AUDIOPHILE AUDITION
3-D Stabilizer Mat
by John Sunier
July 2005
The last word in tweaks
to go on top of or around your optical discs!
SRP: $199
Marigo Audio
360-546-2727
www.marigoaudio.com
info@marigoaudio.com
The Marigo Labs Signature 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 Hedrich
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 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 up for audio replay, including hi-res discs. The
other side of the mat is gold.
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 “Test records 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 Signature
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 believe that with less solid and resonance-prone transports the
mat could provide even more improvement.
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.
On Video
When I compared the DTS 5.1 audio option on the new Image
Entertainment DVD of Bernstein’s operetta Candide, I heard a major enhancement in
sonics with the 3-D 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. Using the mat resulted in an upgrading of the inner details,
soundstage and ambient information.
So the bottom line here is that the Marigo Labs Signature 3-D
Stabilizer Mat does work and very well too.
John
Sunier