[gary]

I'm pretty sure I've found what's probably the ideal material for a cd mat. It's called Nitto tape, and it's used in the optics industry to protect optical surfaces without contaminating them (there's no adhesive to leave behind). It's very thin, very durable, and it can be cleaned repeatedly for a long life.
Chances are pretty good that at least one commercially available product is made from this stuff... here's the link:

http://www.recordproducts.com/p7.html

Notice it's intended use... cd stampers (which are electroformed Nickel copies of the master, used to press compact discs).

Unfortunatley, it has to be bought in huge, very expensive rolls.
Fortunately, we happen to have one at work leftover from a job we did for another company years ago. Today I brought some home and made my own mat, and I can't get over the improvement. I didn't really expect anything, and now I don't want to listen without it.

I may bite the bullet and buy a role so I can start selling the stuff through my website (no huge markup here, my target would be $5 for enough to make 4 mats). In the meantime, I'd like to get some feedback on how this stuff works compared to other cd mats out there. I'll send a dozen or so people enough to make a couple each, and all I'd ask is to get $1 via paypal to cover postage. I'd prefer to send it to people who have heard similar products and can tell me how well the Nitto tape I have compares.

If you're interested, feel free to send me an email at
gary@[nospam]pandathumbaudio.com
obviously, you'll need to take out the nospam part

-gary

[jqp]

not sure what a cd mat is used for

[gary]

just do a google search for 'cd mat', the most popular ones will come up. most of the sites wil have explanations of what they do along with reviews. basically, the idea is that the mat stabilizes the disk and provides a better clamping surface for the platen (is that the right word?). the result is that the player misses fewer 1's & 0's for a cleaner signal.

here are some pictures of my diy version:
(sorry they're so big)

http://www.pandathumbaudio.com/download/HalfPeeled.jpg
http://www.pandathumbaudio.com/download/OnCD.jpg
http://www.pandathumbaudio.com/download/TheMat.jpg

-gary

[beat]

It looks like the stuff that covers plastic or glass windows on new products like cell phones, displays of cd players and such. Is that pretty much what it is?

[gary]

It looks like the stuff that covers plastic or glass windows on new products like cell phones, displays of cd players and such. Is that pretty much what it is?

it's somewhat similar, although most of that stuff is just vinyl. the Nitto tape is another material, i'm just not sure what it is.

anyway, it turns out it isn't as great for the application as i first thought. it's thinner than it needs to be, and tends to crease easily. when that happens the crease will get hung up going in/out of the player, and that's definitely not a good thing (nothing worse than opening the player and not seeing the cd that you knew was in there). on top of that, it needs to be washed afer every couple of applications, which is too much of a pain.

if nothing else, this has proved to me that the approach works. time to buy the real thing from herbie's audio lab.

-gary

[Tonto Yoder]

http://herbiesaudiolab.home.att.net/ttmat.htm

scroll down to find the grungebuster CD mat.