Sorry MC. That Gate's mine!
Tim Mrock, Krissy Mrock, and The Perfect Path
What is the perfect path? Go to school, pick a subject to major in. To study… what? Only what’s already known, right? Anything new, before it can be even be learned, must first be discovered. Right? Now how I wonder do you learn to do that? Discovery studies? Invention 101? Or just roll up your sleeves and get to it?
That's just a little of what’s been swirling round my brain since spending a pleasant few hours talking with Krissy Mrock of Perfect Path Solutions. There’s plenty of happy users and glowing reviews but not much in the way of cool insider details, you know the kind of stuff they drop into Stereophile to boost their cred. And help people “get” the story. Which sometimes the story can be really cool.
Like this one. Because this guy Tim, who absolutely loved music, was raised by parents so strict music was forbidden in the house! No music! Yet somehow he managed to sneak not only music but Heathkit into the house. Seriously. He’s just always been into it.
Krissy actually has some college level physics, but neither of them any formal education in electronics, engineering, or anything like that. Just a love of music, years of building and modifying- oh, and a fanatical drive to make it sound better and better, and better still.
Tim saw promise in graphene right from the beginning back around 2004. But a theoretically useful atomic structure and an actual useful product are two very different things. Getting from the one to the other? Six years.
At which point Tim had a product but no business model, not the foggiest, yet here he was working on a patent. So he hired a consultant. Who looked at everything Tim had done, all the years and all the money, and what was still needed to get a patent, and the potential market, and said, “Tim, you know what you should do? Give up!”
Yeah. Well good thing he didn’t. Because his Omega E-mats are one of the very best things ever to go in my system.
Okay. Fair question. What exactly is my system??
Time out:
4 gauge 240V direct from panel to Audio Consulting silver step-down transformer, to 4 gauge hardwired to Medusa, my power conditioner, a DIY combination of the guts of another conditioner, silver wire, copper wire, Audio Consulting silver isolation transformer, and an assortment of SR Blue, Oyaide and other outlets, the whole thing built on a Black Beauty shelf built for me custom by the late DJ Casser of BDR. Koetsu Black Goldline, Origin Live Conqueror arm, Miller Carbon turntable with (modified) Teres bearing and platter, and Verus motor rim drive. Herron VTPH2A and Melody I880 integrated amp, Talon Khorus, Talon Roc, Synergistic CTS speaker cables (with Michael Spallone modified Tesla MPCs), Synergistic Atmosphere Level 3 Euphoria interconnect, grounded, and some SR Resolution Reference and Shunyata Cobra power cords. Two Dayton sub amps drive four 10” subs. Everything sits on BDR Cones, all the big stuff also has a BDR Shelf, and the rack is my custom 700 lb Solution. All the cables are supported with ceramic insulators, the room and speakers are treated with Synergistic HFT, there’s about a dozen ECT on the electronics, and a couple PHT on the arm and cartridge. The system is regularly (at least nightly) treated with XLO demagnetizing tracks, Static Guard spray, and the Radio Shack Bulk Tape Eraser.
Time in.
Whew! Sorry. But now with that out of the way….
The Omega E-mats arrive in one of those anti-static metallic plastic bags used for computer parts. They look like great big refrigerator magnets. They are magnetic like great big refrigerator magnets. They even X-ray like refrigerator magnets. They are NOT great big refrigerator magnets! I know. I tried. The refrigerator magnet can go back on the refrigerator.
The easiest place to try is under my tube amp and so me being lazy that’s where it went. And I’ll be honest. It wasn’t very good there. Oh there was a nice improvement in image depth, and a wonderful lack of grain. But it went too far. Way beyond lack of grain, beyond liquid even, well into syrupy. Not quite goopy. Oh well, too bad, was my initial reaction. It did improve within a few minutes. Mostly though I thought well what if we flip it over? Big improvement! Same depth, but now more open, less syrupy. The bottom of the Melody is non-metallic, the Mat won’t stick, had to use a book under it. With a thicker book, raising the Mat closer, even better. Now this is more like it!
At this point, under the tube integrated, not at all broken in (mere minutes on it) I would rate it in terms of value as around the same ballpark as most of my other tweaks. This is, again, not a final verdict. Rather it turns out this is just about worst-case: worst component, mere minutes, yet already about as good as some of the best tweaks around selected over many years.
They are supposed to work on panels. Which seems unlikely. But oh well at least the panel, easy on, easy off. Walk back to the room and… huh… what the…? Darn thing worked way better on the panel than under the amp! Way better! Krissy tells me these things seem to work better in the more high power locations. Which is why a week or so later the one under the amp was moved to the Medusa conditioner.
Now moving, not adding but moving from one to the other, if they work the same then it would sound the same. It did not sound the same. It was much, much better! Hugely better.
The most captivating quality a system can have is sophisticated subtle inner detail. Not hyped, not accentuated. Natural. Revealed. Its what I look for in everything, why I have what I have. Its not the only thing, far from it. But its the one thing that time and again over the years has been shown to draw us in. It shows on the face, and in the posture, that look of keen interest, fascination. Everything in my system is geared towards this. Nothing until now was quite so good at it as the Omega E-mat.
Well, there is one that comes close. Its a good one because you can try it yourself and see. Er, hear. For yourself: flip your breakers off. Listen to some music, flip the breakers off, listen, flip em back on. Every wire is an antenna. Breaking the circuits drastically reduces RFI and EMI. Its pretty easy to hear. Background noise level drops, revealing a whole wealth of subtle inner detail. Nothing hyped, no real improvement in dynamics or anything like that. Although the quieter background does make it feel more dynamic. Anyway, this breaker trick is the closest thing I know to being similar to the Omega E-mat. Similar in character, not amount. If the Omega E-mat is reducing RFI then its doing it on a much greater scale.
Krissy tells me the more power the better they work. Which would explain the panel. After a few weeks the tube amp was sounding awful good, but still clearly not making as great a difference as the one on the panel. So I moved it from the amp to my power conditioner. Again, at first, kinda yucky. But then instead of hours it was mere minutes and it was sounding really good. Within an hour it was clear this is the place. Like upgrading to a much better power conditioner. A Synergistic Blue outlet was recently added to the Medusa. The Omega is much better, not so much in terms of what its doing, they are very similar, but in terms of magnitude. People are always wondering about value. The Omega E-mat is relatively speaking a really good value.
Whew! It’s only been a couple weeks. It’ll probably get better, and I’ll update when it does. But that’s enough for now. Reviewing is hard work!
That's just a little of what’s been swirling round my brain since spending a pleasant few hours talking with Krissy Mrock of Perfect Path Solutions. There’s plenty of happy users and glowing reviews but not much in the way of cool insider details, you know the kind of stuff they drop into Stereophile to boost their cred. And help people “get” the story. Which sometimes the story can be really cool.
Like this one. Because this guy Tim, who absolutely loved music, was raised by parents so strict music was forbidden in the house! No music! Yet somehow he managed to sneak not only music but Heathkit into the house. Seriously. He’s just always been into it.
Krissy actually has some college level physics, but neither of them any formal education in electronics, engineering, or anything like that. Just a love of music, years of building and modifying- oh, and a fanatical drive to make it sound better and better, and better still.
Tim saw promise in graphene right from the beginning back around 2004. But a theoretically useful atomic structure and an actual useful product are two very different things. Getting from the one to the other? Six years.
At which point Tim had a product but no business model, not the foggiest, yet here he was working on a patent. So he hired a consultant. Who looked at everything Tim had done, all the years and all the money, and what was still needed to get a patent, and the potential market, and said, “Tim, you know what you should do? Give up!”
Yeah. Well good thing he didn’t. Because his Omega E-mats are one of the very best things ever to go in my system.
Okay. Fair question. What exactly is my system??
Time out:
4 gauge 240V direct from panel to Audio Consulting silver step-down transformer, to 4 gauge hardwired to Medusa, my power conditioner, a DIY combination of the guts of another conditioner, silver wire, copper wire, Audio Consulting silver isolation transformer, and an assortment of SR Blue, Oyaide and other outlets, the whole thing built on a Black Beauty shelf built for me custom by the late DJ Casser of BDR. Koetsu Black Goldline, Origin Live Conqueror arm, Miller Carbon turntable with (modified) Teres bearing and platter, and Verus motor rim drive. Herron VTPH2A and Melody I880 integrated amp, Talon Khorus, Talon Roc, Synergistic CTS speaker cables (with Michael Spallone modified Tesla MPCs), Synergistic Atmosphere Level 3 Euphoria interconnect, grounded, and some SR Resolution Reference and Shunyata Cobra power cords. Two Dayton sub amps drive four 10” subs. Everything sits on BDR Cones, all the big stuff also has a BDR Shelf, and the rack is my custom 700 lb Solution. All the cables are supported with ceramic insulators, the room and speakers are treated with Synergistic HFT, there’s about a dozen ECT on the electronics, and a couple PHT on the arm and cartridge. The system is regularly (at least nightly) treated with XLO demagnetizing tracks, Static Guard spray, and the Radio Shack Bulk Tape Eraser.
Time in.
Whew! Sorry. But now with that out of the way….
The Omega E-mats arrive in one of those anti-static metallic plastic bags used for computer parts. They look like great big refrigerator magnets. They are magnetic like great big refrigerator magnets. They even X-ray like refrigerator magnets. They are NOT great big refrigerator magnets! I know. I tried. The refrigerator magnet can go back on the refrigerator.
The easiest place to try is under my tube amp and so me being lazy that’s where it went. And I’ll be honest. It wasn’t very good there. Oh there was a nice improvement in image depth, and a wonderful lack of grain. But it went too far. Way beyond lack of grain, beyond liquid even, well into syrupy. Not quite goopy. Oh well, too bad, was my initial reaction. It did improve within a few minutes. Mostly though I thought well what if we flip it over? Big improvement! Same depth, but now more open, less syrupy. The bottom of the Melody is non-metallic, the Mat won’t stick, had to use a book under it. With a thicker book, raising the Mat closer, even better. Now this is more like it!
At this point, under the tube integrated, not at all broken in (mere minutes on it) I would rate it in terms of value as around the same ballpark as most of my other tweaks. This is, again, not a final verdict. Rather it turns out this is just about worst-case: worst component, mere minutes, yet already about as good as some of the best tweaks around selected over many years.
They are supposed to work on panels. Which seems unlikely. But oh well at least the panel, easy on, easy off. Walk back to the room and… huh… what the…? Darn thing worked way better on the panel than under the amp! Way better! Krissy tells me these things seem to work better in the more high power locations. Which is why a week or so later the one under the amp was moved to the Medusa conditioner.
Now moving, not adding but moving from one to the other, if they work the same then it would sound the same. It did not sound the same. It was much, much better! Hugely better.
The most captivating quality a system can have is sophisticated subtle inner detail. Not hyped, not accentuated. Natural. Revealed. Its what I look for in everything, why I have what I have. Its not the only thing, far from it. But its the one thing that time and again over the years has been shown to draw us in. It shows on the face, and in the posture, that look of keen interest, fascination. Everything in my system is geared towards this. Nothing until now was quite so good at it as the Omega E-mat.
Well, there is one that comes close. Its a good one because you can try it yourself and see. Er, hear. For yourself: flip your breakers off. Listen to some music, flip the breakers off, listen, flip em back on. Every wire is an antenna. Breaking the circuits drastically reduces RFI and EMI. Its pretty easy to hear. Background noise level drops, revealing a whole wealth of subtle inner detail. Nothing hyped, no real improvement in dynamics or anything like that. Although the quieter background does make it feel more dynamic. Anyway, this breaker trick is the closest thing I know to being similar to the Omega E-mat. Similar in character, not amount. If the Omega E-mat is reducing RFI then its doing it on a much greater scale.
Krissy tells me the more power the better they work. Which would explain the panel. After a few weeks the tube amp was sounding awful good, but still clearly not making as great a difference as the one on the panel. So I moved it from the amp to my power conditioner. Again, at first, kinda yucky. But then instead of hours it was mere minutes and it was sounding really good. Within an hour it was clear this is the place. Like upgrading to a much better power conditioner. A Synergistic Blue outlet was recently added to the Medusa. The Omega is much better, not so much in terms of what its doing, they are very similar, but in terms of magnitude. People are always wondering about value. The Omega E-mat is relatively speaking a really good value.
Whew! It’s only been a couple weeks. It’ll probably get better, and I’ll update when it does. But that’s enough for now. Reviewing is hard work!
37 responses Add your response
millercarbon Thanks. I just got in from a local concert featuring our local professional symphony orchestra. We sat in the front row, right between the string section and the piano. The entire orchestra, especially the string section was really tight tonight. The best I've ever heard this orchestra sound. The crowning glory of the evening was Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3. I'll be throwing my audio system in the trash tomorrow. Frank |
I received two ppt mats I have one in the breaker panel inside door one under preamp, I have them at least three weeks . I always had a good soundstage, but now iI can hear into it more, like the floor been lowered , make that more clear , I listen to many female voices on vinyl now they all have more of a distinct personality, more believable. Nice .... Yes indeed, the particular individual character of every voice and instrument comes through so much more clearly. Its like the music is a tapestry, and you always could see the picture but now you can make out individual threads! I now have 5 Omega Mats- panel, conditioner, step-down transformer, and speakers. The effect is most powerful where there is the most power. Speakers have tremendously strong magnets and the voice coils are designed to be super powerful electromagnets. So no wonder they work so well there, as Frank pointed out. Never would have thought to try them there, so thank's Frank! |
I received two ppt mats I have one in the breaker panel inside door one under preamp, I have them at least three weeks . I always had a good soundstage, but now iI can hear into it more, like the floor been lowered , make that more clear , I listen to many female voices on vinyl now they all have more of a distinct personality, more believable. Nice .... |
After two days in the breaker box the sound of the mat I use under my Sony Walkman is noticeably superior to the sound after thirty days in situ before the breaker box. More transparent, open and dynamic. Very natural sound. I also gave the mat two 5-second blasts in the microwave so I can’t say the microwave is not effective. Didn’t seem to hurt. Oh, I also have the 2 Cards back on my headphones after two days in the breaker box. |
Creative, and risky. A few seconds in a microwave is one of the tricks to fry RFID trackers being put in things like passports nowadays. Oh well, thanks to thecarpathian for taking all the risk so we don't have to! I've now added one Omega E-mat on top of the big 240/120V step down transformer. This transformer is just under the floor right under the system. Directly above it are 2 Dayton sub amps. Right next to that are the integrated, and power conditioner, and this is all sitting right on the floor. In other words its all within 2-3 feet of each other. The mats seem to have an effective range of a few to several feet. So maybe that explains why it works so good there. In any case Krissy was right. She said the step down would be huge. It sure is! |
Guys, put the mats in the microwave for 10 seconds. Not a spark. Let us know if you hear a difference. Zapped 2 of mine, one at a time, and put one back under the amp and one under the power conditioner. Put on a Prince cd I know inside and out. It fleshed out more of the minute details and quiet nuances of his songs, which can be quite complex. A richer, fuller experience with just 'more'. However these mats are working their mojo, the secret appears to be non-ferrous.... |
I’ve heard bigger sound and deeper/wider sound stages, mostly room dependent, but I have NEVER heard the kind of clarity the system is getting no matter the cost of the system, especially since the mats started going onto the speakers. This includes systems of friends costing well in excess of 200 - 300k. Yes. I was telling Krissy this afternoon, the premier Seattle salon Definitive Audio caters to the Microsoft/Goolag/Amazon crowd. One day earlier this year I am in their best room with a system they just tweaked for some client. They put Brubeck’s Time Out on their flagship AT table/arm/cart with D’Agostino amps and monster Wilsons and I forget what all else. The sound was big and dynamic and very, very hifi. Extremely impressive in all aspects other than musical involvement. I mean honestly my system then was better and now with Mats and TC its no contest. Oh and I did manage to remember what it was just long enough to search it all out and figure out their underwhelming wonder system runs a cool $1.3M. Before tax. There’s many recordings where the song starts with just the singer, and the voice is there clear and clean in its own acoustic space. Then a guitar or piano joins in and encroaches and melds a bit. Eventually there’s half a dozen instruments, and drums, and its louder, and the whole thing kinda congeals to where you can tell they’re all there but its all kinda melded together. Well the other night Elton is singing and then he’s playing and then the whole band joins in and its a whole lot louder and yet the whole time there is Elton just the same both the voice and the acoustic just as clear as when that’s all there was only now there’s everything else going on and each and every one of those threads are just as clear and distinct as can be. What might be even more amazing is the way recordings thought to be mediocre at best are now captivating. My used record bin copy of Al Stewart Year of the Cat is so beat its used for warm-up or testing since playing it a few hundred more times ain’t gonna make much difference. Now though it sounds so good it had to be upgraded from the tattered old paper sleeve to a nice MoFi sleeve. This stuff is just on a whole other level. |
millercarbon ... I've been at this hobby for a very long time. I sold retail for an ultra-high-end dealer for a few years. I've hosted demo rooms at the CES in Las Vegas for a few years. I have attended so many audio shows that I can't count them. In certain respects, I have NEVER heard what my system is doing with these PPT products installed. I've heard bigger sound and deeper/wider sound stages, mostly room dependent, but I have NEVER heard the kind of clarity the system is getting no matter the cost of the system, especially since the mats started going onto the speakers. This includes systems of friends costing well in excess of 200 - 300k. The placement of the performers on the stage is totally three-D with each performer in their own space. Female/male vocals are astounding in their presence. Every nuance, even the slightest breath, or slightest smack of the lips as the singer opens the mouth to sing another note, or that little "click" inside the cheeks as they start to form a word is clearly discernible at this point. With these kinds of voice inflections, the unique personality of each performer really shines through. The best feature of all though is the tonal balance. I attend live symphony performances every three months with my friend Robert. We sit in the front row, right between the string section and the piano. I've haunted jazz clubs in Southern California starting as a kid in high school. I know the sound of live music very well. All I can say is, the system isn't there yet ... but it's getting mighty close. For tonal balance, my benchmark is the Harbeth 40.2s. It is a great speaker that I could listen to all day. With the Omega + Mats on the speakers and in the circuit breaker box, my 15-year-old, Legacy Signature IIIs are outperforming the Harbeths. They get all of the clarity, the tonal balance, and realism of the Harbeths, but with better bass and highs. A nice pair of Legacy Signature IIIs can be had for way under 2k at this point. Be aware that the Legacy's love tube electronics. At 94db they can be driven with low powered amps or even receivers. My ARC REF-75-se just coasts no matter what I throw at it. There are new PPT products coming down the pike. I can hardly wait. Frank |
Okay so Monday night I come home to a delivery of Total Contact, a few more Omega E-mats and some E-cards. Its late and after a 12 hour day probably shouldn't be doing this but who can do that, so I rip into it and get everything out and all my great plans for carefully doing the whole system all at once go right out the window and away we go. E-mats, check, set those over there.... E-cards, cool okay, there's the TC. Omega E-mats come in one of those silver metallized static proof plastic bags. Okay later. Set them down. Absent mindedly. Can you guess where? On one of my 5 subs. Who cares? Lets start pasting! So like I said its late and I'm in a hurry so only do a few things, speaker cables, power cords, that's about it. Sit back and listen. Pretty good. Mark Knopfler On Any Street, bass comes in.. WHAM! What the??!?!? Haven't played in a while but do NOT remember anything like this! Huh. Sitting there thinking how in the world the tiniest film of goo on only a few little connections could possibly..... lets try something else. Oh, that was dumb, sitting those E-Mats on the sub, they should be over here on the shelf..... next track, flat, what the...? No. R U Kidding me??? Three E-mats in metallic insulated bags did that? Unbelievable. Believe it. So I took two of em out and taped to the sides of the speakers, where Frank said they work so well. Guess what? Frank is right! Man do they work great there! I was telling Krissy about this only the minute I mentioned setting them down on the sub she started laughing, way ahead of me. The more, the better. The amount Frank has, I bet he could be using a CloseNPlay and it would kick butt on Fremers Caliburn Continuum. |
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millercarbon Well, there is one that comes close. Its a good one because you can try it yourself and see. Er, hear. For yourself: flip your breakers off. Listen to some music, flip the breakers off, listen, flip em back on. Every wire is an antenna. Breaking the circuits drastically reduces RFI and EMI. Its pretty easy to hear. Background noise level drops, revealing a whole wealth of subtle inner detail. Nothing hyped, no real improvement in dynamics or anything like that. Although the quieter background does make it feel more dynamic. Anyway, this breaker trick is the closest thing I know to being similar to the Omega E-mat. Similar in character, not amount. If the Omega E-mat is reducing RFI then its doing it on a much greater scale. >>>There is no evidence that the E-mat reduces RFI. Do you have a backup theory? |