Review: Millennium M-CD-Mat Tweak

I use one of these with very good results, takes some HF artifacts out and gives more detail and bass. I use Meridian transports but have used it is several others, in a friends Ayre player yesterday , with no trouble. It is very thin and hard to see how it could give trouble. It is also very light.

I too purchased one of these mats and tried it in my Uber Clocked Rega Saturn and also a Marantz SA-7 and Ayre-CD-5-XE ..... both myself and others did in fact observe what has been referred to in the above post as 'removal of some HF artifacts'...

However and more to the point, not only were some of the HF artifacts removed, but there is actually a wholesale removal of HF information resulting in what some have observed as more bass, which I believe to be in fact a result of our auditory perception curve when the entire frequency balance is tilted !!

Ultimately we observed LESS ambient information, which is quite apparent and not what I would call beneficial either... but to each their own, it certainly makes discs sound different and in the case of really poorly mastered, harsh sounding cd's it could be an asset.

Yet, I find applying a black Sharpie to the edge of such CD's & the application of Xtreme Av, Liquid Resolution on the surface is far more beneficial in ALL regards and actually have found the above to positively benefit ALL discs (although interestingly, some discs are significantly improved whilst others are more subtly improved), resulting in wholesale improvements to the entire frequency spectrum & definition with reduced granularity inherent to the relatively low res. 44.1 medium....

Unlike the Millenium Mat I have not observed any detrimental effects from the above applications, which can also easily be removed should one desire !

BTW: I also used the Boston Audio CD Mat which is a solid graphite compound, it too had essentially the same effect as the Millenium Mat, but far moreso, with a much stronger 'tilt' in perceived response as I refer above.

PS: FWIW-None of the transports suffered from any loading or operating issues whilst using the above mats

For the purpose of clarification, my Marantz SA11S1, is the Upgrade Companies Signature Edition model, upgraded by David Schulte.

I Have also tried this cd mat and agree with coolhand. there is a loss of detail and air. What it actually does "is" dampen the sound,you can hear the added weight which can fool you into hearing more bass and more midrange, which will give you better, or just easier, to pick up spacial cues and imaging. if your system is revealing and properly set up, this should be what you get. I had a fellow audionut over to listen to the differences, and he is the type that does not pick up on this sort of thing, he does not mind a rolled off upper spectrum, and his personal system is based on over emphasized mids and lows. He actually liked the disc because it made things " easier to pick up on", and he was fooled by the darker more bass heavy sound!. I guess what I am saying is, common sense tells you this thing can not add to your system, it can only take away or alter what you already have, and some people depending on how they like to listen, and/or what the system is already lacking...may actually like the alterations made by this disk,.....but " magic " it is not!!!.

I think it is very system dependent, after making MANY changes to my system since I wrote the above I am currently not using it but may again in the future.