Mapleshade Recordings..GREAT or what?

Mapleshade uses no noise reduction on many (all?) of their CDs, and the tape hiss they leave in drives me crazy. However, I have some of their blues CDs that I really like and that don't have the tape hiss. But I returned several jazz CDs because of excessive background noise. Cheers. Craig.

I have to say I agree Nilthepill. The recordings are not excessively processed. It seems odd that the Mapleshade line is consistently on almost every major recording or audiophile major publication list as the best of the best and someone could find them intolerable. Several major Jazz Publications also site the musicians great performance. Something seems off base here (e.g. see http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/main/WHAT'S~1.HTM and Stereophile's Records to Die For listings over the last 5-8 years among many others). When you read some people's comments on these threads you should probably screen for emotional content (you might try this" imagine if the person's blood pressure is at 62 or 110 when they write their comments, everyone should be allowed their opinion but no should be allowed to trash others (companies or people), even with that said the cyper (vapor) bullies on these threads are sure to step in and rip on me and others immediately following this comment. It really seems like the subjective audio field is some measure of greatest or compensation for not achieving in some other area of life. In my 20+ years in the audio field I have found no single person's opinion complete because everyone has their own idea of great sound that is true for them but not for everyone. Excellent hearing does not equate with the understanding of what makes good music or we could find the next Classic Artist in the hearing lab. This should be about having fun and tapping into the soul the way that good music can. I have seen nothing in these threads that does not seem like the venacular of audio publications. And to those that are uninitiated it may sound like expertise. But really it is about packaging an emotional plea using the tone and presentation of a audio pub to make it sound somehow scientific or real engineering understanding. It is often a veneer of technical depth robbed from people chatting with other or from reading pubs. Quantity of words does make a thoughtful review. Nor does calling someone else stupid etc if they do not agree with you.) I know far less than what I don't know about audio, music, and things in general. But I am a good listener to those who pose well formed arguments that can be scientifically tested and verified. I applaud Mapleshade for the what they are doing. I encourage all to use some of the Mapleshade recordings that Audio Research uses to test their equipment. Maybe Audio Research needs some help understanding what a great recording is. Not all Mapleshade recordings are great, some are so so. But give them a try, chances are you will agree with hundreds of pages of glowing reviews of their recordings the world over. Thanks!

The recordings are very good depending on mike placement but I have to say most of the artists I have heard on both of Pierre's label are disappointing.

nanderson: sorry, i don't get your point. are you saying that mapleshades are "good" becuz they can be emperically verified as being "superior recordings" in some way? becuz they are supposedly used by AR to voice their equipment? or what? for someone who distains quanity of words over quality of thought, your post seems more than a little verbose. i've been at this hobby even longer than you. i don't embrace it as a substitute for some other failed part of my life. what's your unfufilled need? your apparent call for civility in responsive posts on threads like this one is belied by the condescending tone of yours. this thread is supposed to be about your thoughts on mapleshade recordings. your meager views on the subject in question are pathetic. if you want to elevate the quality of discussions on these threads, then don't substitute your psuedo-philisophical/scientific mumbo-jumbo for what you lable as audio pub vernacular. BTW, i find virtually all of the mapleshade and ref rec stuff to be well-recorded but really boring. there's lot's of stuff out there just as well recorded, or better so, that i return to over and over. this ain't the case with audiophile favorites declared "important" by stereophile or tas. but, hey, that's just my opinion. if you wanna spend your listening time with the "artists" of these labels, you should by all means do so. you really don't need to justify your tastes by chatting on audiogon. despite what nanderson apparently suggests.

The title of my thread states my thoughts on quality of Mapleshade recordings. My point about mentioning the staggering amount of positive reviews and use world wide was to make the case that their are other completely opposite opinions (by those many pay for their opinions) from the total dismissal of the recordings posted else where. I don't get many of your points but we don't all think alike. I wrote as much as I did about the need for calm discourse because it has long caught my attention a similarity of thought process of those that I have seen since the early 1960s that use their opinions, expressed as absolute facts, on high end audio, cars, wine, etc as a perverse way to make themselves better by putting others down. I hoped that younger people would understand the source of such needs and try to avoid it themselves. Calm discourse is so important in all things. I love high end audio as a source of pleasure and hoped that others would not be turned off from the hobby by those that see a need to catapult themselves in front of others by their self proclaimed knowledge. Forgive me if I don't respond back to this thread but I am going to busy on other things over the next few weeks. Best wishes!