Mapleshade boards under speakers

I concur about using the Maple Platforms coupled with brass footers. I'm using Mapleshade Platforms with brass heavyfoots countersunk into the maple platforms so as to not raise my speakers any higher. My CM-7's sit on Brass Heavyfoots on top of the maple platforms. The setup is actually quite good looking to boot.

The sound improvement was not subtile. I used a Mapleshade custom sized, solid brass weight, with a hole drilled thru as a spacer on the front heavyfoot's to tilt the speakers enough to "time-align" the drivers. It's a real pain to do the setup properly, moving speakers around the carpet before spiking them to the subfloor, getting the tilt correct, etc. BUT....there is no denying it transformed a pair of modestly priced speakers into real gems. The focus, imaging and that elusive 3D effect I love belies the pricepoint of these speakers since I did this setup. I'm SOLD!!! Money well spent.

That said, the results might vary with the quality of your speakers. If you're using really high end speakers that are built like bank vaults, this tweek might not be so dramatic. I can only speak for my results with modest speakers.

Sound terrible in my house, thin wool rug over spruce.

I used them under my monitors and they do give the speakers a good sound, albeit a maple coloring. The sound was much better than sitting on the tile floors.

the mapleshade stuff is swamp maple I think which accounts for all that black striations.

I now use a "space age polymer" called TerraStone under my towers.

Tinkerer that I am, I finally settled on using the small, dime sized discs under the spikes on top of the maple. The mids are still wonderfully fleshed out and the highs have that finer leading edge and trailing off that without the discs seemed to be a a bit diminished. I thought I was hearing things but the final configuration was consistent with all the music I tried.

Well worth the experimentation.

All the best,
Nonoise

Try Symposium for some real improvement!!