I need help from GMA Europa owners

Richs--

I used to own the Europa's, and would agree that the highs were not the most extended I had heard. Fantastic all-around speakers, though.

I used to have Virtual Dynamics Audition cables. While the Nite series is several steps up from the Auditions, I remember the Auditions as being somewhat of a darker, richer, fuller sounding cable. Roy recommends Audio Magic silver ribbon cables, which are very neutral and revealing, particularly for the high end. Nordost also comes to mind. Based on what I can recollect of the Virtual Dynamics cables, a cable change may help. To be clear, I think very highly of Rick Schulz's cables, the Nites just might not be the best match for the Europa's.

Other than that, I would also agree with Kclone... Give the Europa's around 200 hours of break-in, and you will find that both ends of the frequency range will open up. These speakers just continue to get better with time.

Those are some fine speakers you have, and a fine system as well! Hope you get to enjoy it fully.

Happy listening,
Eric

Thanks for the responses so far. I put about 150 hours on them before I began listening. Roy says he put about 90 on them before sending them to me. If he really did, then there's over 200.

Ewha, you may be right about the cables. But I have found the nites to very revealing with the Thiels, so I was assuming they weren't the issue. Maybe, what I'm hearing is just in the nature of the speaker, but since I like them in so many other ways, I'm hoping I can clear it up.

Any thoughs about stands, could this be the issue?

Thanks again for the feedback.

Rich

You'll get many different suggestions on stands, I've tried only one, so I'm not claiming it to be the best... I use the Osiris stand, super sturdy, heavy one piece construction (not "bolt together"), fillable, great looking and reasonably priced. They seem to match dimensionally perfect with the Europas. Mine are filled with steel shot. Stand + speaker weigh over 125 pounds each. E-mail me for a good source.

I have experience both with the Europas, which I currently use for HT, and the 1.6's, which I had in my main system for a while nearly two years ago. They are both great speakers, no question. I might describe the Europas as having a "rounder" sound than the Thiels, which I might describe as more "incisive." Is this what you are hearing?

Hi Rich- glad to hear you like the Europas.
Mdf stands, even with sand filling, have a "fuzzy" resonance in the particles of the wood themselves. A stethoscope would reveal this as stimulated by tones in the AM radio/nasal voice range.

If you are going to keep the stands for a while, then consider placing a thin sheet of firm rubber-gasket material from the hardware store (in the plumbing dept) between the Europa and the stand. The Europa's marble cabinet does still have resonances in that tone range, but at a much lower level than a wooden cabinet. The rubber sheet should minimize the transfer of those "marble particle" vibrations into the mdf, yet be rigid enough that the cabinet does not wiggle on bass notes (which would also blur the image). Again, a stethoscope tells you a lot.

Possibly four 3/16" balls of BluTack between speaker and stand instead would be fine, squished out with the speaker's and your body weight. But you'd find after a few weeks, the BluTack has entered the pores of the mdf- it rips out a big chunk when you try to remove the speaker. Seal the stand-top with a semi-gloss or gloss, paint/polyurethane to prevent this penetration.

Next, examine the way any cones/spikes are mounted under your stands' bases. Most cones/spikes are attached to, or simply setting under, the bottom skin of that mdf platform. Thus, the vibration in the mdf particles BETWEEN the upper and lower skins of that base will be a weak link. Bolt those cones/spikes through to the upper side of the mdf platform- with a nut on top. This clamps those two skins together, minimizing that "shear mode" vibration between the two skins. This shearing, btw, is a front-to-rear mode, so a fuzziness to the image, in the depth dimension, would not be surprising.

After all that, look at new cables- usually the interconnects from the CD player first. The rest of your gear is certainly worth keeping for a long time. This is not a slam against your existing cables- I haven't heard them. But most interconnect cables are pretty fuzzy I find. The ones which are not, I'd be happy to suggest privately.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Roy Johnson
Green Mountain Audio