turntable mats....

once more into the breach...

popped round to listen to a friends system today, he's just installed a magnetic bearing support in his Linn bearing based diy deck. very nice deck...

and we were fidddling with turntable mats, he had two, one perimeter mat that didnt support the label area and another that just suported the label area on 5 precision points.

very different sound from both mats.

and the question is, what are peoples experiences with various turntable mats, i run mine on 3mm ultra low shore rating silicon, does anyone have anything that truly made their system sing...?

 

10mm Polycarbonate

 

Really ? I am presumimng the original mat wasn't poly or anywhere near 10mm.

 

Funk achromat 3mm did a pretty good job on my Old Pro-ject. Certainly better than the supplied felt mat! Bit pricey at £45 though.

 

Indeed, the original mat was a heavy rubber thing that sounded quite poor.

 

I really disliked the achromat on mine, it cleaned everything up, but somehow sucked all the life out of the music.

 

i guess its very much horses for courses with mats.

 

Measure yours up and get somebody to make you up a perspex platter.

They also used to have a DIY design on TNT Audio that's probably worth a look.

 

I have had very very good results with the SDS isoplatmat, Origin Live sell them. Les at Walrus Systems said he much preferred the funk mat but the sds is worth listening to imho