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

Songwriter (this is my last stab at this) I'm not knocking the Europas. They are for the money, (even, for, more money) a great speaker. Is that clear now. I recommended (Sistrum stands) which I believe will help them sound better than you've ever heard them. A couple of others hear Starsound, Sistrum and they gag. Whattayagonna do. I'm excited about what I own and love. I am blessed with a confident pair of tympanics. Very hard to disuade my ears from what I hear, but am always willing to listen, and have, on various ocassions, changed my mine. I was set, etched in stone, excited out of my mine, about purchasing the JmlabsMico Bes. Listened to them for an hour and freaked out. Best darn monitor (easily) these ears had ever heard. Money wasn't a factor purchasing these babies. Maybe a little wife pressure. Then I heard the Caravelles. Reluctantly. Well, you know which I chose. I'm teachable and don't take myself so serious. This is a great hobby and we all love our stuff. OK the boxing comment was unfair. It's over, and I made amends for it. Move on big guy. You enjoy yours and I will enjoy mine. I'll never say the Caravelles are better speakers than the Europas. I'll say I prefer them MUCH! more. Fair enough? Have a nice weekend. It's beautiful here, in Point Lookout and I'm going to have a great day. You do the same.
peace,
]warren
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
Thanks Tom-
I'm not sure that I follow you on two points:

How is either sand, lead or rubber a storage medium? They each turn HF vibrations into heat. Since stored heat can never be reconstituted as coherent energy, i.e., as signal (as a ringing), these materials cannot store this HF energy as vibrations. Am I missing something?

Also, to me, Energy "sped to ground" means turning it into heat. Is that what you mean by getting the noise to exit?

Sorry I need the clarification, but audio vocabuluaries are still developing for all of us.

Since I'm asking
What is an APCD?

What do you hear happen if points are up instead of down?

Thanks,
Roy
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
Thanks to all the responses to my humble request for help.

Roy, thanks for all your thoughtful posts. The fact that you are taking so much time to help a customer speaks loads about your commitment.

As to a few of your thoughts. My connections are clean; not only used Deoxit, but also treated all connection with that SST silver stuff from Walker Audio. Tweeters are not loose. I did move the speakers from my MDF stand to a 50 lb cement pedestal and noticed some slight improvement. Tried some brass cones I had lying around with no improvement (these weren't Audiopoints -- which have worked for me under other speakers.) I don't think the tweeters are damaged, unless damage could manifest itself very subtly.

It may well be that the sound of the Europas are just a bit softer than the Thiels. While I do like the resolution of the Thiels, on many recordings they are just too hard and thin sounding. Hence, my switch to the Europas. I may still try some metal stands (several folks have suggested Osiris), though I am loath to drop a bunch of money and not see improvement.

Then again, maybe I will just sit back and relax, and wait for those new speakers of yours.

One note for Songwriter. I just don't get it. I don't see Warren as condesending in slightest. I see "audiophool" as a partly self-depricating joke -- a way to poke fun at this somewhat foolish hobby. As someone said a few posts ago, your comments put the spotlight on the attacker. Let it go and enjoy your speakers.