Phone: (410) 685-4618 Email: info@mapleshadestore.com
SAMSON V.3 Stands
fits two side-by-side components up to 23" wide x 21" deep
52 in. Wide x 21 in. Deep Shelves
The V.3 is our widest stock SAMSON size, ideal for systems with multiple source components and situations when a low profile rack is desired. Side-to-side width between each pair of solid steel uprights is 23" inches.
To enhance their versatility, SAMSON V.4 shelves can be intermixed as half-width shelves for V.3 racks.
If you wish to further upgrade the V.3, you can add Maple Platforms up to 21" x 19" on top of the lower shelves. For wider components, you can mount a 24" x 18" Maple Platform on Isoblocks on the top shelf.
Solid 2 in. & 4 in. Shelf Thicknesses, Fully Adjustable
The standard 3/4" shelf thickness of most racks is simply not rigid enough and therefore too resonant for first rate sound. Our 2" solid maple shelves are over 60 times as stiff as the 3/4" veneered MDF shelves of most audiophile racks. Because commercial kiln-drying significantly deadens the sound of maple, we air-dry the lumber for every SAMSON shelf for 3 to 6 years in our large, purpose-built drying shed.
Users with turntables may want to consider the 4" shelf option for the top shelf; the improvement over the 2" is easy to hear. Ditto with first rate CD players. On the other hand, adding a 4" maple platform with IsoBlocks onto a 2" shelf sounds even better than a 4" shelf alone—but it costs you an extra 4" in height.
Those seeking the absolute ultimate in sound quality will want 4" thick shelves from top to bottom with enough clearance to place a 4" maple platform on every shelf. This all-out, ultra-massive version of the SAMSON is simply the best-sounding equipment rack in the world, bar none.
Optimized Footers For Best Sound On Any Floor Type
The SAMSONs' footers are crucial to good sound. They provide a clean, unbroken vibration path to the floor. We offer 2" Heavyfoot and 3" Megafoot options, each offered with four point styles optimized to offer the best sound quality for different types of surfaces and floor coverings.
• For best sound on uncarpeted floors, use Heavyfeet or, even better, Megafeet.
• To avoid leaving pock marks on polished hardwood or plastic tile floors, use Radiused Heavyfeet or Radiused Megafeet (with only a very slight compromise of sound quality). These sound far better than pointed feet degraded by floor-protecting discs or cups.
• For high pile carpet with padding (more than 1/2" deep), you need Thick Carpet Heavyfeet or Megafeet to penetrate and rest solidly on the floor.
• For standard commercial wall-to-wall carpet (1/2" or less), the less pointed Thin Carpet Heavyfeet or Megafeet will sound slightly better than the Thick Carpet version.
Our Design Concept
In 1986 we started exploring ways of mounting recording and playback equipment to improve the sound of Mapleshade Studio's perfectionist CD recordings. Success led to 30 years of continual refinement and further vibration control listening tests in pursuit of ever-better sound. Those tests have proved that:
• Most crucial is to provide an absolutely rigid, straight, resonance-free and unbroken path for vibrational energy to flow out of the equipment into the shelf and down through the supporting uprights into floor. Any plastic, rubber or other damping material introduced for "isolation" into the path from the shelf to the floor induces muddy bass plus smeared mids and highs. Equally harmful is the common practice of breaking up the vibration path by stacking individual shelf modules with spikes between modules.
• Any wood shelf sounds far, far better than metal, granite, slate or glass shelves. Wood also sounds better than any Corian, graphite/carbon fiber composite or space age highly damped composites. Among the various forms of wood, solid wood shelves are best with plywood a deader-sounding distant second. Butcher block, MDF and particle board sound even deader, due to the excessive internal damping associated with their very high glue content.
• Every wood species sounds audibly different. The most transparent and least colored sounding wood species is red maple, significantly better sounding than rock maple, walnut, cherry, myrtle, spruce, pine, oak, mahogany, jojoba or other exotic tropical hardwoods. Air-dried maple is audibly better than kiln-dried. Note that all commercial lumber yard and butcher block maple is kiln-dried. Old growth, naturally slow grown, close-grained maple sounds significantly better than force-fed, plantation grown, wide-grained commercial maple. No matter what the wood, the industry standard 3/4" shelf thickness is inadequately rigid for first rate sound.
• To provide a clean, unbroken vibration path to the floor, the shelves must be rigidly locked to one piece uprights. Segmented modules spiked one on top of the other are never rigid enough—and seriously interrupt the vibration path.
• Uprights must be solid, not hollow—and much more rigid than needed for load-bearing alone. Damping the very audible resonances of any hollow metal support with sand or lead fill introduces new problems: both dynamics and ambience are deadened and sustained notes are truncated. To transfer vibrational energy cleanly into the floor, uprights must be terminated with massive pointed footers, preferably brass.
• The overall rack structure must be unshakably stiff and rigid, so rigid that leaning against the top is like leaning against a brick wall. The slightest side-sway or fore-and-aft sway immediately degrades sound. This is a weak point for almost every audio rack on the market.
The SAMSON addresses these crucial design issues quite simply:
• The shelves are 2" and 4” air-dried maple cut only from old-growth logs and air-dried for 3 to 6 years. 2" solid maple is over 60 times as stiff as the 3/4" veneered MDF shelves of most conventional audio racks.
• The uprights are 1¼" solid steel, not hollow, thus 16 times as stiff as the typical rack's 5/8" steel rod or 99 times stiffer than the 1" square hollow aluminum tubing found on expensive high end racks.
• Each maple shelf is locked to the 1¼" threaded solid steel uprights by being captured with crushing force between two massive threaded round brass nuts at each corner. This yields a totally rigid vibration path and zero perceptible or measurable side sway. The 1¼" uprights thread directly and rigidly into threaded brass Heavyfeet or Megafeet—the most massive footers offered on any available equipment rack.
Choose the number of shelves needed below for options & pricing
All prices include shipping within the continental United States. 30-day money back.
OUR GUARANTEE
To ensure you are satisfied with your purchase and can try our upgrades in your home system risk-free, we offer a 30-day moneyback guarantee for all stock Mapleshade audio and furniture products. Customized items, made-to-order finishes & some 3rd party products are excluded. Our Terms & Conditions apply.
ORDER BY PHONE
Call 410-685-4618 to order. We are open Monday through Friday, 9am to 5:00pm EST. You can also order through our webstore 24 hours a day at shop.mapleshadestore.com
ORDERING & UPGRADE ADVICE
We offer expert advice on how to improve the sound of your system using Mapleshade upgrades—as well as help in evaluating, installing or using any of our audio and furniture products. Email info@mapleshadestore.com or call 410-685-4619.