I can't say anything from experience about Pierre's interconnects, but I really love his HDMI cable and a few of his other products. The HDMI is the same design as the IC's and speaker cables, but it has held up to a lot of plugging and unplugging during the 3 years I have had it. The upgraded one costs $165 and is clearly better than the all silver I2s PS-Audio sold until two years ago for $1k. The CDs that he produces and sells are top notch too. All the recording equipment is setup on maple platforms using his brass feet and cork/rubber blocks and the sound is very fine indeed.
Lest anyone accuse me of being too much a fan boy, I am currently 2 years into a boycott of his store over a disagreement about support for the digital scale he sells under his name. Mine got crazy and displayed a code saying it needed to be reset. I called Mapleshade several times to try to get them to ask their importer for the reset procedure that should have been included when new. They didn't want to waste the time on supporting such a cheap product that I admitted was under warranty. But, give the devil his due: some of his crazy-sounding ideas have proven to me and many others to perform way above expectations. Some of the other ideas, maybe not true genius. To set the record straight, all other dealings I have had with Mapleshade have been exemplary. If you are concerned about the IC's, I can tell you from experience, Mapleshade has been honest and fair and does not hassle about 30 day returns. I might have gotten Pierre on a bad day.
