Mapleshade Bedrock Speaker Stands - Cherry

I am the
first owner of these fantastic solid maple bedrocks that are around
three years old.  Selling because
my desktop system is being sold off.  Brass footers are like new.  Brass speaker supports are in great shape.  A few scuffs and scratches in the
cherry finish from moving speakers around. 
These have worked with a number of smaller speakers – but please see
the description below for possible speakers dimensions to be used with them and for a very detailed explanation of the philosophy/science behind
the design.  I found these to be nothing short of a STUNNING upgrade to
my speakers.  Especially in the
bass, which sounded like it doubled if not tripled in impact and clarity.

They are approximately 11” wide at back x 13” deep x 5” wide
at front x 2” high with 2” footers.  The back speaker supports are 6” apart.  Buyer pays shipping and fees.  Thanks for looking.  Here is the description from the Mapleshade website:

Custom Order Stand: A pair of 2" thick Maple Bedrock 1 Stands finished with Natural
Cherry toned lacquer. This is a semi-transparent finish which matches
wonderfully with many warmer golden-hued finishes and does not obscure the
distinctive grain of our maple. Stands with toned and black lacquer finishes
are made to order and take 6-8 weeks to ship. We require a 50% non-refundable
deposit for these items.


Our Maple Bedrock 1s consist of a pair of 2" thick maple bases, each
directly coupled to the floor by three massive brass footers pre-assembled to
each base. Two machined brass corner posts are mounted at the rear of each base
to support the rear, bottom edge of the speakers by means of sharp point
contact to provide clean, efficient draining of vibration. A 2"
Triplepoint footer supports the speakers' front, drains vibration and adjusts
tiltback. The width across the back of each maple base is 11", depth is
13".

Ordering Tips

• Our Maple Bedrock 1 is recommended for
speakers up to 11" wide and 10" deep


• The 2" thick Maple Bedrock is our least expensive stand and an
exceptional upgrade for any small speaker. We think the modest difference in
price to upgrade to our 4" thick Bedrock Ultras is a worthwhile
investment, especially on concrete floors. The Maple Gibraltar is our very best
sounding floor-mounting stand for small speakers.


• We custom-mount the speaker rear support posts for all time-correcting stands
to ensure optimal performance for the specific speaker being used. Please be
sure to include your speaker cabinet dimensions in the space provided above
when ordering.


• When specifying speaker dimensions, be sure to provided the width of the
rear, bottom edge of the speaker cabinet. Please also make us aware of any
tapering, bevels or other distinctive design elements of the cabinet shape that
might affect the placement or functionality of the Bedrock rear speaker support
posts.


• For best performance on uncarpeted floors, choose our standard footer option.


• To avoid leaving dings on expensive hardwood floors, use our radiused footer
options.


• On carpet, it is essential for the points of the Bedrock's footers to
penetrate the rug and contact the solid floor underneath.


• For high pile carpet with padding (more than 1/2" deep), you need thick carpet
footers to penetrate to the floor.


• For thin commercial wall-to-wall carpet (less than 1/2"), thin carpet
footers will sound slightly better than the thick carpet version.

On The Floor Mounting Concept

Only low,
on-the-floor mounting can make smallish speakers sound so huge, warm and
transparent. Optimized tiltback positioning, combined with super-solid maple
base and heavy vibrationdraining brass feet, yields amazing transients and
details. Percussion and piano attacks gain startling potency. Ditto for bass
power and articulation—enough to cross those subwoofers off your wish list.
Surprisingly, the soundstage image floats well above the floor. Here's the
physics:


• The highly rigid maple/brass mounting drains sound-muddying vibrations out of
the cabinet into the floor far more effectively and cleanly than any tall
stand. The improvement in warmth and midrange detail over hollow metal stands
is striking.


• Mounting the woofer close to the floor eliminates the sound-thinning mid and
upper bass suckout caused by high-mounted woofers (the famous Allison effect).
It also provides a 3 db acoustic boundary reinforcement from the lowest bass
upwards.


• The direct, rigid coupling to the floor lets the speaker drive the floor at
bottom octave frequencies, thereby greatly increasing the bass radiating area.


• Lastly, the adjustable tiltback allows you to time align perfectly the
leading edge attacks of the tweeter and woofer, by ear. The higher the
tiltback, the higher the image floats off the floor.


We recommend all potential Bedrock and Gibraltar customers try a simple
experiment to hear the benefits of low mounting: listen to one of your favorite
tracks with the speakers sitting on the floor in front of their current stands,
tilted back with a wood or metal block under the front with the tweeter aimed
slightly above your ear. If your floor is carpeted, lay down a heavy plank or
cutting board first. Then put the speakers back on their stands and listen to
the same track again. This preview lets you hear about half of the bass
improvement you'll get from Bedrocks, but none of the treble and midrange
improvements.

Addressing Bad Sounding Floors

If your
floor structure is concrete slab, tile, stone or modern
plywood/"engineered" wood construction, then we strongly recommend
the 4" Bedrock Ultras or, even better, the Gibraltars. If you wish to
extract the absolute maximum performance out of your speakers, then adding a
pair of Maple Speaker Plinths under the Bedrocks as a second layer of isolation
from the sound-ruining effects of the concrete is a further, clearly audible
sonic improvement.

Installation and Setup Tips

1. Set each Bedrock in place and, if
on carpet, step on the platform to make sure the footers penetrate the carpet
and contact the floor below. Without solid contact, sound will be severely
degraded. Make sure the brass footers are tightened only slightly more than
finger tight. DO NOT TIGHTEN HARD.


Room placement for Bedrocks is not, in principle, different than for any
conventional stand. We recommend:


• If possible, an ear-to-speaker distance of 5', with 7' between speakers (and
then keep on increasing the 7' until the center image falls apart)


• If possible, sit with the listening chair/sofa up against the center of the
room's long wall with speakers directly to the front of the listening position
using the 5'/7' geometry


• If the wall listening position is impractical, then place the speakers at
least 15" away from the wall behind them (increasing this 6" at a
time until you find the best sounding wall distance) while preserving the 5'/7'
geometry, if possible.

2. Place the speakers firmly on the
rear corner posts and put the Triplepoint footer under the front bottom of the
speaker. Move the Triplepoint back to raise the tilt of the speaker. For
speakers with the tweeter above the midrange, start with the tweeter axis
pointed just below your ear height. Make sure that all three points on the top
of the Triplepoint are firmly in contact with the speaker bottom and that the
rear corner posts are firmly gripping the speaker.

3. To adjust tiltback for optimum
time alignment, use one minute of a really well recorded acoustic guitar or
upright bass solo (suggestions: Mapleshade #10452 Flamenco or #09832 Spirit and
Samba) as a test track. Listen, then increase tiltback slightly from the
initial tweeter axis pointing just below your ear and listen again. If the
"pluck" of the guitar or bass gets cleaner and crisper, increase
tiltback again and listen. Keep on doing this until the "pluck" starts
getting slightly muddier, then just go back one step.


• For speakers with the tweeter below the midrange, start with the tweeter axis
pointing slightly above your ear and then listen to increments of decreasing
tiltback.


• When you reach the best-sounding tiltback-that is, the optimum time
alignment-it will sound like the guitarist or bassist just removed cotton
gloves from their fingers.


• As you increase tiltback, you will also note that the image floats higher and
higher above the floor.

4. Start with speaker toe-in nearly
parallel, then increase toe-in 10° to 15° at a time, listening always to the
same one-minute test track. Toe-in works like a tone control: parallel speakers
give more spaciousness and less presence; speakers strongly toed-in to point
straight at your ear give less spaciousness but yield maximum presence. It also
pays to try even more toe-in with speaker tweeter axes converging in front of
your nose; this usually gives the widest sweet spot for multiple listeners.

5. For perfectionists, it is worth
running through the cycle of the above adjustments-distance from wall, toe-in,
and tiltback-twice because each adjustment slightly affects the optimum for the
next adjustment.