Mapleshade tweaks

I purchased the Clearview Golden Parallel Long-run speaker wire for a nieghbor that needed a long run but couldn't afford 1k for wire. The wire sounded terrible, even after a long break in. It would be fine for a 2nd bedroom set-up or a run to rear speakers in an HT rig, but for two channel mains we had as good sonics using zip cord.

Judsauce,

Not to beat a dead horse but I'm guessing this was a matter of taste or compatibility. What specifically was your complaint?

My experiences have been variable. The Samson racks are as good as it gets, as far as I am concerned. I have two of them. I also have a Mapleshade-modified Scott tuner, and I can assure you that the difference between it and the stock version is several orders of magnitude. It will stand up to virtually any tuner ever made.

On the negative side, I did not care for the ICs at all. It's difficult to say how much was due to the fundamental character of the ICs and how much was interaction with the speakers (SoundLabs). Quite a number of highly regarded ICs have not sounded good on these, so I would certainly suspect at least some mismatch there.

RCCC - Blanket pronouncements with no backing facts are utterly useless. We might as well be on a Y@hoo message board.

Slaw3 - thanks for giving us a few facts to work with, but perhaps statements such as "And they have great copy writers, saying things that can't be proved but sound darned good. The products themselves ...um, don't" need not be quite so all-encompassing when you've (apparently) listened to only the cables. As it happens, I would agree with you - at least in the case of the ICs in my particular system, but conversely they make at least two products that I wouldn't voluntarily do without.

Perhaps some of the negative reviewers here should pick up the phone and have a little chat with Pierre about their experience. It's one thing to say that everything is bs because you've tried one or two of their products and they didn't work in your system, and it's another to reject everything.
From experience I know that Pierre is very patient and will give you any advice you'd like, even on matters that won't make him sell anything (such as speaker placement, etc). The fact that he favors maple over granite or whatever else doesn't mean that it's the best solution for everything and everybody; what is? And of course it won't necessarily work in every system and every room.
Having said that, I have had great results with his speaker Floorstander plinths (I have a concrete floor) but not with the Excalibur Plus ICs (which I didn't find better than AN Sogons; hey, that's in my system, with my ears...). But I'll keep exploring what they have.