Thoughts on the new Mapleshade

Not to stir the pot, but what do you suppose his markup is? The rack looks great except for the insane price. Curious how he touts his cork footers at $24; what appears to be the same exact item may be had on Audiogon for $10!

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?accstwek&1044028667&class&3&4&

"I evolved the IsoBlock specifically for our maple platforms. I tuned by ear to give just the right vertical, horizontal and torsional resonant frequencies for best sonic isolation."" Huh??? I wish I could tune by ear in three planes. Perhaps Rcreations [who had offered them first if I'm not mistaken] can enlighten us...

His CDs are another matter, and priced fairly. But the sonics are uneven disc to disc, imo. Some great artistry nonetheless.

The Isoblocks are twice as tall as the ones Rcreations sells. I know because I have both. On the other hand the Rcreations blocks are dimensionally a little bigger (length/width). Nobody's geting rich selling them.

Just to add my $.02, I just got his MCSS; that`s blocks, 2" maple slab and surefoot cones for my BPT power conditioner. Now I mainly got this as my BP2.5 sets on the floor and I wanted to raise it up for cleaning purposes. I looked at amp stands but for $155, I got cones for coupling, blocks for isolating, and a stylish maple board. And believe it or not, I heard a difference thru my hometheater system. I feel it would have made a bigger impact on my receiver had there been room on my rack for this setup. Now to have a whole rack made with 2" maple shelves that are isolated,,,,, awesome! Everything in there would be setting on cones, Soler Point stainless steel ones at that. BTW, that`s what I have under my receiver with excellent results. With all that said, I gotta agree with Tripper on the steep price. But then again, I paid $550 for my 6-shelf Sanus. How deep are your pockets??? lol

Seems like the weird phaseyness of Spey's PZM-miced recordings has finally gotten to him, too!

I just received the Mapleshade Samson version 2 rack (4 shelf unit & added 2 extra shelves). The 2' thick maple shelves and solid brass threaded shelf positioning hardware look very nice. It has 1 1/4'" solid steel threaded uprights and should be a big improvement over my cwd cabinet which has solid oak top and bottom shelf and side panels with laminated oak shelves that attach to sides using a bent small gauge metal rod that fits in grooves on sides of shelves. I use a Black Diamond Racing source shelf with vibrapods under it for cd transport and Bright Star Audio isolation platforms with vibrapods under platforms for tube preamp and dac. I'm in process of purchasing a Zoethecus rack with z-slab shelves to compare the two. The one I like the best I will keep in main system and sell other or use in second system. Don

I'm gonna try the speaker cable tripods. They look rustic and high-tech at the same time. We'll hear!

Hey, what about their comments that their power conditioners have beaten this or that, or their power cords have done the same, to some high end names. Any merit or just marketing? I know nothing about Mapleshade, but receive their catalog, and was curious.

Thnx,

Matty

I know Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade pretty well and I can personally guarantee his integrity. This guy does his dammedest to offer way better stuff at as fair a price as possible. The mistrust of clearly(compare) fair pricing in intensive R+D, small quantity hand made situations such as this is understandable but indicative of lazy thinking and bitter finger pointing. I'm as frustrated as the next guy with wanting stuff I can't afford this week but casting aspersions on somebody like Pierre is not necessary. Pierre and those like him deserve our gratitude, respect and support. Again, your frustrations with price have myb most personal sympathies but better to save up cheap talk so you can invest in the worthy work of Pierre.