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CD Mats

I got a free copy of the Aurex CD mat as a bonus item with some other things I ordered from an audio dealor. I tried it out with my player (Sony 222ES SACD/CD)and could hear only an extremely subtle improvment in sound quality. I was wondering what other people's experiences have been with Aurex and other CD mats (SID, Blacklight, etc.) Has anybody heard significant improvement with one of these things?

Two factors that might have influenced my experience:
1. The test CD had already been "tweaked" with Mapleshade Mikro-smooth, Auric Illuminator, and Mapleshade Ionoclast. Perhaps there were not many errors left to eliminate.

2. My player is a changer model. The mat might be de-centering as the tray rotates backwards.
socprof
richmon
242 posts
 
I'm using the Blacklight CD mat. When copying disc's using my dual tray phillips CD recorder, certain CD's won't copy even after multiple trys. I put the mat on, and voila, the cd copies. Must be doing something eh?.
I only hear a subtle improvement when playing music on the big rig tho. Haven't done a with/without test since I've improved the front end, I'll try to get to that next week.
socprof OP
37 posts
 
Aurex claims that its mat will work with changers as long as they are the horizontal type. The SID specifically says not to use it with changers. Not sure about the other kinds out there.
david12
1,454 posts
 
I have tried a few, Blacklight, Ringmat and the Marigo signature. Only the Marigo made a worthwhile difference and that was very clear indeed and worth the greater cost. Unfortunately its only the costly tweaks that seem to work well.
maclogan
49 posts
 
The SID mat works well in my Arcam CD93 up to a point. Well-recorded material sounds more transparent and the few "digital highs" I hear from this cdp are ameliorated. On ordinary or badly-recorded material the mat seems to have little or no effect.
socprof OP
37 posts
 
David12 and Maclogan,

Were your CDs otherwise untweaked, or were you using the mats in addition to other treatments?
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