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Addendum to Review: Herbies Grungebuster CD Mat

209.29.91.4

Posted by blake on August 13, 2003 at 20:02:06

I recently submitted a review here on the above mentioned CD mat (in the archives). While I was very happy with the product and results, I did make mention of the fact that a very small number of discs in my collection simply would not play with the Herbies Mat.

Following the posting of that review, Steve Herbelin (from Herbies) contacted me via e-mail to thank me for the positive comments. He also suggested that I sand down the inner ring on the mat to rough it up a bit to aid in the clamping of the CD within the player when playing and possibly eliminate the problem I was having with the 3 discs. He also said that he would be happy to send me a "sanded" version of the mat to try out. As I was not keen on sanding and possibly destroying the mat I had (as I like its performance very much!), I decided to take him up on his offer.

Sure enough, the "latest" version of the Grungebuster arrived at my door a few days ago. I immediately tried it with the 3 discs (Otis Rush/Any Place I'm Going, Mark Whitfield/The Marksman and Charles Earland/I Ain't Jivin' I'm Jammin') that would not play with the previous version.

Well, Steve was right. With the new version, 2 of the 3 discs played perfectly. With the Whitfield disc, the CD played, but there is a fair bit of transport noise, so I'm unsure as to whether I'll "Herbie" this disc when I play it. I'm also thinking that the sanding of the inner circle slightly improves the mat's performance overall, something that Steve also hinted at, in that the roughed up surface provides a tighter lock with the clamping mechanism of the player (at least my player) and results in a slightly better read of data.

In any event, my hat goes off to Steve Herbelin, first of all for an excellent product at a reasonable price, and secondly, for absolutely first rate customer service. He definitely went "the extra mile", all on a $20 sale, which shows me that he's dedicated to great service, and also very quick to respond to a customer's concern and try to improve his product.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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