CD stabilizer Evolution by Sicomin

CD stabilizer Evolution by Sicomin

The CD stabilizer of the French Company Sicomin, well known for making hi-end accessoires using hi-tech materials, is a thin, stiff and extra-light disc, like a Compact Disc, made out of Kevlar^® and carbon fiber.
It has a felt ring on the side that goes on the CD, just to avoid any unwanted *slipping* and a small rubber dot on the other side with anti-resonant and, again, anti-slipping duties.
List price (in Italy) for the Evolution by Sicomin is around 60 US $

How does it work

Every CD stabilizer works almost the same way: minimize vibrations and dampen resonancies when the CD is spinning fast during playback.
Some CD transports don't appreciate much any *intrusion* besided the CD and may refuse to play a disc when used together with a stabilizer.
With all the transports I've tested the Sicomin, this didn't happen, probably thanks to the fact this French stabilizer is very, very thin and light.
It is very easy to use: just put your CD into the player, put the Sicomin stabilizer over it and press the play switch.

How much does it work

Similar CD stabilizers work and *sound* the same way: they make your CD player sound warmer, with a better extension of the bass range and with a slightly better 3D imaging.
This Sicomin is very clever since it adds something to the bass range without subtracting anything to the mid-to-high range.
It is a *must* with HiFi systems and CD players which are overbright and dry, taming their sometimes aggressive reproduction and improving overall musicality.
With warmer systems and CD players the result is highly dependent on the quality of the recordings: sometimes one couldn't live without the stabilizer, other times one experiments *too much of a good thing* (usual TNT saying :-) ).
3D imaging benefits from the use of the Evolution stabilizer: the virtual soundstage becomes wider and deeper.
Particularly, it increases the absolute depth but not the relative one, that is to say, the virtual soundstage moves far behind the loudspeakers but the distance between the first virtual vertical *plane* and the last one remains the same (forgive me, in real life I'm a pro mathematician :) )

The overall dynamics doesn't seem to improve and sometimes one has a feeling as the medium range is less lively and sparking than before.
But then, an experienced listener should know that when the sound becomes warmer, the psychoacoustic effect is a *reduction* of the perceived dynamic of the mid-to-high range.

Conclusions

These accessoires, even if it seems there's no serious scientific explaination of their efefcts, work and even if one can't call *dramatic* the improvements they give, they are worth trying.
Of course, a system with a good level of transparency is needed, otherwise the effects can be easily shadowed by some shortcomings of a component in the system (CD-player, cables etc.).
The Sicomin Evolution doesn't come exactly cheap but, compared with some other similar devices, which are two or three times more expen$ive, and taking into account the quality of the materials used (and of the hi-tech involved), 60 US $ seem a reasonable amount of cash.
If your system or CD-player sounds overbright and needs some *taming* then the Evolution by Sicomin could help you.

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