Ultra Systems' Robert Stein cornered me—in the nicest way possible—at the Stereophile/Home Theater party Wednesday night, telling me that he had a great new acoustical damping product that I should check out in his booth. I was going to give this one a pass until he mentioned that it's small, easy-to-install, and inexpensive.

I have high regard for Robert's ability to select products that make for a positive difference in a sound system, so I went the next day to the Ultra Systems booth to have a look. Made by Nucore Technologies, these acoustical damping panels are a mere 11" x 16" x 2" and are designed to hang on the wall near the ceiling in the corners. I expressed doubts about the effectiveness of something so small, but Robert showed me a before/after comparison measurement—I have to admit that the "after" measurement showed quite a marked reduction of low-frequency reverberation.