Hexmat Yellowbird Record (mat like product)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by F1fletch, May 12, 2021.

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  1. F1fletch

    F1fletch Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rohnert Park, CA
    HEXMAT - The Isolator

    I wanted to share my experience with the Hexmat Yellowbird Isolator. I have had this a couple months now but starting to use it more now as a test and tuning aid. I certainly don’t want to start a debate or war over measurable differences discovered by dexters lab. Just my opinion. I view my turntable like a precision instrument that can be tuned and adjusted to sound and present music differently depending on the tuning aid I use. I consider cables, record mats, record clamps and cartridges all to be tuning aids. Ok some more like an engine swap but I digress.

    I find record mats and clamps to be interesting tools that can change the flavor or eq of the sound with minimal hassle or time involved. I have four mats including the stock P8 mat which looks to be about 3-4mm thick wool like material. Obviously this is the baseline mat and for the sake of simplicity I do not change the VTA as the table was set up with this mat. I simply change mats - and they are all reasonably close except for the OL mat which is thinner so I would use this one with a thicker pressing.

    Some short observations;

    P8 Mat - Baseline no real opinion on this, to me it’s pretty neutral.

    Project - Leather mat:
    Smooths things out and takes the edge off sharp recordings. Slight warmer sounding some say it deadens things too much. Yes it’s really leather ;)
    I think I paid around $50 bucks, it would be my choice where the brightness needed to be toned down. Comparable in thickness at around 3mm to the OEM mat.

    Origin Live - Record Mat:
    This seems to dampen quite well and definitely spiced things up. I would say it does what the Hexmat does only not nearly as well. Like removing a layer of film to add clarity. It’s thinner probably 1.5-2mm so for thicker records 180-200 grams it could be a great choice. I think these sell for about $75 ish. A worthy tuning aid and noticeable not a splitting hairs product to my ears.

    Hexmat - Yellowbird:
    This product is the most expensive at over $100 but easily makes the biggest impact. It really sounded like a new eq setting (in a good way). The veil was lifted and here’s the band!! Very nicely made unique product that looks and feels like no other. The tiny dimples on the top and bottom effectively make your album float between the platter and cartridge.
    It seems to allow all the good resonance and vibrations to shine through like removing a filter and allowing your tonearm and stylus to make more sense of it all. Truly and most definitely impressive!!
    To me this is at 3mm a perfect thickness choice and fairly safe to many tables without big adjustments.

    I have no skin in this game, just love tuning and tweaking and making things perform better. I also consider the Origin Live Record clamp to be the best so far ..of its kind (but that’s another review and I need more time to assess).
     
    JoelWat likes this.
  2. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    $150 for a mat. What's next?
     
  3. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    What’s next? How about $350 for a mat like the SPEC Analog Disc Sheet? And don’t forget the carbon fibre mats and other $500+ startlingly and bizarrely expensive turntable jewellery.
     
  4. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    With so many dreikop mit gelt around, I should think to make a gescheft out of it.
     
  5. Agitater

    Agitater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    To which I say, as tempting as it sometimes may be to consider such a gescheft, es drayt mir in kop to consider selling such chazerei.
     
  6. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    So we agree not to sell to each other, I presume?:tiphat:
     
    Agitater likes this.
  7. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    That sounds like a poor design idea to me. Seem to me the record needs support and stiffness and perhaps dissipation of vibration across it's entire surface, not to be supported at a couple of points and allowed to flex at al points in between. I don't want to allow vibrations and resonance to break thorugh with LP playback, I'm looking to eliminate vibrations and resonance.
     
    warp2600 and Agitater like this.
  8. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    The idea with the little nubs to support the record and the record mostly being suspended in mid-air isn't anything new. I've seen cork mats with the raised nubs or even people just putting down little miniature rubber feet on the platter.

    If someone wants to experiment with that, they don't need to shell out $150 for it.
     
  9. Hexmat in action



    ;)
     
    F1fletch likes this.
  10. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    Hey @F1fletch - thanks for the review. I came across the Hexmat purely by accident today and decided to drop a search here, so your review came up. In fact I was looking at the newer Eclipse and watched a video on youtube about the comparison. I have used a Herbie's mat now for many years. The Hexmat concept does indeed make me think about these diy corkmats everyone was making and the Ringmat (which I had for a while but then started using the Herbie's mat - don't ask me to recall why...it must have made some favorable difference but I forgot, it's been years since I made that switch). I never felt the need to switch from Herbie but this Hexmat is intriguing. I wonder if it works equally well on suspended tables as I use a Thorens TD 125 Mkii. Anyway, wanted to say I appreciated your perspective.
     
  11. carbonti

    carbonti Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York County
    In most audio gear when you change stuff around it possibly changes the sound. No matter what and how the changes, if you like the results of what you hear, yippee, the tweak is worth it and you win. If it does nothing or degrades from what you had, *game buzzer* you lose and it’s back to trying something else. It’s a hobby.

    On the topic of turntable mats: I had the very positive result of changing out the standard rubber mat on a Garrard 301 and replacing it with a Tenuto gunmetal mat. Very good results as far as detail resolution and bass. However this turntable mat has had positive results in many turntable applications so I was just following the crowd on this one. But it is nice to hear the results for yourself. Makes you want to find something else to mess with. Hey, it’s a hobby.
     
    JoelWat likes this.
  12. F1fletch

    F1fletch Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rohnert Park, CA
    Most welcome, with my current table I am unable to use the hexmat due to changing the tone arm height. The platter is not designed for a mat at all. It’s for sale if anyone is interested. I still stand by my review, really cool tuning product ;)
     
    JoelWat likes this.
  13. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    I am ordering the Eclipse to try it out. They have 30 day return policy. Like @carbonti sez...it's part of the fun. Will report back here at some point....
     
    F1fletch likes this.
  14. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    Received my Eclipse today. Will take a few days to listen and do some comparison's with my HAL mat. Won't comment on sound now but have to say I am very impressed with the packaging - there's actually someone on FB who did a short unboxing vid, here is a link - so that I don't have to mention that again :), click here
    Stay tuned, as I said, give me a few days.....
     
  15. brockgaw

    brockgaw Forum Resident

    Have you tried a Ringmat? Same isolation idea as the Hexmat. I prefer it to the OL, Herbies and felt mats. I tried a Scandinavian mat years ago that was treated felt to keep it from sticking to the LP but I gave it away for being too harsh sounding. It's going to be interesting in going through this again with a P8.
     
  16. slovell

    slovell Retired Mudshark

    Location:
    Chesnee, SC, USA
    There's a Warren Gehl, whoever he is, mat on US Audio Mart the seller wants $500.00 for. That's right , $500.00 bozo bucks....for a mat. o_O:):D:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:
    The scary part is that somebody will probably buy it. Audiojewels for audiophools. It's like $150.00 fuses.
     
  17. JoelWat

    JoelWat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dubai, UAE
    I think I have the measure of the Eclipse, so here are my impressions so far. For starters I have to say that I am not particularly interested in platter mats but I understand their importance - e.g. I had my Herbie’s Audio Lab mat for over ten years and never felt the need to change :). It’s a similar concept, different execution. You can read what ‘Herbie’ sez here. Having said that, when I accidentally stumbled across the Hexmat/Eclipse, their contrarian view and design caught my attention so I ordered the Eclipse.

    I started with a simple song, Rosie by John Mayer. For one reason or the other I have been playing this recently and it’s stuck in my head. When trying a new component I believe in my first immediate reaction and then try and think about what I heard and see if I can deconstruct it and find further evidence of what I heard.

    My first response was that the Eclipse did not mess things up, which is good. First, do no harm :) Then I noticed fairly easily that I could follow the lyrics a little better vs Herbie’s mat. It almost seemed if John Mayer articulated better. I also thought the bass was more taut and there was some more detail overall. We are not talking about massive differences here, but easily noticeable. This provided me with some direction for further investigation.

    To explore that detail retrieval, I decided to put on more complex music and listened several times to side 1 of Katanga, a great jazz album by Curtis Amy on Tone Poet. I noticed that some stridency was removed, there was indeed more dimensionality in the overall soundstage, tauter bass and I found more clarity in the piano.

    That lead me to explore the piano more since that instrument has so many overtones that I would probably be able to hear more depth and more ‘more’ if my original insights were correct. I decided to put on some Oscar Peterson (various albums on Pablo) and Horace Parlan (on Music Matters, 45rpm series). I did find I could discern more overtones, more decay and it was easier to follow the barrage of notes OP is able to produce at times, basically re-enforcing the observations above.

    I think the Eclipse is about wringing that last mile of performance out of your turntable. How much difference it makes is entirely system dependent and of course also depends on your ear. In my case I found it made a worthwhile difference. Its quirky looks also gave my Thorens a more hi-tech look :). Couple of things to end with; a) the Herbie mat is 2.5mm thick so I did not adjust the VTA to accommodate the 3mm Eclipse. I do not think it would have made an audible difference to me, and b) the Thorens spindle diameter is somewhat thicker than other tables and fortunately this was no issue for the Eclipse mat.
     
  18. fish

    fish Senior Member

    Location:
    NYS, USA
    I tried Herbie's Way Excellent mat recently. Much of the qualities above. Quieter, no high sheen. Little less bring that way, shocking how much it changed the sound. Its worth trying, $75 +/-
     
    DigMyGroove, F1fletch and JoelWat like this.
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