Herbie’s Super Black Hole CD Mat - Wow!


I just received the Herbie’s Audio Lab Super Black Hole CD mat in mail. It’s a little black disc that fits atop a CD which has silicon on one side (the side that touches the CD) and carbon fiber on the top. I’ve only listened to a few songs (electronic genre) and my first impression was simply “Wow!” I’m hearing so much further into the recording. I’m hearing the ambience much better. Notes have more texture. Imaging seems to have improved. On one track, there is a sound that is panned to the right and repeats three times. I thought it was identical on each note, but with the CD mat it’s easy to hear that on the second note, it actually moves 6 inches towards the center of the soundstage and then back out to the right. It’s always fun to rediscover your music when you find a tweak you enjoy. 
From their website, this is how they say it works:

“By reducing micro-vibration in the CD spin during playback, laser-reading error is potentially reduced. (Error correction in audio CD discs is not perfect; it is algorithm-based "guessing," not binary like in data CDs). By damping the disc/clamp interface, micro-vibrations generated by spinning discs are hindered, keeping them from permeating throughout the player where capacitors, op-amps, micro-processors, and other sensitive parts can be adversely affected.”

I can’t confirm whether or not that’s the whole story to how it works, but I’m convinced it does something amazing. I will report back after I listen to some more music of other genres.
128x128mkgus
Frank,
Fantastigoric! I think that is a new word...he he I bet you have incredible sound. Our mutual friend Mas has told me of the transformation of your system by adding the PPT stuff. If you seriously modded the player you would have mucho better sound (I am not volunteering) and as good as Herbies feet are, there are mucho better footers.......but, as usual, system matching. You need to try the Digital Solutions CD treatment, sanding and blacking the discs and hopefully the platform your player is on is serious.....I use a combo of bamboo and maple (maple on top) with 4 small inner tubes underneath.....on top is Mad Scientist feet. I hardwire 2 feet of custom balanced cable right out of the modded Oppo and then directly into my dual mono amps (I do have an xlr connector there). Speaker wires hardwired from amp to speakers......no LEDs, only one super fuse. all cables off the floor (an absolute must)..so much left to do....so little time. Feel free to contact me/call me....would be fun to talk. Tweaking is the way!
Ric
ricevs ...

Mas and I have had some really good listening sessions at my place. He's a super guy who has a critical ear. I'm looking forward to his next visit. 

The "platform" the player sits on is a custom rack, made up of three layers of plywood, with dampening material between each layer. The rack is spiked through the carpet to the floor. It was one of my first "tweaks" in the attempt to reduce/eliminate micro-vibrations. You can see the rack on my equipment page.

Frank
Very nice, Please try lifting the speaker cables (and all cables) off the floor....you can even use cardboard risers....that is what I use. If one of my cables (interconnect, speaker, power or ground) touches the floor for one inch it ruins the sound.  Get rid of binding posts on speaker, remove the xover and mount it externally on damped shelf behind the speaker and mod the crap out of it...oh yeah!  Felt around the mid and high frequency drivers on the speaker.  Always more to do!
Yup ... there's cable risers now that were not present on the virtual systems page. There's felt around the speaker drivers that have TC applied to them. Also, all outside edges of the speaker drivers have been pasted with TC too. :-)


I took felt rings off of my Legacy Focus dome tweeters because they restricted the off-axis high frequency sound.  Sort of like a clamshell on a clam.  So much more open without the felt rings.