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The amazing new Marigo Evolution Signature Mat

I want to share my amazingly positive experience with the new Marigo Evolution Signature CD Mat. I have used Marigo's CD mats over the years from their very first offering, I believe about fifteen or so years ago. The Evolution Signature mat is the fourth iteration of the Marigo mat. Each successive "generation" had wrought positive improvements from my Mark Levinson Reference 31.5 transport. (While the top loading Levinson comes with its own CD clamp, I have ordered parts from Levinson and have made my own CD clamp, substituting their carbon fiber disk for your Marigo mat.) The latest Evolution Signature mat's improvement is so substantial that it is a larger "jump" in performance than from the standard Levinson clamp to the last generation "3D Signature V2" mat!
I hear a startling increase in the focus of imaging placement within the sound stage. The focus of everything in that sound stage is both tighter and possesses a three dimensional body that most digital simply lacks. Tone saturation is richer. The bass not only goes deeper, but is more tuneful as well. The highs are better defined and extended. The mid range is the icing on the cake. Voices are much better defined and clarified, combined with the improvement in density of tone and harmonic texture now sound shockingly real and alive. The sense of space and performance venue is greatly improved as well.

Overall the music has so much more of a relaxed quality to it similar to that of master tape analogue that allows me to simply listen to the music and not work as hard having my brain trying to connect the "digital dots". The increased resolution, focus, dynamics, detail, sense of space, articulation, and what I would call a "continuousness" of saturated tone, all combine to literally transform my digital playback to a level that I have never experienced before! I know that this must seem like hyperbole. The overall improvement is SHOCKING!

In the context of my high end system the $200 that I had paid for Evolution Signature mat that replaced the Reference V2 mat, was the cheapest money that I have ever spent for the most improvement in my system!

If anyone has a Reference V2 mat, they may be loathe to replace it, as it is most excellent. I can tell you from first hand experience, that the new Evolution signature mat is on a whole different and much higher level of sonic improvement.

For anyone has never tried a Marigo CD mat or any mat for that matter, this is the one to have. This is not just a simple "tweak", this is an essential and basically "give away" priced in terms of the substantial sonic upgrade that truly must be experienced to be believed. In the context of my high end audio system, this is making an improvement that I did not think possible and at a price that was ridiculously low. Based on my listening experience, this may be the biggest bargain in audio today!
coopersark

Showing 7 responses by mrtennis

mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i have the older marigo mat and the milenium mat, which i orefer, but all mats i have tried with my current cd player sound worse than no mat.

even when used in the ps audio power wave dac, there is no sonic improvement using a mat, and i imagine this is true for servers as well, as the disc is not rotating while you listen.

so, one cannot generalize that a mat will always improve the sound.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi badwisdom:

if you are replying to my post that some players don't benefit from the use of a cd mat, could you state your reasons why you consider a cd mat a definitive sound enhancer ?

if your response is to another post, please disregard my comments.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
no one has contradicted the notion that some cd players are mat insensitive, or when a mat is used it degrades the sound.

although not related to this thread, there may be tube preamps which are insenitive to tube changes.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
there have been many comments relating to uninformed opinions. but no one has responded to my conjecture that some cd players, are either unaffected by cd mats, or sound worse with them.

i am not referring to the mat that is the subject of this thread, although i own the previous version of the marigo mat, as well as other mats.

i own an audionote cd2 player and a ps audio transport, which to my ears, do not benefit from the mats i have tried.

again, i cannot comment on the mat in question, but does someone have any ideas why a mat would not matter, or degrade the sound ?
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
musicality concerns the principal effects of playing an instrument, namlely, timbre, dynamics,pitch (the nfundamental), harmonics, and tempo.

soundstage is an artifact, it is not part of the definition of music.

it is purely an audiophile term.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi geoffkait:

i searched for a definition of music, on-line. i found the following, sourced from the free on-line dictionary:

the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre.

notice there is no mention of soundstage or dynamics. dynamics and soundstage are by products of performing a musical composition in some space, but the latter aspects are not part of the definition.

recorded music would connote the usual audiophile terms of which you speak. but the denotation does not include them.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i have several cd players, and a transport.

the transport is a ps audio perfect wave dac. my favorite cd player is the audionote cd2. ialso own other cd players.

with respect to cd mats, of which i have several, including the previous marigo mat and millenium mat,

both the ps audio and audionote when used with a mat, sontribute to a degradtion of sound.

so inaddition to an improvement in sound, no difference in sound add a cd mat as detrimental to the sound.

while the latter case seems counter intuitive, you'll have to trust me on my perception because there is no evidence to disconfirm it.

of course i'll admit that one person's idea of an improvement may be another's sense of a worsening of sound.

incidentally, in all of the posts where components are compared and assertions are made as to one sounding better than another, the subjective nature, and the connotating criteria, vary among audiophiles.

such is the reason for being careful when making a serious decision based upon sense perception.

when one can return a component, the cost is only shipping.
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