelf from under hi rega P6 table and put in a custom ultra light rega table stand i think it was made out of balsa wood. that was an eye opener that balsa wood stand made a huge difference (positive) in every aspect of the tables playback. the maple shade went into the storage room after that. one takeaway is if you have a rega table put it on the lightest shelf/stand you can find. |
I've heard these against the Gaia's and thought they did as good a job for a lot less money. https://solidairaudio.com/product-category/dark-star-non-magnetic-isolation/ |
Looks like my choice is neither. I was unaware of the expense involved in better Mapleshade feet and Gaia IIIs. For my level of system investment, I need to be a bit more frugal. The Solidair Audio suggestion pops up in UK money, and that likely means more for shipping (if they even ship internationally). One possibility now is the Uni-Cone isolation feet between speaker and platform. |