what is the theory behind maple stands and racks?

Shadorne, and they quite believe they are right!

Maple is easy to look at, reasonably stable, easy to source, easy to machine, and easy to finish. That's it, nothing more. Well, except that in some uses people believe it sounds better.

I built my stands using maple and walnut. Why? Because both woods are easy to look at, reasonably stable, easy to source, easy to machine, and easy to finish. ;-)

In my system I found that maple shelves (all of my shelves are on sandboxes) work ok under most of my components. It was horrible, IMO, under my turntable. So I tried granite. it was horrible in another way. I eventually wound up with 1/2" aluminum plate under my 'table, the table is spiked into the plate, and the plate is supported above the granite shelf with Stillpoints. I'm using rollerblocks under my source power supplies (that's where the tranny vibes are), and I let the stock rubber booties handle the CDP, preamp and phonostage chassis. So, in the end, I'm finding that no one shelf material works for me in all applications.

But if you notice I'm using several forms of vibration control. Some isolation, some damping, some coupling. It all just happens to be sitting on those maple and walnut stands.

Interesting thread.
Not sure how the density or hardness of wood types have on vibrational adsorbtion, but in the process of experimenting.
Per the Janka rating for density of hardwoods (steel ball thrown at material) I believe American cherry is 950, Oak 1250, Maple 1350, hardest being Brazilian Cherry 2750

I have some exotic hardwoods I will try under my primaluna 8 tube cd player, that should be revealing device to test.

Just made an entertainment center from 2 layers of 3/4" maple plywood with mdf in the middle, 2" thick. Seems to decouple well between components.
Also Picked up some squash and racketballs to add a poor mans floating layer on top of that by routing a cove bit pit to keep balls in place. Will let you know how it works.

In reality, is there a difference between someone placing their components on a $380.00 4 inch maple amp stand from Mapleshade records vs. a maple butcher block of the same dimensions that probably costs $150.00?

Dan,

My cabinets are Maple on the oustide (MDF shelves and acoustic batting inside) and my Roland electronic drum set has a V-Expressions "Maple" acoustic set that sounds absolutely awesome (when played with maple drumsticks);-)

Frankly, I agree with you that when it comes to wood I think it is the finish/durability/wear is much more of a consideration than any "technical" consideration. For example, if I made my cabinets out of pine - it would look ugly and would get dinged all to easily, as pine is so soft.

I don't know about Mapleshade but I purchased some 1.75" thick maple butcher block counter top pieces from Grizzley and cut it up to fit my components. Seems to work just fine. To be fair though, I have not done A/B tests with other materials or with Mapleshade products. Seems like it would be a lot of effort for what would be minor, if any, noticeable results.