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turntable mat

autoexer

autoexer

G.A.S. man
so I have the original rubber turntable mat on my TD160 with a felt antistatic mat on top. Question: would an upgrade to a better mat be worth it? I have seen a Herbie's Way Excellent II Turntable Mat, $68 for a piece of foam???

is it really worth it?

Thanks

Art :music:
 
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I think so. They are very good at damping vibrations in a record without sucking the life out of the sound. I have one on a Kenwood KD-500 and think it was a worthwhile upgrade over the stock rubber mat. The noise floor was lowered and the background quieter with the Herbie's mat.
 
Not trying to be a smartass, but wouldn't throwing away the felt mat be an upgrade?

I can't imagine a felt mat being anything but a dust collector. No? Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
A good record mat can make a world of difference. I put an LP-Gear Z-mat on my Pro-ject and immediatly noticed a positive change in the dynamic presentation of the music. Well worth the price of admission IME.
 
the felt is some antistatic thing from Sweden.... it was free

the Herbie's Way Excellent II Turntable Mat has a 90 day trial so i think i will give it a try!

thanks

Art
 
you should use cork as a mat.
It looks extremely ugly, but anything ugly always works the best.
 
Got a Herbie's mat on a group buy thru AK. Yeah, pretty expensive for a piece of foam -- if all you're getting is any old block of foam. Way I figure it, I have way too many projects going to seek out different foam sources, figure out a nice way to cut it circular so it doesn't look trashy, and try a bunch of different kinds out. But maybe there is a cheap DIY foam approach out there, I dunno. Or use cork as others suggest. I do know the new mat dropped the noise floor and clean up the sound. You might want to search on herbie's and see if you can find the group buy thread which may have some additional comments/results. But heck, with a 90 day trial, why not?!
 
You can make a foam mat out of the perforated foam shelf liner available at Walmart for $3.99 a roll. it is the same material as the "Audio bliss mat " available on ebay for $24.95. there is enough to make 10 mats or so. I used cork and this mat on my TD125, and the cork lost! big improvement over the Thorens mat. I never tried the Herbies Mat.
Regards,
Jim
 
I bought a Herbie's mat and consider it a sizeable improvement over the felt mat it replaced. Since my turntable (MM-5.1SE) has a metal platter with only that felt mat I got tired of the static build-up even with the use of a humidifier. The Herbie's mat has completely eliminated that problem and provides excellent isolation between vinyl and platter. I was happy to spend the $60 for the 2mm thickness.

Cheers
 
There have been alot of discussions about different mats at Vinylengine, to have or not to have a mat on different platter mtrls and so on. My own opinion on this is that it´s very complicated. Because it´s so complicated we also have many different opinions. Some may have found a perfect mat, but this mat may not be applicable on another TT or another cart. IMO I do not see one single mat that will fit different needs. I use a normal thick rubbermat and on top of that I have a slip mat. I´m absolutely not saying that this will be sufficient for others but for me it´s OK.
/gusten
 
A quick question - when you guys install a mat on top of your rubber platter mat, do you raise the tonearm base to accomodate the increased thickness, or just continue as before?
 
Normally I try to keep the tone arm horizontal if possible, but if you calculate the change in VTA if changing a couple of mms in height, it´s really nothing to worry about. A change in VTF of 0,1grams will effect more.
/gusten
 
ehoove said:
You can make a foam mat out of the perforated foam shelf liner available at Walmart for $3.99 a roll. it is the same material as the "Audio bliss mat " available on ebay for $24.95.
Click to expand...

Haven't found the thing on ebay but ... is this like that perforated grip material? Like this:

105364_front200.jpg


Or something else?
 
shimniok said:
Haven't found the thing on ebay but ... is this like that perforated grip material? Like this:

105364_front200.jpg


Or something else?
Click to expand...

this is the one I bought , I don't know if it's cool to post links to the bay
so just google "sonic bliss" the guy's name is yoder365 on the bay .
 
Herbies Mat comes highly regarded. I used to have one on table I recently sold.

However, you have a Thorens 160, cork is definetly more in the spirit of that table and was a recomended "Chadwick Modification" for your very turntable.

Thorens 160... go cork.
 
When I owned a Thorens 145 I used a thick rubber mat from, I believe Audioquest. At the time I also owned a thinner rubber mat from Mission, and a thick felt mat from Linn. The smooth, thick, soft rubber matt was my favorite. My cousin owned a Dual 505, course we tried all the matts on his table. Here the Mission sounded best. I have never owned a cork matt, but would love to try one.:)
 
I haven't made the mod yet, but it will be a DIY cork spotmat for my TD 160.

As VTA on the TP 16 tonearm is pretty much non-adjustable; it comes down to using cartridge spacers or mat thickness to get things right. Consider this if you go down either path.
 
bhundu said:
I haven't made the mod yet, but it will be a DIY cork spotmat for my TD 160.

As VTA on the TP 16 tonearm is pretty much non-adjustable; it comes down to using cartridge spacers or mat thickness to get things right. Consider this if you go down either path.
Click to expand...
Mine has 2 little allan bolts that should allow you to move the tonearm up and down .Mine appears to be frozen , a project that I have yet to try , don't want to muck it up , but the TP16 should move if you loose those bolts .? I've using spacers at the moment.
 
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