Mapleshade boards under speakers

Chashas1,

Thanks for the prompt reply to our inquiring minds. Interesting to me that the thick Maple slabs are that much better for your application than the birch plywood. This is what Mapleshade and other purveyors of solid Maple platforms claim - seems to work that way for you, although I understand the maple is thicker and a different variety ofwood, so not a perfect control of plywood versus solid slab in this case.

I think it is interesting that there appears to be such a broad range of experiences with wood platforms reported in this thread, ranging from "it works great" to "it did nothing" to "hated it". In the case of speakers where vibration is intense, cabinet designs vary greatly, and room interactions have a huge role perhaps the range of experience should not be that surprising.

I have found that using wood platforms for vibration control under many components in my system has helped tremendously in my fairly small and lively (many hard surfaces) listening area. I would suggest the greatest benefits have come from those compenents with moving parts - TT, CDP and of course speakers. I put this "tweak" in the top category along with power cables in terms of providing "astonishing" improvements in system sound.

Nice thing about tweaks like this is that it doesn't require any break in to enjoy. Improvements are noticed immediate or not at all.

PS - I am a fan of BlueTack and use it where it makes sense and sounds good - like attaching my speakers to bamboo platforms...

Has anyone tried maple butcher block? Butcher block is easier to source and less expensive. I have a local source for up to 2 7/8" thick. I think they will cut it to my desired size.

I am also interested in sources for solid maple. Where can I purchase that? Thanks

I neglected to mention that I may need a size larger than what is offered by Mapleshade. That is why I am searching for an alternative source or product (butcher block).

Late, as always- but I will offer my experience with maple stands, that echoes Thorman's.
No matter what combination of maple stands, mapleshade cones, and various elastic materials I used, the results were pretty much the same- dullness, smearing, loss of dertails and dynamics.
I've also had a few conversatons with some designers/ manufacturers of the support systems, who basically confirmed my empirical findings.
All had changed, when I switched to Sistrum platforms- without going into much detail, very significant improvements across the whole spectrum of audiophile virtues.
To oversimplify this approach- speakers need to be on a kind of support system, that can drain vibrations away from the speaker, and not to "isolate" speaker from external vibrations.

Maril555,

That is the point of large thick maple or other slabs - to drain vibration away from your gear while at the same time keeping vibrations from your gear, particularly speakers, from interacting mechanically with your floor and setting up unwanted harmonics in your room. This issue has been discussed in some detail in at least one thread on this forum before:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?htech&1238883454

I think that the benefits of maple or other wood platforms for speaker and other equipment are highly ear, gear, rack and room dependent - so what works well for someone will not necessarily work well for others.

My "analytical" leaning CD player, sprung TT and less than completely rigid speakers cabinets benefit greatly from the application of wood platforms in my fairly lively listening room. While a softer or more neutral sounding source, very well designed speaker/spike system in a well tuned or dead listening room may not benefit from or actually be "harmed" by the characteristics imparted by wood platforms. YMMV.