Mapleshade boards under speakers

Love em! I received 2 of the unfinished 18 by 15 by 2 boards yesterday, with no footers or brass cones. At first I placed them just on the floor, like I had been doing with the birchply. Much better. Then I placed them on 3 wood buttons, attached with blutack, although I notice that Pierre hates blutack. Even as they are now, it's the best I've had under my speakers. Clarity improved from top to bottom, instruments stand out in greater relief. No frequency sounds overetched, all very natural. Bass is much tighter. So a very good investment. I may get some of his brass footers soon. I have some small brass cones I'll try later today. I have to say it's been the best tweek that doesn't sound like a tweek, if that makes any sense.
I suppose, in my severely technically challenged way of thinking, that it controls vibrations to the point where the speaker can play its best. I love them.

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.