Hello everyone. I just joined the group since I have been reading for over a week. I spoke with Steve yesterday and ordered some Decware which will probably be my last system. I did order a pair of the new radials. Steve said delivery time would be 8-10 weeks, with a March 2 birthday coming up I hope they are done in 8. Steve also said the fan stain on the speakers was on the production model and quite nice. The rest I ordered is Taboo amp, CSP2 pre and ZP3 phono stage. I never felt pressured but Steve guided me towards a system that would do what I wanted. I am excited, anxious and willing to listen and learn.

I have both Mapleshade Gold Helix and Kimber 8TC speaker wires to try. All my interconnects are Kimber KCAG. Sources come from Adcom CD changer and Pro-ject TT. I suppose I own most of the usual tweeks audiophyles fall for. Speakers till the Radials come are Jean Marie Reynaud Twin II.

My music tasts are pretty open. I really don't care for cowboy music, yodeling or whistling but I can suffer through more than most men my age (62) can. I am retired, in poor health but I'm a pretty game felly and they won't throw dirt on me without a good fight. Hope to chat with you guys often as I learn my new system.

Thank you for the welcome. I also use the Mapleshade maple platforms but on a VTI audio video three shelf rack. I have stacked isoblocks under the slabs and use heavy feet between the component and the slab. There is an audible difference.

I was wondering on the speaker wires should the wire be terminated or unterminated? My Mapleshades are unterminated bare wire but the Kimber has bananas on each end. I recently put some of the Mapleshade silver paste on all my tube pins and connectors. It sounds ok but the main reason I am upgrading is because I made a purchasing mistake and the integrated amp I am using just isn't crankin' my tractor if you get what I mean. I bought an 8 watt SET built by Tec-on. It's cute as hell, heavy as a McIntosh but it runs out of gas to early. I loved my Twin II speakers when I was powering them with a NYAL Modified Moscode 75 but the Apt Holman pre needed recapping and then everything started snowballing downhill till I finally made the call to Steve.

Glass--
Welcome to the forum!
Nice to have another old feller here!
I'm especially interested in your Radial speaker impressions
Best,
Don

Steve and I did discuss using the Tori and the SE34i and came to the conclusion the Taboo would suit my tastes. My room is 15X18X8 and has quite a bit of acoustic treatment added.

I did without stereo for almost 2 years after Hurricane Rita made a direct hit on my casa. It was pretty horrible times but two good things came out of the repairs. I got a patio to die for complete with wet bar, TV and a margarita machine and I finally got my dedicated music room.

You don't find many basements in south Louisiana, dig down 6" and you either strike oil or water. My room isn't big but it's the best i have ever had and all I have to satisfy is myself. I listen to all kinds of music, even at 62 I know RAP stands for Rhythm And Poetry but I don't play Rap, cowboy tunes, yodeling or whistling songs   Most of my music is Rock, Blues, Latin, Jazz and Soul. I have some classical and opera albums but I don't need to shake the walls to hear them. Perhaps with a better system I will hear things I have missed in the past which is almost like getting a new music collection.

Lon - I will be calling Mapleshade for more maple platforms soon are the 4" really that much better? Could I stack two of the 2"? I had never heard of cryo treating anything till last week, guess that comes from being out of the hobby for a while, that and where I live is quite a distance from any high end shops. My high end audio store would be Best Buy or Circuit City. It has to be pretty tough running a stereo shop now days. Have you tried the Silclear?

Another question to anyone - do you use footers under the radials and do any of you use tube dampers on your tubes?

Seems like we are both big fans of Mapleshade. I might try a 4" under my turntable since I was going to have to buy at least one more platform anyway and use the 2" ones under equipment. Since I will soon be cartridge shopping I am struggling with myself to order one of the Mapleshade Soundsmith SMMC2 moving coils.

I have looked at the Iso Cups they appear similar to the Ginko system using blue balls. I have seen one more using balls but can't recall what it was called or where I saw it. Which ball do you use in your Iso Cups? I saw on Herbie's web site he sells a plethora of balls made from different material I was surprised i didn't see diamond and chewing gum.

I did a very bad thing back in the late 80s I sold a record collection. Five years later I was buying records again trying to replace all the Mobile Fidelity, Sheffield Labs, JVC and Japanese pressings I had. My collection is smaller but I think it's still a nice collection. I am also a sucker for any album in color vinyl or has a picture on it.

What I may do is order a 4" Mapleshade platform for my turntable and use the 4X2" platforms for CD, amp, preamp and phono stage. I'm too poor to buy the Samson Rack.  :'(

That sounds like sage advice Lon. I'll order a 4" to go under the TT.

I changed my name to Stone Deaf after last night's listening session. I always strive to become smarter the older I get. I guess I finally got to that age it's going in reverse. I am diagnosed with CRS - Can't Remember $hit.

You are being a big help. Now to figure out what to put the speakers on or what to put under them. I have hardwood floors over concrete. I guess I will wait till the speakers get here to make a decision. I have even considered sitting the speaker on a maple block using isoblocks beneath them.

I was wondering about the height also but I have never owned radial speakers. I should get my radials around my birthday March 2 won't that be a nice present. Just looking at the pics the RSS don't show any footers so I'm playing the waiting game. I should have the new front end Decware in a couple of weeks to use with the JMR Twin II speakers till then.

Thanks Bob!

Richard,

  Height was more of an issue with the older RL-1-2's, which had more to do with the bass response. But if the main driver is to high, the lower mids seem to suffer. The front driver on the RL-3's solved there height issue. The new plinth bases don't really care if they are on wood, concrete or carpet.  Set up with the EER's is for dummies, the round RL-1 - 2's it was hard to tell if the tow in was just right, the EER's being square make that a bit easier, and like most speakers, there position relative to room boundaries will change the bass response, other than that, almost anything else works. They can almost touch each other, 5 feet in front of you and the EER's will image just as well as the normal speaker set up.

    I have, on more than one occasion, while the listener sat in the listening chair with eyes closed, set up two radials just in front of, and right beside the listening chair. Then turned on the music, had them open there eyes only to tell me the two speakers, in the normal speaker position was what he was listening to. Even after knowing which pair of speakers were playing, they still had the sound stage up in the front of the room.  

  I don't think the EER's are going to let you know what kind of mouth wash Peter Gabriel used, I think the only way to tell that would be if the EER's produced sent, they're good, but not that good!!!  

 BobZ

Richard,

  Actually, there are 3 sets of binding posts on the back, use the lower or bottom set,  the EER's are not able to be bi-amped or bi-wired.

Bob Z

Richard,

 The other two sets are for the cap and the resistor....you can  cap roll if you like, or attenuate the tweeter to suit your taste.

BobZ

Lon,

 That would be a no...

  If you think about it, people that are part of this forum, like to tweak things and play around with  tubes, caps wiring and the like, but I'd be afraid someone looking at the retail side of things would just think it was to complicated, or "Whats this for"  and may be turned off by it. So the idea was to go for bi-wire or amped which a lot of people expect, I would think.

The RL-3's had the caps and the resistors exposed, where the RL-1 thru 2's did not, with the pyramid cabinets it again allowed us to do it so we did. Its just more fun that way!

BobZ