Herbie’s Super Black Hole CD Mat - Wow!


I just received the Herbie’s Audio Lab Super Black Hole CD mat in mail. It’s a little black disc that fits atop a CD which has silicon on one side (the side that touches the CD) and carbon fiber on the top. I’ve only listened to a few songs (electronic genre) and my first impression was simply “Wow!” I’m hearing so much further into the recording. I’m hearing the ambience much better. Notes have more texture. Imaging seems to have improved. On one track, there is a sound that is panned to the right and repeats three times. I thought it was identical on each note, but with the CD mat it’s easy to hear that on the second note, it actually moves 6 inches towards the center of the soundstage and then back out to the right. It’s always fun to rediscover your music when you find a tweak you enjoy. 
From their website, this is how they say it works:

“By reducing micro-vibration in the CD spin during playback, laser-reading error is potentially reduced. (Error correction in audio CD discs is not perfect; it is algorithm-based "guessing," not binary like in data CDs). By damping the disc/clamp interface, micro-vibrations generated by spinning discs are hindered, keeping them from permeating throughout the player where capacitors, op-amps, micro-processors, and other sensitive parts can be adversely affected.”

I can’t confirm whether or not that’s the whole story to how it works, but I’m convinced it does something amazing. I will report back after I listen to some more music of other genres.
128x128mkgus
Just rip it with a cheap DVD burner. Yup there are some that will play anything.

 No transport can match an NVME SSD for sheer capability and files do sound better off one.
I am not sure if I will buy this although I suspect that it could be good and I agree with the importance of the cd vibration issue. When I take out my old portable cd player I am astonished at the amount of vibration that you cane hear and feel.  Even with my Woo top loader transport I can often hear vibration from the spinning discs. My own solution has been a variety of disc tweaks but also to add small  70 1/10 in duro sorbothane pads to the clamping mechanism of both the Woo's ( I have 2) and some older low cost front load drawer players.  The effects sound very much like what are described here with Herbies mat. Using sorb is probably more difficult for most people since it needs a better adhesive than the standard stick-on with which it is sold. I use a Lord industrial adhesive which runs about $35 for 1/2 pint so Herbies is a good choice for this who don't want to mess with the glue.  And it is messy but very effective.
 A search laed me to a review, but the picture is small and I haven't yet read the lengthy review. Do they peel off to be used on the next CD?

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0109/fo_q_audio_dampening.htm