Mapleshade tweaks

I purchased their power strip and my experience was simillar to ehaller. It seemed really cheap and unwieldy but inserted into the system, really did bring out much more detail and extension. One problem. It seemed so sensitive to all the wires around it that I just couldn't get rid of a hum. If I worked long enough to try to isolate it's wires sufficiently from all the others in my system, not an easy logistical task, I might be able to eliminate this hum and still have it in my system. I never sold it so I may pull it out sometime and try again.

"... some like to build and some like to just buy it finished."

There seems to be this syndrome of DIYers knocking manufacturers and their pricing. I started out as a DYIer myself but IME most of my customers don't want to bother.

Regarding build quality, depending on the product, this varies, but the price is commensurate.

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.