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I need help from GMA Europa owners

I'm hoping one of the many Europa owners on this forum can help. After A/B-ing between between Thiel CS1.6's and Europa's, I've decided to keep the Europas -- but I'm having one problem with their sound.

While the Thiels have a remarkable clarity and purity with female voices, the Europas have a slight bit of a haze. The clarity seems to be missing a bit. I'm not sure if it's a bit of distortion, simply the nature of the speakers, or something else.

I'm feeding the speakers from a Musical Fidelity 3.2 CD and Musical Fidelity A308 integrated, through Virtual Dynamics Nite cables. The Europas are sitting atop homemade MDF stands with a sand-filled rectangular center column.

Maybe its the stands, maybe its just the sound of the Europas (they have a soft dome tweeter vs. the Thiel's hard dome). I don't know.

Any insights you Europa owners can offer would be much appreciated. I love the speakers with the exception of the slightly hazy top end. I hoping someone else may have had a similar experience.

Thanks in advance for your help.
richs

Showing 3 responses by theaudiotweak

theaudiotweak
2,769 posts
 
Putting adhesive tape on a device that was designed to be direct coupled, such as an Audiopoint will greatly reduce its effectiveness.Tom
theaudiotweak
2,769 posts
 
What we have here are hi rez speakers sitting upon low rez devices.. Sand is a storage medium, lead is a storage medium, rubber is a storage medium, mdf is a storage medium, adhesive compounds are storage mediums, all types of speaker cabinet materials are storage mediums. All of the previous impede the flow, to some extent, some small some large,the transmission of energy. If you have a speaker, even one with a high mass enclosure it is to all a benefit, to direct away and to provide a pathway for resonant energy, excess energy, unused energy to be sped to ground. In no way do you want to slow down the exit of this noise nor give it a place to accumulate and a chance to be stored and then discharged along with the intended signal. If you are to use Audiopoints the speaker needs to sit upon the flat surface of the cone with the point facing down upon the resting surface.. If the resting surface is wood, glass or acrylic then there needs to be placed between the point tip and the surface a APCD coupling disc. This disc seems to clarify the surface coupling area and increases the focus and speed of the speaker..I have been using these techniques for some years, long before I became a dealer for Starsound..Tom
theaudiotweak
2,769 posts
 
Roy take a visit to Audiopoints.com I have been using their products since 93' and have recently become a dealer.The points and platforms truly make a profound audible improvement. Brent Riehl of Starsound designs products that seem to present a direction for vibration to flow to and thru..My words..What results is a much cleaner sound,more natural more dynamic with greater focus and a much larger stage ,again my words..Unlike the use of lead or rubber materials which seem to kill the dynamics soften the focus and reduce the stage. My words and my personal experiments. An Apcd disc is shown on the Audiopoints web page/Starsound page and is a surface protective device and much more. I have found the discs in some cases improve the coupling and the sound when using Audiopoints or a Sistrum platform on some surfaces or with very light weight components, 5 lbs or so.. my Melos preamp is a prime example. Tom
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