Marigo Aida CD Mat

Hi soundcheck6: I've been a customer of Marigo Audio since the early 1990s and have had all of the incarnations of the CD mats since the "Crossbow". The current Aida CD mat is truly a nice addition to any CD player, rendering a much more analog presentation to the music. I'm currently using it on an older Teac/Esoteric P1 transport, and an Exemplar modified Denon 2900 universal player with no jams or issues of any kind. I agree with stereo5 that the earlier mats did jam or get stuck inside sometimes. The Esoteric VRDS mechanism was especially problematic and wouldn't read CDs and jam . I've been using the Aida mat for a couple of months now. Ron hedrich at Marigo will send you an Aida CD mat to audition for 30 days (but it only takes 30 minutes) with a money back guarantee. Good listening, Jeff

I see your Marigo Aida CD Mat and raise you two New Dark Matters and one Mystery CD tweak.

I have had three generations of the Marigo mats in my system with the Aida replacing the last generation Clear Transformation. Interestingly the Aida is much more subtle in its effect than the prior mat. The Clear Transformation really improved the punch and immediacy of the system. In comparison the Aida sounds laid back and even withdrawn but the reality is that it is uncovering subtleties that the brash CT was paving over. There is actually a hand tuned, hand finished Aida that Ron is working on that is even better. Suffice it to say these things do make a difference and I've never had any problems using them in both dCS Paganini and Vivaldi systems. I also use the CT in my Oppo DVD with no problem.

Hi ebm: So folkfreak's dCS transports aren't considered to be "great" CD players?