REVIEW: "Statmat MKII CDi"

[Gopher]

Hello all,

I recently had the opportunity to audition a Ringmat Development’s "Statmat MK II CDi" in my two-channel rig for a period of about a month and would like to share with you my glowing findings.

Before I get started, the associated equipment of this review is as follows:

Plinius 8200 MK Integrated Amplifier
Magnepan 1.6QR Loud Speakers
M&K MX-90 Subwoofer
Philips DVD-963SA Source
Acoustic Zen Tsunami
Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference
Acoustic Zen Hologram Bi-wire

First impressions:

Upon receiving the Statmat, courtesy of Todd R Audio , in the mail, I excitedly opened the packaging material only to be shocked and disappointed with what I found. Lying inside the thing paper carrying case, I found a CD shaped sheet of black and translucent plastic no thicker or sturdier then a sheet of wax paper. As the old saying goes: “one cannot judge a book by its cover” and with my girlfriend by my side (who is an accomplished musician and has a great ear as well), I fired up my old SACD reference disk: The Chesky Jazz recording: Rebecca Pidgeon’s “The Raven.” I skipped ahead to track 5 entitled “Grandmother” and let the song play all the way through a handful of times. I then looped back to just the first minute or so of the track until we were confident we’d had its presentation memorized.

The time had come to see what this scrawny mat could do, and I ejected the disc applied the Statmat and I’ll be damned if we weren’t greeted with and immediate and astonishing sonic improvement in most everyway. The first thing to jump out at me was the “chk, chk, chk,” of the background high hat beat. The resolution was noticeably improved and its decay was plainly more natural and accurate. The next thing I noticed was a substantial improvement in tightness and control of the lower end, namely the bass guitar. Accuracy and control felt substantially improved and what once sounded a little on the “boomy” side now flowed smoothly and tunefully integrated with the rest of the frequency spectrum without commanding excessive attention to itself.

Next, I noticed a change in the tone of Rebecca’s tone. The SACD was mastered very well but, though prior to listening with the matt I’d found no faults in her voice, with the Statmat in place it was as if an invisible layer of grunge had been lifted. Her voice just sounded more accurate and effortless; it was as if congestedness had cleaned up and her soul-full voice took on another level of realness and emotion. When she’d hit her numerous high notes there was an increased fluidity to the top end. What I mean by this was not a loss of detail in the treble but an increase in clarity without digital harshness or uncomfortable brightness; just another level of smoothness overall.

Aside from the frequency spectrum, things just seemed to work better with the mat in place. Music sounded crisper, imaging was more precise and the re-creation of venues seemed more accurate. This little mat had balls and, hungry for more, I moved on to my next reference: Track 1 of the Mark Levinson SACD “Live at Red Rose vol. 1.”

With the new disc in place I went through my previous ritual of listening to properly re-acquaint myself with the disc and then re-applied my “mat.” This time around the sonic improvements were a little more modest (I suspect this has something to do with a lessening of static electricity in the transport due to the mat being it in only minutes ago). Despite the improvements not being quite as obvious, they were certainly existent. The fingering of the saxophone, for example, became much easier to decipher with the mat in place as opposed to the almost blurred transition previously heard. Clarity in the upper midrange on up was also improved and a greater sense of air (and this is an airy recording) and separation between instruments was discernable. In general the recording was taken to an even higher resolution, with a more nuanced and dynamic presentation.

I’ve listened to several other CDs with this mat and have not in any instance preferred the sound without it in place. It really did work wonders for my source and my discs just didn’t sound right anymore without it.

Short comings:

While I believe whole heartedly that this teak is worth every cent of its $32 price tag, it is only fair that I mention a couple of gripes I had with it. It’s a minor quibble, but I had a little difficulty getting CDRs to work with it and it sometimes took 2 or 3 tries to get it up and going (which really sucks with Philips slow assed read time). I believe this might just have been my Philips however, as I’ve had a history of problems with it (and it has been returned and replaced).

Also, one time I was moving the source to clean my audio rack and the mat shifted from the player and got stuck in the transport. Fortunately, it was easy enough to remove (and my own stupidity for laying it sideways with a CD/mat inside while I dusted).

Last words:

Despite these very minor quibbles, I think this is an excellent product. I can’t stress enough how much this little piece of plastic impressed me/exceeded my expectations and I greatly look forward to hearing what other adventurous head-fiers will have to say about it.