Mapleshade Recordings

[AndrewLyles]

I was messing around with my Rives Audio test CD 2 yesterday and completely forgot that there were sample tracks at the end. I was blown away by the quality of the recordings and started researching...it didn't take that much as it was on the back of the CD case.

I have heard of Mapleshade Recordings before but had not bought anything from them. I ordered three of thier albums from amazon yesterday: "Big Joe Maher", "The J Street Jumpers", and "A La Carte Brass and Percussion." I was blown away by their sound on the samples, and if they are anything like what was on my sample disc I have just entered sonic heaven.

If you're after uperbly mastered recordings you may want to check them out with an open mind about the musical types. They're not going to have any mainstream albums but if you do some exploring you'll probably find something you like. I'll keep y'all posted when they get here about how the albums turn out.

Has anybody else bought anything from Mapleshade? Thoughts?

 

[Geno]

I'm familiar with the website - their recordings are reportedly quite good. On the other hand, they are purveyors of some of the silliest snake oil products I've ever seen. Interesting site to visit, but keep your hand on your wallet.

 

[hondajake]

I have some Mapleshade recordings. I am amazed by the sound quality, however, not the music. The music seems very boring to me. I have some of thier Jazz and Latin CD's. The Jazz, Andy McCloud and the Gentlemen of Jazz, is alright, the Latin music is awful. But really well recorded.

I once bought thier cable and jumpers. I was not impressed with the thin strips of copper they sent me for jumpers which was made of the same copper that was used in Mapleshade's most expensive interconnects. It was a joke. I emailed them about it and how I didnt think it was worth 20 dollars for the jumpers and how I did not hear a difference in the jumpers and I got a rather scathing email back from the owner. I sent my order back and never bought from them again. Its been like 2 or 3 years now.. I look on thier site occasionally and see nothing but snake oil. The rebuilt tube amps look nice...

It amazes me someone who is so educated in engineering is selling this snake oil...

 

[AndrewLyles]

I tend to agree with the snake oil comments, though I take that with a grain of salt and just sort of pass over that sort of thing...thank you Audioholics for a proper education! I listened to a whole lot of song samples before I ordered CDs from Amazon and I tend to agree that some of the music is boring. But in fairness, I don't listen to most of the styles that they publish so perhaps that's not a fair assesment. My ordered should ship tomorrow so I should have some comments about them hopefully this week.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

I've ordered a few albums from them. "Well polished ****" is a good way to describe what I've heard. Douglas Allanbrook's Songs Of Love And Death especially. Imagine if William Hung composed music instead of singing. Its seriously wrong on many levels.

Now I did like the C-Nuts, but a band that does jazz covers of circa 1985 Pop?? Its really more of a nice oddity than something that gets repeat playings.

 

[pbarach1]

I have some Mapleshade recordings. I am amazed by the sound quality, however, not the music. The music seems very boring to me.

I have the Rives Test CD2 (thanks, Audioholics and Rives--I won it through one of the Audioholics contests!). To me the test tracks are very useful. However, I have never been able to keep my attention focused through even a single one of the Mapleshade music tracks. I would rather listen to nearly any 60- or 70-year-old recording by, say, Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong, than to any of the Mapleshade music tracks on that CD, however astounding the sound quality. And if I were foolish enough to buy teeny copper wires and blocks of Special Wood for hundreds of dollars in order to better hear those Mapleshade recordings, I would hope that medical science could benefit from a postmortem examination of my brain. (...and it wouldn't take long for Mapleshade-induced boredom to put me in the morgue!).