Best turntable mats.

[Audiofreak71]

Personally, I use the stock heavy rubber mats on my JVC's and Kenwood/Trio with heavy aluminum platters, but use the Marc Morin pigskin suede/graphite sandwich mat on my AR-XA. Something about his mat works best on the suspended table that makes no discernible difference on the direct drives. Marc knew what worked on AR's. I had a Project RPM-9 for a short time and ever since assume that acrylic platters work best without a mat. The felt mat was terrible to my ears.
Seems logical to my pea brain that an acoustically dead material like acrylic would work best naked, while aluminum would need something to deaden ringing. HDPE might make a fine platter material, although I've never seen it used.

You are spot on with the Marc Morin tables , I’ve tried different mats with it and they all failed compared to Marc’s that he sent with the table, it’s the only mat I use on it. My Teres Audio table has a large heavy acrylic platter and I tried my graphite, lamb and cow skin mats on it and they all were horrible, vinyl straight on the acrylic platter is perfect with that table.


Audiofreak71

 

[GChief]

Marc Morin pigskin

Didn't know those were a thing. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Maybe one of his Padawans here...

 

[reddodge053]

Didn't know those were a thing. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Maybe one of his Padawans here...

If one/any exist Hose53 would be the one to talk to about them

 

[GChief]

If one/any exist Hose53 would be the one to talk to about them

I figured him or StuartB. They may know where he sourced them

 

[mkane]

from a pig farmer^

 

[GChief]

from a pig farmer^

Don't forget about the rubber plantation.

 

[mkane]

I've got an original, un-used sl1200 mat I'll part with and it's less expensive than a rubber tree—$ 550 incl. shipping.

 

[FauxHall]

I can see a mat for a metal platter but I bought an acrylic replacement for my Project Carbon DC. I use that naked except for a weight.

I really like the idea of a Delrin or POM platter for my next table.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Two plates of glass with LP being the sandwich's meat at a low temperature for a few minutes. Who's tried this?

The thing that I looked up shows that you use a paper sleeve on the record so that it isn't directly touching the glass and all of it isn't done in the oven, just the heating of the glass plates. After that you're supposed to pull them out and do the whole un-warping thing on a counter top (as the glass cools). If the record is warped badly, you use congregated cardboard, rather than a paper inner sleeve and then you may have to do another round with the paper inner sleeve un-warp the thing in stages... At least that's what I remember about it.

 

[Schroedinger]

On a whim I ordered a suede mat from Amazon to compare to the felt one that came on my Rega RP3. Couldn’t tell any difference. Back it went.

 

[reched]

I've had good luck with a Herbie's Way Excellent II mat on a Kenwood KD-500. Much better than the stock rubber mat it replaced.

Me too, right off the bat it reduces surface noise. I'm going to try it on the LP 12 too. I love the Kenwood/Black Widow combo I have.

 

[Bodhi1]

The best turntable mats i've found are the Audio Replas mats. But not cheap.

 

[ra7c7er]

I have a suspicion that a lot of the audible differences between turntable mats come down to changing thicknesses without changing setup parameters like VTA.

You'd be correct. Or as correct as you can be with something so subjective. Even those posting here talking about using the bare platter and liking it better than using a mat probably didn't take into account changing the pickup angle

_______

I have a bunch of felt mats, two rubber ones, a leather mat, a deer hide mat, and two cork mats. I don't hear a difference at all if I keep the total mat height the same as stock.

Where the sound difference comes from is when the mat height is different. a 2mm height difference does cause enough of a difference for me to hear. Personally I think a lot (not all mind you) platter mat difference people talk about is just changing the angle of pickup. A couple companies have said that a downward pickup angle will make the sound fuller while a upward angle will make a thinner sound.

Even some companies contradict themselves on the platter mat issue. Companies like Pro-Ject, U-turn, and a couple others say you can put the record on the bare platter or on a mat. But then will also say that if you change the mat from stock you have to maintain the same height. That doesn't make sense. If you provide a 3mm mat my options are 0mm or +3mm pickup offset. So why couldn't I use a 1mm or 2mm mat. You can't say the two options are zero or 3 but then say if you change the mat it has to also be 3mm. That doesn't make any sense. The table can only be setup correctly for one pickup angle.

I believe U-turn (don't quote me but I believe U-turn) has stated in the past their tables are setup from factory with no mat. Which means even using their supplied mat creates a incorrect pickup angle which will change the sound.

I'm not calling mats snake oil (if it's generally agreed other things change the sound then why can't the type of platter mat) but companies really set up platter mats as something special that IMO doesn't actually do much.

 

[Sgt Shultz]

Me too, right off the bat it reduces surface noise. I'm going to try it on the LP 12 too. I love the Kenwood/Black Widow combo I have.

If that Kenny is The Rock the mat off the later line of audiophile tables like the KD-770D is a huge improvement. Super flat, thick, and heavy, below are pics

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Bottom showing model numbers

 

[ernieb1536]

I replaced the rubber mat on my new turntable with an acrylic mat. Is acrylic better than rubber? Which is the best type of mat to use?

On my pl120 I used an acrylic with a nice pen older technics mat to get the right hight and dampen the platter the red acrylic Matt under the the rubber makes a nice ring that glows with the speed strobe lite

 

[krautmaster]

For me it depends on what the platter is made from... I have a Cherry Audio acrylic platter with no mat and it sounds better than any of my other tables... My Rega Planar 3 with glass platter likes a 2mm thick acrylic mat better than the static inducing stock felt mat, while my Marantz 6200 with thin aluminum platter likes a 3 mm thick cork/rubber mat, the acrylic mats kill the sound on this platter. The stock rubber mat that it came with is a static producing monster.

 

[dfunghi]

I have Herbies, Gem and a deerskin. Interchangeable but never really noticed a difference. However the Gem was a big improvement over stock rubber on Pioneer.

 

[Kyocerafan]

I'm going for a Herbie's mat soon. I'm not necessarily expecting an improvement but the original brittle mat on my Kyocera PL-601 has got to go. It won't even lay flat.

 

[doctor fuse]

I just got a leather platter mat. I find it makes the sound cleaner and clearer. Could this be a placebo effect or is the mat truly enhancing the sound?

Could be placebo or real. Get a friend to give you some blind playback listening tests?

 

[krautmaster]

I have been having good luck using Oyaide BR-12 mats on my tables with aluminum platters (SL-1200GR2 an Marantz 6200). They are tungsten infused rubber and have a slight curvature (1 degree) so that when used in conjunction with a record clamp almost any warp on your vinyl will practically disappear. I have had to add a bit more to the anti-skate due to this but not much (SL-1200GR2 went from 1.4 to 1.8 and on the Marantz 6200 I had to up it from 2 to 2.5). They are very thick at 5mm, so you may need to adjust your VTA.