Enjoy the excitement
of live music from
the comfort of home.
A haven for music since 1986, Mapleshade began as Pierre Sprey's mansion recording studio in the Maryland woods. Our catalog of over 100 recordings encompass jazz, R&B, world, country-bluegrass, rock, gospel, classical and more.
First devised for our studio, Mapleshade audio upgrades transform your home system sound for a fraction of what it cost. Our innovative products make music sound strikingly better than you've ever heard.
Handcrafted in Maryland, our modular shelving stores all types of music and movies, audio gear, books, art objects and other collections. Mapleshade solid wood furniture allows collectors to organize and personalize their collections with convenience unmatched by any other means of storage.
What is Mapleshade?
Founded in 1986, Mapleshade began as Pierre Sprey's home recording studio — affectionately referred to as "Edison's Lab" by jazz great Walter Davis Jr. Pierre recorded live to two-track analog tape and used no add-on EQ, reverb or noise reduction electronics. Our recordings were made with only 2 to 4 microphones and no cables longer than 20 feet. The resulting sound has startling, "in-the-room" clarity, raw and exciting, full of the life that few studios capture.
Mapleshade Audio Upgrades
In Pierre's words, "The wonderful thing about high end is the principle that only your ears count. And that's a way of making brilliant advances in designing anything that has to do with audio, and certainly in designing ways of recording."
Succinctly stated, that's the design philosophy that underlies both our recordings and speaker wires, vibration control mounting systems, and a variety of other music upgrade products. Hi-fi is plagued by inferior sounding products turned out by designers relying on sine wave theory and sine wave test signals unrelated to music waveforms — without empirically verifying their theories by careful listening tests that use real music. Every Mapleshade product has been painstakingly refined by thousands of hours of ear testing, using our own purist recordings of live music.
Audio Products
Racks & Stands
Vibration Control Systems
Our products were born from Pierre's research to improve the sound quality of his studio recordings and playback, then later adapted for home use. We take pride in offering quality handmade products that seriously improve the sound of any stereo and offered with our 30-day money back guarantee.
Mounting audio gear on a really good vibration-absorbing base beautifully improves the sound. We only use solid, air-dried Ambrosia maple for our platforms and component stands, speaker bases, and SAMSON rack shelves because it sounds warmer, clearer, punchier and more detailed than any commonly used platform and stand materials.
Signal currents flowing through A/V components create internal vibrations. Getting rid of these distortion-causing vibrations will significantly improve the sound quality of your system. Originally created for signal path electronics in our recording studio, Mapleshade Vibration Control Systems (VCS) are designed for exactly this purpose.
Mapleshade Recordings
Our recordings were made live to 2-track analog tape using Pierre's modified Sony TC-880-2 with no EQ, no overdubs, no filtering, no compression, or other studio cosmetics. The result is similar to that warm Sun Studio or Blue Note sound of the ’50s but even clearer and more live, blurring the barrier between the recording studio and the performance stage.
Restored & remastered from new 24/96 transfers of the first generation analog tapes by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering.
Restored & remastered from new 24/96 transfers of the first generation analog tapes by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering.
Restored & remastered from new 24/96 transfers of the first generation analog tapes by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering.
The first-ever vinyl release of Live At Ethel's by P-Vine Records as a double LP on audiophile-grade vinyl. (Japanese Import)
The first-ever vinyl release of The Mellow Side of Clifford Jordan by P-Vine Records as a double LP on audiophile-grade vinyl. (Japanese Import)
The first-ever vinyl release of Masters From Different Worlds by P-Vine Records as a double LP on audiophile-grade vinyl. (Japanese Import)
Mapleshade
Modular Shelving
Handcrafted by the same Amish family makes our maple platforms and rock-solid SAMSON racks, our shelving uses top grade solid 3/4" red oak, Ambrosia maple, or Maryland walnut.
The remarkable quality of wood and workmanship is obvious at first glance. The lovely grain and solid quality of our hand-selected, furniture grade wood is far more attractive than any mass-produced-overseas furniture you'll find.
Our interlocking modules store music and movies collections, books, electronics and more. Paired with rolling caster bases, solid tops and other accessories, Mapleshade's shelving helps enthusiasts conveniently organize and personalize their collections.
Choose a wood type below to view individual modules, accessories and preconfigured shelving units.
Learn & Explore
Our curated collection of customer setups, home listening rooms and photo collections offer creative inspiration for building your own perfect system.
Learn about Mapleshade's vibration ccontrol system that has transformed the sound of thousands of audiophile systems over the last three decades.
Putting audio gear on a really good vibration-absorbing base beautifully improves the sound. We exclusively use solid, air-dried Ambrosia maple because it sounds warmer, clearer, punchier and more detailed than any commonly used platform and stand materials.