Over the last two decades, we’ve handed out a plethora of speaker advice to Mapleshade fans: which particular speakers are truly outstanding for the price, how to tweak each to get even greater performance, etc. Two years ago Eldon, Mapleshade’s resident pragmatist, said, “Hey Pierre, wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if we just sourced the speakers you recommend, upgrade them ourselves and then offer them to our customers for a reasonable price?” He had a good point. Ever since, we’ve been listening to and comparing a wide variety of speakers, then working up mods for the really promising candidates. So far, we've come up with two speakers and a pair of subwoofers that sound good enough out of the box to receive the Mapleshade seal of approval. One of those two speakers is an astonishing bargain for entry-level systems. The other one, at $2600 for the upgraded version, is simply one of the world’s best—regardless of price.