Reviews/ Comments

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Mike Stratil, Whispering Pines, North Carolina

"I have tried the Black Hole and it makes a big difference--much improved detail."

Warren Picower, New York

"The Black Holes live up to their reputation. I put them on three of my favorite jazz redbook cd's -- two live performances and one in a studio. And yes, there was more 'there' there. (Do you know who coined that phrase? J. Gordon Holt? Harry Pearson?) The changes weren't huge but they were distinctive and additive. Deeper, fuller, smoother music. More presence. More air. Voices had more timbre. The drum kits and cymbals (less glare) were tighter, more like you hear in a club. To use a non-reviewer's term, listening was nicer."

Carl Hultberg, Danbury, New Hampshire

"Your products are amazing. I can't believe the effect of the Black Holes. They make CDs contenders again. Also, I use a Black Hole on the bottom of my Well Tempered record clamp. Another improvement."

Tony Bender, Venturia, North Dakota

"Hey Herbie, a quick rave on the Black Hole. I have a pretty serious system. Symphonic Line gear including the CDP, which is brilliant sounding. Enter the Black Hole. I finally got the bass out of my Wilson Sophias they are capable of and I hear nuance I have not heard from Diana Krall and others. At less than a buck a CD, these are going on every one of my favorite CDs."

Jay Carlberg, Modesto, California

"It's just like the reviews say. Thanks for a great and ingenious product."

Norm Handwerger, Maryland

"I'm still listening and amazed with the Black Hole CD Mat. There are qualities that I find outstanding. The sound is so full, smooth and detailed it's amazing. Vocals in particular simply sound so much more natural. The clarity and presence of the bass is stupendous. Though I'm wrestling with whether it is muting the high frequencies, I seem to be concluding that it is more of a recess of the upper midrange and highs rather than a muting per se. I would equate the effect of what I'm hearing to what room treatments can do to the sound of the high frequencies. Moreover, it may well be that I'm just hearing such a reduction of brightness and edginess on the upper end that I am equating that reduction with a loss of some high end sparkle.

"Whatever the case, every time I find a recording that I don't think works with The Black Hole, I play that recording with the Grungebuster2007 and without any mat at all. I find that I still prefer the use of The Black Hole each and every time. It's as if the sparkle on the highs that I associate with better resolution is actually artificial and unnatural."

"I also went back and forth with the Black Hole on a CD and a vinyl record of the same recording. You can still tell the difference b/w a CD and vinyl, but the Black Hole really gets it that much closer--more than anything I've heard or tried. Certainly a matter of taste as to whether that's a good thing or not, but for me, that's very good."

Mariusz Mugaj, Perth, Australia

"I am supprised at the diffrence the black hole makes on cd. Great product and truly great value for money."

Jon Papajcik, Chicago, Illinois

"I have to say, the most stunning difference came from the black hole CD damper! This was a total surprise. Even though the theory is solid, I was a little skeptical as to what the actual improvement would be. wow. The difference was instantaneous and amazing. Using the black hole, bass is deeper and fuller, the music has more air and the soundstage has more space. I'm hearing my favorite CDs again all over. Thanks for the great products and keep up the good work . . . I look forward to hearing what you come up with in the future."

Bert Phelan, Quebec

"I just had to try some. My CD player (NAD C 565BEE) is already well-damped with 4 Tenderfeet and a SuperSonic Stabilizer, the latter carefully positioned based on many evenings' listening. But the Black Hole opens up yet another layer of detail on the better recordings, enabling the most relaxed listening experience I've ever had in my living room. Really quite amazing!"

Benjamin Yee, Fremont, California

"Definitely gave a positive effect on my system. I'm blown away--you have another real winner there."

Epinions review by Benjamin Yee.

Chee Keong Tan, Singapore

"I received The Black Hole today and really like it."

Phil Acaley, Lititz, Pennsylvania

"I am finding the 200 Black Hole dampers to improve the sound of every disc I have used them on, hence I ordered 200 more last evening."

Gene Hopstetter Jr, San Antonio, Texas

"As it happens, my Black Holes arrived during a listening session. I had put one of my Grungebusters on the Nick Drake 'A Treasury' SACD and was listening contentedly when the package arrived. I immediately ejected the SACD, pulled off the Grungebuster, put on a Black Hole, and popped it back in the player and sat down to listen.

"As soon as the music started, I heard a startling difference. In fact, I had to get up and lower the volume -- there was so much more music coming out of that SACD that the volume was too loud. Much more information, spatial detail, and music came out, and the music sounded more human.

"The Black Hole's a no-brainer tweak."

Audio Asylum Review, by Quint

Excerpt: "The Black Hole is aptly named, as there is now a silence between notes that is downright eerie, allowing the sustain and decay of acoustic guitar to shine through as never before."

Todd Southworth, Waterloo, Iowa

"It took me quite awhile to get the guts up to try the Black Hole vs. my favorite the Grungebuster2007 because, 1) GB2007 sounds so good, and, 2) The Black Hole couldn't be that much better. But more silence, better depth (probably due to the quiet) and more energy/clarity and separation. Talk about deeper bass, too -- wow! I tried back and forth for about 10 CDs and finally gave up. The Black Hole is the new King!"

Randy Wells, Bellevue, Washington

"The Black Hole, on certain CDs, is a revelation. Upper midrange glare is dramatically reduced."

Christian Gagnon, Ottawa, Canada

"herbie the black holes just arrived and i'm listening to the improvement right now. less brightness, more subtle details revealed and voices more authentic. thanks a bunch"

John in NC

"The Black Hole CD mat amazingly gave new life and realism to every Redbook CD in my collection."

Mike Grove, Euless, Texas

"The Black Holes kick butt. One of the best bang for the buck tweaks I’ve ever tried."

Ermanno Greco, San Benedetto, Italy

"With old CDP Meridian 508 20bit, Black Hole works well: better control on low frequencies, more nuances in evidence, more focus on single musical instruments, deepest soundstage; bass and drums more steady and punching, treble clear and soft. It make a good job for the money, the same of more expensive ones I have, as The Mat by Bullet Technology or CD Blacklight by Audioprism, but perhaps it is not so easy and convenient to remove every time, and I recommend not to use it as a shifting CD mat but to leave it on cds: one black hole, one single CD; price allows to do so without afterthoughts!

"On CDs I know as well as my own pockets, I can clearly hear, here and there, some instrumental touch I hardly noticed before or I do not noticed at all! Soundstage is improved in deepness( it  has made a step backward) and width (two feet sideward my loudspeakers). My hi fi set, for my opinion,  has made a step up in hifi class classification, lacking a little grainy it had and increasing musical finesse.

"Some CD I always guessed too harsh and dirty, now strangely I can nearly listen to it. Naturally better recordings sound better and better. Choruses stand out clearly on the background, exactly characterized in every single component; voices are more focused opened and clear than never. On CD 'Musica Nuda' by Petra Magoni and Ferruccio Spinetti, female voice and acoustic bass solo, now is possible to hear clearly bass changing deepest notes and on track 6 the rythmic breathing of Petra in accord with the bass is absolutely to play on a good hi fi set, I got  goose-flesh all over! It is easy to distinguish by timbre the different electric basses used on the record for increased control on all low frequencies, for starting and decaying time that is nearly perfect and for lacking of booms and laps.

"Every instrument seems to be -- how can I say - more itself, full bodied as I never heard. At least highs are more shining, not poor or light indeed, and never become aggressive or overperformed. That is all and I think it is enough. It was a very good buy for me, thanks a lot, Steve."

Thomas Lustenader, California

"These Black Holes are amazing."

Richard Fanning, Camberwell, Australia

"This one is definitely the best to date (I think I have just about tried them all), and it doesn't try and curl up! Has to be one of the great hifi bargains out there."

George Wilson, Des Moines, Iowa

"The black holes work very effectively!"

Jerome Lizarondo, Manassas, Virginia

"I admit that I was a bit skeptical of the Black Holes at first, but they actually do make a few discs sound smoother and easier to listen to."

Vinaykumar, Nastätten, Germany

"Totally impressed -- my Cd listening experience has improved tremendously. How can I explain the improvement: Magical !!! Thank you for developing such a product. It is as if I bought a 3000 € Hi-end CD player (I have NAD C542). On my Car CD player also the improvement is phenomenal. I will order many more of these and recommend them to my friends without any doubt. I did some blind listening tests with my girlfriend without telling her when the mat is on and she immediately always picked up the song played with mat on as the best. I have tried before SID Model 14 green mat and Auric Illuminator CD cleaner but the improvement was only marginal. With your mat the voices and the stringed instruments are a joy to listen to. Also it made great improvements on my DVD video experience. Bravo!"

Paul Wenlock, United Kingdom

"The Black Hole works very well indeed. Of the similar devices I have (IXOS Hunt Focus, StatMat, Sound Improvement Mat, Blacklight), only the IXOS is a contender, but it does not appear to be available anymore, is time consuming to apply the full package, is not wholly transferable to other discs and is relatively expensive. The Black Hole highlights how poor transports are in CD players, even relatively expensive ones."

John Caggiano, West End, North Carolina

"Received my order and must say that the Black Hole CD mat does a surprising job of improving midrange clarity and the quality of the bass (tighter and more natural sounding). There is more audible detail (voices and instruments) to be sure and overall the recordings I have listened to with the Black Hole sound more effortless without grain, glare or other audible distractions. The sound is more involving and musical."

Ed Doell, Oakdale, California

"I just received two BHs and tried them out on my most troublesome CDs (too much brightness, glare, granularity), and well -- that voodoo they do is really quite amazing -- who wudda thunk? (I guess you did!)"

Richard Swoik, Illinois

"Your Black Hole CD Mat was mentioned in an Audiogon forum so I went to your web site to see for myself what you had to offer. I read about the Black Hole thinking about my drawer full of other stuff like this, so moved on to other sections of your web site. There I found your Grungebusters, which are exactly what I was looking for to protect my equipment from being scratched by aftermarket spikes and such. I figured as long as I was placing an order, I’d order a couple of your Black Hole CD Mats, just for giggles.

"The same day my order arrived, I also received my delivery of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the Jennifer Warnes CD, Famous Blue Raincoat. Like others, I’ve listened to that CD hundreds of times over the past 20 years. Besides listening to the CD, I also had the LP (SOTA Turntable… SME V… Koetsu Cartridge), so I had a pretty good idea of what to listen for.

"About halfway through the remastered CD, I stopped and put your Black Hole CD Mat on Jennifer’s CD. I hit play… and about a minute later I found myself drifting off thinking, her voice is a national treasure--and just listen to the fingering on that background guitar And then I said, hey--I don’t remember there being a guitar here-- must be that the remastered CD brought it to life.

"I grabbed the old CD, and sure enough, no guitar. I played the remastered version again (with the Black Hole CD Mat still on) and sure enough, there was the guitar, as clear as clear could be. I then took the Black Hole CD Mat off the remastered version, and the guitar was gone! I played it again and again, and the guitar just wasn’t there. I put the Black Hole CD mat back on--and bingo--there it was.

"All I can say is thanks for creating a product which took my system to another level."

Richard Nelridge, Pennsylvania

"The Black Hole really improves the sound on my system, so I bought a few for a friend. Thanks very much."

Vinaykumar Madhave, Nastätten, Germany

"Greetings. I am totally in Love with the Black Hole for CDs."

Lim Chee Kiang, Singapore

"At first I thought The Black Hole was a cheaper and therefore sonically inferior one--an off-use alternative meant to be stuck permanently onto each disc. I did a comparo: (1) raw CD, (2) with Black Hole and (3) with Grungebuster2007, on two chestnuts I'm utterly familiar with: Holy Cole's 'Temptation 'and Duke's 'This One's for Blanton'.

"In a nutshell, after 1 hour of listening:

1. Raw CD: On Duke's, piano stabs ring with artifacts or noise giving the high frequencies an edgy sheen. Holy's vocals merge with the sounds of the backing instruments. Sounds muddled, unfocused.

2. With Black Hole: Dramatic increase in resolution akin to turning up both the contrast and sharpness settings on a TV monitor. A greater solidity easily discernible on the bass attacks which are the hallmarks of both discs. A more relaxed presentation, yet, to use a cliche, more 3D.

3. Grungebuster: Similar to Black Hole. Improvement over raw CD but less so than Black Hole. Didn't expect The Black Hole to better it, but it did."

Dave Morris, California

"They're tremendous. Brings out the musicality nicely."

Stewart Glick, Springwater, New York

"I had occasionally been using one of your cd mats from several years ago (green in color -- don't know which iteration that would be). Steve, I couldn't believe my ears! And I have been into this hobby for over thirty years now, but rarely have I been so awed. I will use the black hole on each cd I play from now on. I just can't believe the amount of music apparent that was hidden before. It's almost overwhelming. The fact that you are as helpful and nice a person as I have ever done business with is icing on the cake. Thank you!"

Eric Howard, Greensboro, North Carolina

"I want to thank you all for producing such a great product with The Black Hole CD mat. It has radically transformed some of CDs and at least improved most others. I have been passing the word on to all my friends. Thanks for making them so inexpensively as well, a true blessing."

Greg Gresham, South Carolina

"Well I have these now and all I can say is No CD maker should sell a single CD without them in the package!! Great stuff , thanks"

Chris Vroegindeweij, The Netherlands

"Just a quick note the let you know I'm really pleased with the Black Holes. What a difference these little things make! It must look a bit odd, me labelling my cd's with the Black Hole with so much pleasure. There's not one cd that doesn't improve with the Black Hole."

David Rosenblum, Bloomsbury, New Jersey

"Best tweak I've ever tried. A true major upgrade."

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