losthorizon
Well-Known Member
I have not seen the mat on the 550 but the one on my 990 is a thick affair but flexible and with that lovely rubber smell MMmmmmm.
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The Official Kenwood KD 500/550 and 600/650 Owner's Thread
The mat on mine, bought when they first came out, was a thick ribbed thing little pyramid points on the contact areas. I replaced it with an Osawa mat - flat and very heavy, and I thought there was an improvement. But the original mat was certainly fine - nice and heavy, flexible and smelled good - but did the Osawa.
MRL_Audio
RIP 2022
Similar to Nat, mine is ribbed with the little contact points. Mine remains supple to the touch and not cracked. Would be cautious buying another OEM mat unless there is a decent return policy. These mats are old and can easily get and be brittle depending on how they were taken care of. Not repairable. I’d have no issue replacing what I have with a Herbie’s or something similar since my arm has VTA adjustment however I’d want a replacement to be the same thickness.
I would think it's the same mat as on the 770D, and yes it's very supple and heavy, it's also VERY flat.
So, I double checked the platter mat (the stiff one) and it's not OEM. Looks like it's a Hiraoka DISK-SE 22. Can't seem to find much info other than merely identifying it.
losthorizon
Well-Known Member
I had a look on google images and the original mat has ridges around it, I don't know where you would get a replacement as I have never seen any for sale. it's not the same as the one on my 990.
losthorizon
Well-Known Member
clashcityaudio on eBay is selling an original Kenwood mat, check it out.
no it's not the same as on your 990, but the 990 mat is superior if he can find one.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
The KD-500/550 mat is as described above a few rings of pyramid points in the contact area. Here is a pic of one from a CAM sale
https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/det...n-681eee-cartridge-amp-stylus/images/2579279/
It seems different from most other KD mats and with the continued work on better turntables, Kenwood seems to change to different mats on their better tables with each new introduction. The KD-600/650 has an even thicker mat, large holes on the bottom leading to small holes on top, I got no idea why. It is obvious that the better tables have nice mats probably with more thought going into them than the lesser tables which seem to have just generic inexpensive mats that probably work just fine for that purpose.
If you need a mat, I would seek out one of the known good sounding mats available in the aftermarket, Herbies comes to mind but I would want to try different mats on the table before buying if possible. We did a listening session with 4 mats on a Thorens TD-160 Super and the stock mat was not good enough to make the second round. The other three Herbies, clean and clear, Platter Matter, thick bass sound and Marcof was a brittle high end. It makes a difference what table they are on, too as these three showed much less difference when used on a TD-125 to the point of very little difference. I attribute that to the vast difference in the platform the platter/tonearm are mounted to in these two tables. The KDs will be different again but the mass of the platter, plinth and arm will probably be similar to the TD-125, not letting a lot of sonic difference through to the tonearm.
I don't have the platter matter anymore but can repeat this test on the KD-500 or KD-600 with the mats I do have when I get these tables armed and nailed and ready to go.
https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/det...n-681eee-cartridge-amp-stylus/images/2579279/
It seems different from most other KD mats and with the continued work on better turntables, Kenwood seems to change to different mats on their better tables with each new introduction. The KD-600/650 has an even thicker mat, large holes on the bottom leading to small holes on top, I got no idea why. It is obvious that the better tables have nice mats probably with more thought going into them than the lesser tables which seem to have just generic inexpensive mats that probably work just fine for that purpose.
If you need a mat, I would seek out one of the known good sounding mats available in the aftermarket, Herbies comes to mind but I would want to try different mats on the table before buying if possible. We did a listening session with 4 mats on a Thorens TD-160 Super and the stock mat was not good enough to make the second round. The other three Herbies, clean and clear, Platter Matter, thick bass sound and Marcof was a brittle high end. It makes a difference what table they are on, too as these three showed much less difference when used on a TD-125 to the point of very little difference. I attribute that to the vast difference in the platform the platter/tonearm are mounted to in these two tables. The KDs will be different again but the mass of the platter, plinth and arm will probably be similar to the TD-125, not letting a lot of sonic difference through to the tonearm.
I don't have the platter matter anymore but can repeat this test on the KD-500 or KD-600 with the mats I do have when I get these tables armed and nailed and ready to go.
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I don't know anything about the Hiraoka mat, but when you say stiff, do you mean hardened/crunchy or simply not super flexible? My Osawa replacement mat isn't exactly supple, but it was an improvement over the original mat. You want something heavy - the platter isn't the world's heaviest, and rotational inertia is a good thing. But I'm not sure I'd pay an arm and a leg to get the original mat, especially if your Hiraoka is fine - which it may not be, but stiffness itself isn't inherently bad - look at all the glass, copper, and acrylic mats out there.
lots of original Kenwood mats on eBay, is this an original KD-500 mat? Don't need it myself but the OP should grab it if so.
Well, from what I can tell the Hiroaka is supposed to be fairly 'stiff' -- rubber and metal content. It's quite thick and heavy (730 grams), very flat. Once I shook it a bit and it loosened up from it's rigid state it's back on the table. Sound quite good. Not sure I need to replace it. We'll see.
A new question for the KD-500 owners... How is your table/tonearm grounded? I just realized that the post on the plinth connects ground to the power supply board, and the tonearm isn't grounded at all. The tonearm ground wire was clipped at some point. I reconnected it and got a hum. Tried just the tonearm and got a hum. Back to just the plinth and no hum! Is it odd to not ground the tonearm?
Isaac C.
Cat Hoarder
Though my tonearm has a ground, I had to ground the plinth too because it had a hum when using just the tonearm ground. So I've got two grounds going to the amp.
