Intro

A common misconception of the conservative coterie in audio is that various tweaks cannot possibly make any improvement in sound with digital components because bits are bits - they're either on or off and subtle analog-type enhancements are not going to enhance the sound. They are forgetting that just as vinyl discs, for example, have many imperfections: warps, eccentricities, pops, flutter or wow - so do digital optical discs: accuracy of the pits, their depth, eccentricity of the disc, corrupted data, etc. Although the error correction circuitry covers up all but the very worst imperfections, it can contribute to poorer sound when it has to work too hard. The point is to get the cleanest data stream to the DAC, and any number of gadgets have been dreamt up to try to do that - some resulting in such subtle enhancement that few ears can hear it, and others creating a different sound but not necessarily a better one.

Various discs to lay on top of your CD in the drawer have appeared over the years. Some have been very thin plastic sheeting material, some heavy material that is supposed to produce a flywheel action, and there have also been elastic bands to go around the perimeter of each CD to achieve an improvement more noticeable than that gained with the now-familiar green marking pen. Some audiophiles merely stacked a second CD on top of the CD they were playing, but that often produced too great a thickness which would hang up the CD drawer.

The Marigo 3-D Mat is the result of an effort to develop a new level of enhancement for digital replay, and its price reflects the seriousness of that effort. The new technologies involved in the mat include a carbon fiber and Kevlar composite matrix to control damping, embedded ultrafine silver wire for stray field suppression, proprietary coatings on both sides of the mat for damping, draining of charges, and spectra-modified light absorption, plus other original proprietary technologies developer Ron Hedricks chooses not to reveal to us. The mat is thin enough that it should not be a problem in most players, but if it does slip off the CD when the drawer is opened or closed, Ron provides some of his little rubber bumpers with the disc, which are affixed to the drawer and which prevent the mat moving around. The mat has a green side, which should be on top for audio replay, including hi-res discs. The other side of the mat is gold and should be faced up when used for DVD replay.

 

Auditioning

I tried the mat on both video and audio sources, including my Dan Wright modified Sony S9000 ES two-channel SACD/CD player, my DW-modified Sony CE-775 SACD/CD changer, and the Pioneer DV-59AVi universal player I was reviewing. I began with one of my tried-and-true test CDs, an Opus 3 gold sampler titled “Testrecords 1, 2 & 3", on which I frequently use the second track - a classical guitar quartet playing Telemann, and the third track - a traditional jazz ensemble. This disc has also had the thorough green pen treatment. Played straight thru my Sunfire preamp with the Source Direct option bypassing all digital processing, it sounded great without the mat. (The 9000 analog output feeds thru a Taddeo Digital Antidote processor prior to the preamp.) 

Then I open the disc drawer and slipped on the Marigo mat. The sounds of the guitars now had more pronounced plucking of the strings, there was more ambiance in the recorded space, the soundstage was wider and deeper, there were increased dynamics, deeper bass end, and the attack on emphasized notes was stronger. With the mat off the four guitars sounded perfectly on pitch and almost like clones of one another; with the mat in place one could hear minute pitch/timbre differences between the guitars that actually added another degree of musical interest.

On the trad jazz track the piano which opens on the left channel sounded rather distant and a bit dull without the mat, and the banjo solo which shortly comes up was a bit mild and reticent-sounding. With the mat the piano sounded closer and more realistic and the string tone and plucking of the banjo stood out with gusto. About the middle of this track is a loud centered soprano sax solo. Without the mat that was an attention-getter and sounded like my center channel speaker was operating when it wasn't. However, with the Marigo mat it nearly knocked me over with its presence, solidity and impact. I noticed similar improvements on both of these tracks with all four of the players at hand, including my Rotel RDV-1050.

The second standard CD I tried was a new band disc from Bill Cunliffe titled Imaginación on Tori. The second track "Do it Again" opens with a section of various Latin-type percussion instruments - guiros, scratchers etc. While they were clearly laid out across the soundstage both with and without the mat, the mat gave all the instruments more crispness of delivery and subtle overtones that were not noticed before. I have a few discs in duplicate for comparisons, and one is an excellent BIS CD of Ernesto Lecuona's piano music, Vol. 2. I put both discs (also green-penned) into my Sony changer with the mat on top of the second one so I could skip back and forth using my remote. The orchestral introduction on track 1 has a flute against a string section and the mat-less disc showed some edginess in the sound. The disc with the mat lost the edginess and sounded sweeter. On the solo piano pieces on the CD, the mat resulted in more upper harmonics, a crisper piano sound, and generally more life in the entire performance. I also tried the same disc on my two-channel player and the improvements were similar though not quite as dramatic as with the formerly $300-area changer. I believe that with less solid and resonance-prone transports the mat could provide even more improvement. Changing a $300 player to a $500 one? Possible, and that would pay for itself, right?

I moved next to two-channel SACD playback, starting with a new CPO disc Harpsichord Concertos of Benda. The mat brought increased low bass support, made the string tone more silky and achieved much improved soundstage depth. Without the disc the passages when the solo harpsichord came to the fore sounded as thought there was a partial lute stop in operation. With the mat on there were added harmonics to fill out the sonic picture of the harpsichord and it no longer sounded slightly muffled. (I play and own a harpsichord so I'm familiar with what it should sound like.)

The Water Lily Acoustics stereo SACD of Scriabin's Divine Poem with Alexander Dmitriev conducting was next. This lush and sensual symphony opens with extremely low, murky-sounding rumbling involving tubas, trombones and string basses. Then over this background is heard higher-pitched strings. About this time, being a live concert, one hears a loud cough on the left channel. Without the mat the music sounded fairly impressive, illustrating the mid-audience acoustic viewpoint achieved by Water Lily with their single stereo mike for the entire orchestra. Adding the mat caused the higher string figurations to stand out in bolder relief against the rumbling underpinnings. And when the cough comes, one realizes before it was clearly spaced on the left side but nothing more; now there is the sense that it is a real person at a particular spot in the hall, and the reflections of the cough off the walls of the concert hall are clearly discerned.

I've been using the Bedini desktop Ultra Clarifier for years for serious listening sessions to any disc. Naturally I was curious if the mat achieved a similar improvement since the cost of the two is about the same. Yes it does, though I feel the mat can be slightly superior on certain discs. Using the Bedini first and following with the mat seemed to make little improvement. The big advantage of the mat would then be that you don't have to wait for the disc to finish its spinning cycle on the Ultra Clarifier (which takes some time), but can just put the mat right onto any CD you are playing. Of course for my Sony SACD changer I need to open the tray after each disc is done and move the mat to the next one, or just use the first disc slot exclusively.

 

On Video

I've tried several tweaks designed to enhance video display, including special feet and disc mats. Perhaps my video setup (Pioneer Elite 52" RPTV, component connection to Sony S9000ES) is not of sufficient definition to see improvements, but I have not registered any. I've tried both still images and moving on several discs using the gold side up of the Marigo mat -- which is recommended. Again I saw no difference. However, when I compared the DTS 5.1 option on the new Image Entertainment DVD of Bernstein's operetta Candide, I heard a major enhancement in sonics. First I compared the DTS and Dolby Digital options without the mat. The sparkling overture to the work sounded good without the mat but the mat immediately widened and deepened the soundstage, gave more bass support and in general more spark to the whole sonic picture. After first placing the mat in the drawer and closing it again the overture began without my having switched to the DTS option. (Dolby Digital 5.1 is the default.) I thought there was little improvement on the DTS with the mat, but then I discovered I was hearing the Dolby option being enhanced to sound like the DTS! Properly selecting DTS and then using the mat resulted in an even better upgrading of the inner details, soundstage and ambient information.

So the bottom line here is that the Stabilizer Mat does work and very well too. I would be curious to try it on a cost-no-object player such as a Wadia, Meridian or Linn, but for those of us in the real world it comes down to whether or not we think it sensible to spend this much on a tweak - and I feel many of us will.

- John Sunier

 

Specifications

Type: Stabilizing mat to reduce digital disc resonances

Price: $199

 

Manufacturer

Marigo Labs
9109 NE 30th Ave.
Vancouver, WA 98665

Voice: (360) 546-2727
E-mail: info@marigoaudio.com
Website: www.marigolabs.com