Let's talk turntable mats

Does anyone use a mat with the VPI platter and clamp? It seems like it works much better without the mat.

 

Stock rubber mat

 

They sell 12-inch round cork mats at Home Depot.

 

I use a carbon-fibre mat underneath a rubber mat on my Luxman PD-284. I don't know if it sounds any better, but it sure looks cool.

 

I saw them, but they're for putting flower pots onto, usually have a backing, so thicker, and are not flat.

 

It's always seemed to me (intuitively) that if you clamp properly before starting up the table, as long as the platter is flat, made of a low resonance material, and designed to allow for height differences at the edge and center of the disk, that would be best. My problem is that I sometimes don't have the patience to use a clamp, so I figure I'm lass likely to damage the record with a soft platter mat.

 

I doubt that Home Depot cork mats as made to height specifications as precise as most turntables. A naked table is probably better.

 

As said above, the cork mats at Home Depot and elsewhere are usually not flat enough for use as a turntable mat.

 

I have one of Jake's deer skin. What happened with the USPS? Its a very nice quality piece. Cut to fit. No static. And it just looks classy

 

Go with the deer hide

 

Felt.

 

They decided that they weren't going to deliver it. After it left CA the tracking ceased.

 

I have suede mats, most recently from Hide in the Sound.

 

I did originally try one made from rare mongolian goat hair,but I detected a lack of mid range. Went back to good old cork.

 

Has anyone tried sorbothane ?

 

I'm tempted. Any concern about chemicals left over from leather processing affecting vinyl? A veritable who is who of nasty stuff is used in tanneries:

https://sites.google.com/site/isttschool/useful-information/chemicals-used-in-leather-processing

 

What kind of table? What do you think of them?

 

Never noticed anything like that, and I keep my records real clean, so id notice.

 

I noticed a significant improvement when I switched from a felt mat to a cork mat (made by pro-ject).

The one I use is 1.5mm thick - only trouble is it has a couple of tears in it around the spindle area and is quite fragile, but it's still in one piece.

I've seen several variations that I'm interested in, but can't justify getting all of them purely out of curiosity, they are:

Cork only (same as I already have)
Cork and a light Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) mix
Cork and neoprene (thinking that this and the one above might be less fragile than my current mat)
Neoprene only
Carbon Fibre
Perspex
Leather

I've also seen leather mats - so has anyone had any experience with any of the above? I've heard that leather is an upgrade over cork, so I'm interested to see what results I get.

I found with the cork mat that bass was tighter and slightly more pronounced, and there was slightly less 'colouration' to the overall sound, compared to the original felt mat.

 

Using a Jake's deerskin mat under the stock rubber mat on my Technics SL-1200. Hockey puck record weight.

The Jake's deer leather helps with bass presentation and damps feedback vibes in the record when the system is really cranked loud.

 

Just a curiosity question: if felt mats are so bad for my RP3 or RP6, why would Rega supply them? Seems to me if the felt mat wasn't good for the turntable, they'd use something else.

I'm quite happy with my felt mat on my Rega; my Technics 1800MKII has a cork mat--forget from where--but when I change it to the original rubber, can't tell a dime's worth of difference between the two. So if y'all can hear something different in various mats, more power to ya.

 

Considering on my deck (Notting Analogue Interspace) with a two and a half inch thick platter, it's been said that you can use it with no mat at all - but yes, I was quite taken aback at the difference a cork mat made over the standard felt one. This is why I'm curious as to whether a leather or carbon fibre mat will herald a similar upgrade in sound over the cork one?

 

I had experience with different mats:

The memorable ones:
- Linn LP 12, (aluminium platter): going from stock to the Funk Firm Achromat was a deeply impressive difference.
- 47 Labs Koma (alu platter): going from felt to sheep skin to deer skin gave me better sound each step.

The ones I forgot too much about to recall correctly, but were better than standard:
- Pro-jects RMP-6/vinyl, X-pression/acryl (sounded best naked)
- SL-1200's, Ringmats, Carbon sheets (mwah, for the money..no)
- Rega/glass/achroplatter (achroplatter much more even responese)

But it's fun thing to experience and, for every ear-gear-combination, there is a better mat than the standard felt. If only for the static **** alone you should ditch that..

 

I have a VPI HW19 MkIII. I have never used a mat with that.

When I first got it I was a little apprehensive about not using a mat, just because I always had used one. I worried about damaging the vinyl. Turned out that I had nothing to worry about.

I think the "vinyl impedance matching" platter with the screw on clamp and rubber inner ring is a good idea. It "feels" right to me. I frequently brush off the platter with a carbon fiber brush. (It is actually quite convenient to do this and gives me peace of mind.)

I was kind of surprised when VPI went back to metal platters. But VPI seems like they are always trying out different approaches on their turntable designs.

 

After trying several different types over the years, my Thorens is back to the original stock mat.