Mapleshade Audio tips for better audio

[RickFL]

Easy Ways To Improve Generic Wires and High End Cables

• Lift all speaker, power, and interconnect wires 8" off any carpet or plastic tile. Use string, wood, cardboard, or 20 ounce Styrofoam cups for temporary props. You’ll think you’ve pulled horse blankets off your speakers. For a more civilized-looking solution, click here.

• For generic speaker wire, AC cords, and wall wart umbilicals, always split their two-conductor wires and separate by at least 6" for a satisfying upgrade. Don't forget to keep all your system wire—IC, speaker and power--off artificial fiber rugs and de-static them regularly.

• NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'. Amazingly, 4' sounds much worse than 8'. Contrary to common belief, shorter interconnects (2 m or less) and longer speaker cables always sound WAY BETTER than the opposite—based on extensive head-to-head tests.

• Bi-wiring helps quite a bit, but only for cables with quite limited bass and treble. The better the cable, the less the benefit. By the time you get to the performance level of our Double Helix speaker cables, there is zero benefit in bi-wiring.

• To audibly improve any cheap interconnect, use a razor to carefully peel the thin plastic insulation off the braided metal you'll find underneath. Split 2-channel interconnects and separate the two by several inches. Cut heat shrink and plastic strain reliefs off the back of RCA plugs and remove their metal barrels (if possible). Among generic wires, choose the skinniest for best sound.

• To improve high end cables, remove any outer nylon mesh: the bad dielectric only adds grunge. Remove any metal barrels on RCA plugs—you lose the locking feature and gain transparency.

• Any cable with a molded-in ferrite (the small plastic-covered cylinder at one or both ends) sounds way better with the ferrite removed. Just carve away the plastic covering, then crack the exposed ceramic-like ferrite with a hammer. Don’t worry; you won’t harm the wire.

• Never bundle any of your system’s wires: bundling looks neat and sounds nasty

Fact or fiction?

[Edgar]

Oh, my. Oh, my, my ...

• Lift all speaker, power, and interconnect wires 8" off any carpet or plastic tile. Use string, wood, cardboard, or 20 ounce Styrofoam cups for temporary props. You’ll think you’ve pulled horse blankets off your speakers.

If it really sounds like you pulled a horse blanket off your speakers when you do this, then something is very, very wrong with your system.

• For generic speaker wire, AC cords, and wall wart umbilicals, always split their two-conductor wires and separate by at least 6" for a satisfying upgrade.

Thereby increasing the path inductance by orders of magnitude. Do they prefer rolled-off high frequencies?

• NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'.

So that you can coil them on the floor next to your speaker, increasing inductance even more.

• Bi-wiring helps quite a bit, but only for cables with quite limited bass and treble.

What are they using for interconnects, iron pipe?

• To audibly improve any cheap interconnect, use a razor to carefully peel the thin plastic insulation off the braided metal you'll find underneath.

It offers so many more opportunities for ground loops.

Among generic wires, choose the skinniest for best sound.

Of course, the best sounding interconnect has zero diameter.

• To improve high end cables, remove any outer nylon mesh: the bad dielectric only adds grunge. Remove any metal barrels on RCA plugs—you lose the locking feature and gain transparency.

You didn't actually want to be able to sell those cables after you found out that their claims were pure hogwash, did you?

• Any cable with a molded-in ferrite (the small plastic-covered cylinder at one or both ends) sounds way better with the ferrite removed. Just carve away the plastic covering, then crack the exposed ceramic-like ferrite with a hammer. Don’t worry; you won’t harm the wire.

No, your system just loves it when you introduce RFI through the interconnects.

• Never bundle any of your system’s wires: bundling looks neat and sounds nasty

Possibly the only advice here that has any chance of being useful.

[Don Richard]

That site is satirical and not serious at all. Enjoy the humor.

[Edgar]

That site is satirical and not serious at all. Enjoy the humor.

I need a vacation. I should have been able to figure that out for myself. But, in audio, you never can tell. I've seen stranger advice that was serious.

[seti]

Mapleshade recordings are absolutely superb. I even like some of their products but some of their products and advice seem more like snake oil.

[Dr Morbius]

Those were funny, though!

[seti]

That site is satirical and not serious at all. Enjoy the humor.

I need a vacation. I should have been able to figure that out for myself. But, in audio, you never can tell. I've seen stranger advice that was serious.

I pray you are correct. Is it more of a comment on the times that we had a hard time telling the difference.

[NOSValves]

That site is satirical and not serious at all. Enjoy the humor.

No the site is serious as a hard attack... you should see the complete butcher job they do to vintage amplifiers. I lost count on how many I have reversed the work they do...well if you call $15 dollars worth of cheap parts and a couple 12" pieces of shielded wire work LOL!!! The recordings maybe good but 99% of the rest is pure snake oil.