What's the difference in turntable mats?

Azimuth

Well-Known Member
There is a variety of mats people can buy and there are the ones that come with the TT. Usually the ones provided are rubber, but the available ones tend to be some kind of foam or felt. Some are carbon fibre. Do they work? Which ones are best? What experiences do people have? Any recommendations? Ebay ones, Lp Gear, etc? (Not interested in a home-made one).
 
Advice regarding turntable mats.

Supposedly, the best turntable mats reduce the rumble out of the analogue signal from the electric motor that is located inside the turntable. Rubber mats are have the accolade. Felt mats are not bad either, but have less grip.
 
There is a variety of mats people can buy and there are the ones that come with the TT. Usually the ones provided are rubber, but the available ones tend to be some kind of foam or felt. Some are carbon fibre. Do they work? Which ones are best? What experiences do people have? Any recommendations? Ebay ones, Lp Gear, etc? (Not interested in a home-made one).

I've never consumed the turntable mat kool-aid, and regard the role of the mat as simply to prevent the record from sliding on the platter and possibly being scratched, while not accumulating dust or shedding lint and generating the least amount of static possible or even discharging static that is already in the record. This is a tall enough order without expecting a mat to provide improved "transparency" or "impact," things I have no idea how to identify, much less to judge quantitatively or qualitatively.
 
I've tried rubber and felt and I prefer rubber as it doesn't slip as much and is heavier. There are no doubt many opinions on this, but I'm with gkimeng on this one -- I don't get too wrapped up in mat technology. Rubber is my mat of choice, though.
 
Listen to them and many times, if it isn't a cheap tt, the original mat is often times the best. It's all about trade-offs and they exist in mats. If your deck was properly engineered, the mat they supplied it with should be good enough.

Many after market mats claim a substantial improvement and most fall short of the original. You have to listen to them and make up your own mind.
 
My current opinion is it's all a load of hype.

If you don't suffer rumble from motor vibrations then I wouldn't worry about it. My ears can't tell the difference. You would need a computer anaylsis to proove if a certain mat was better than another on a given TT and I've never seen this.

Some mats claim to make bass tighter and such. Maybe the different mat thicknesses are altering VTA and that is the reason for a difference in sound.

I tried a "Sonic Bliss" mat recently on a TD 160 and to my ears there was no difference to the original. The original looks better so it's staying.

Lee
 
I am using carbon fibre, since it's suposed to eliminate static. I notice that it clings to the record when I pick it up. Is this working?
 
nope.

i have used a discwasher anti-static mat for decades on my dual 1245. before i swapped out the mats, the record would try to jump out of my hands back to the platter when removing it after playing a side. has not been an issue since.

on my B&O 3300 i am using a cork spot-mat. i hated the idea of putting my records on a bare aluminum platter.

no noticeable change of sound for either.
 
I've never consumed the turntable mat kool-aid, and regard the role of the mat as simply to prevent the record from sliding on the platter and possibly being scratched, while not accumulating dust or shedding lint and generating the least amount of static possible or even discharging static that is already in the record. This is a tall enough order without expecting a mat to provide improved "transparency" or "impact," things I have no idea how to identify, much less to judge quantitatively or qualitatively.


Far from kool-aid, mats play a vital role in TT sound. The right mat for a given table/cartridge combination varies, but is neccasary to get the most from a TT. But of course the quality of the table plays the largest role. For example budget tables have so many things going wrong that no mat can make any difference.

marc mc
 
IMHO They do make a difference. On my Thorens TD125MKII the standard mat was not very good compared to a DIY cork mat, which was inferior to the corrugated foam mat that I ended up using. All three sounded different, so it was more a matter of choice. For the little amount of money involved, it is worth pursuing IMHO!

The soft rubber mat on my Pro-Ject RM5SE is permanently attached to the platter, and sounds great.

Regards,
Jim
 
Far from kool-aid, mats play a vital role in TT sound. The right mat for a given table/cartridge combination varies, but is neccasary to get the most from a TT. But of course the quality of the table plays the largest role. For example budget tables have so many things going wrong that no mat can make any difference.

I once spent an entire weekend helping an audio dealer friend of mine audition platter mats. Six of us listened to about two dozen mats on three different turntables, including one that cost as much as a new car. At the end of the exercise, four of us could hear no difference at all between any of the mats on any of the tables. Two said they could hear a difference when some of the mats were swapped out, but had no particular preference for any one over any of the others. About the only combination that everyone agreed was definitely inferior was the 99-cent foam disc one could buy at Radio Shack at the time, which actually generated so much static that you could hear the record "snap, crackle and pop" during play and get a shock from picking it up off the platter afterwards.
 
I once spent an entire weekend helping an audio dealer friend of mine audition platter mats. Six of us listened to about two dozen mats on three different turntables, including one that cost as much as a new car. At the end of the exercise, four of us could hear no difference at all between any of the mats on any of the tables. Two said they could hear a difference when some of the mats were swapped out, but had no particular preference for any one over any of the others. About the only combination that everyone agreed was definitely inferior was the 99-cent foam disc one could buy at Radio Shack at the time, which actually generated so much static that you could hear the record "snap, crackle and pop" during play and get a shock from picking it up off the platter afterwards.

The overwelming support for different mats I have to say vastly outways you and your buds.

marc mc
 
I once spent an entire weekend helping an audio dealer friend of mine audition platter mats. Six of us listened to about two dozen mats on three different turntables, including one that cost as much as a new car. At the end of the exercise, four of us could hear no difference at all between any of the mats on any of the tables. Two said they could hear a difference when some of the mats were swapped out, but had no particular preference for any one over any of the others. About the only combination that everyone agreed was definitely inferior was the 99-cent foam disc one could buy at Radio Shack at the time, which actually generated so much static that you could hear the record "snap, crackle and pop" during play and get a shock from picking it up off the platter afterwards.

Two dozen aftermarket mats designed/marketed to improve sound or stock mats from other tables or both?
 
The overwelming support for different mats I have to say vastly outways you and your buds.

Somebody has actually managed to sell several pairs of $20,000 speaker cable. Support and popularity are indicators of superior marketing, not necessarily of superior performance.

Two dozen aftermarket mats designed/marketed to improve sound or stock mats from other tables or both?

All aftermarket mats that someone was trying to persuade my friend to carry in his store. Various types of foam, sorbothane, felt, glass, plastic and some others I can't recall. No stock mats.

This event predated perforated shelf liner and attempts to machine mats out of solid carbon and exotic metals, so it can't necessarily be applied to any of those.

BTW, my friend did eventually stock several of the mats and put them on his in-store demo tables, but he picked them by reading audio magazines to see what was popular and therefore more likely to sell. I don't think he ever put any of them on his own tables at home.
 
How effective an after market mat works is dependent on the quality of the TT and it's original mat. The 2 TTs I have recent experience with are the Thorens TD-125 and Sony 2251. Both of these turntables sounded better with a good after market mat. The most noticeable effect is a lowering of the noise floor. In addition, an after market mat provides a more noticeable improvement than isolation feet. YMMV.
 
Somebody has actually managed to sell several pairs of $20,000 speaker cable. Support and popularity are indicators of superior marketing, not necessarily of superior performance.



All aftermarket mats that someone was trying to persuade my friend to carry in his store. Various types of foam, sorbothane, felt, glass, plastic and some others I can't recall. No stock mats.

This event predated perforated shelf liner and attempts to machine mats out of solid carbon and exotic metals, so it can't necessarily be applied to any of those.

BTW, my friend did eventually stock several of the mats and put them on his in-store demo tables, but he picked them by reading audio magazines to see what was popular and therefore more likely to sell. I don't think he ever put any of them on his own tables at home.

Sounds like a true full service dealer!:scratch2:
Regards,
Jim
 
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