turntable mat

[RickB]

Folks, be aware that some of the shelf liner material that is touted here as a good material for a mat can mar the vinyl should you fall asleep like overnight or pass out while listening to an album...I've seen this happen with my own eyes. In fact, I tested it with some LP's that I didn't care about and with some of these materials, leaving on an LP little spots in the pattern of the shelf liner on the LP after only a few hours...and, these spots wouldn't wash away....

It looks like the plasticizers that keep the foam surface of the shelf liner material soft and grippy can migrate into whatever it comes into contact with...I have used the heavy duty type of this stuff as toolbox liner...I polished up some Vitamin Q capacitors that had a brass shell, gave 'em a mirror polish and a coat of clear lacquer....after using them for a couple of months in a tube amp as coupling caps, I put them in one of the drawers of the toolbox that had that lining in it....guess what? The liner melted the lacquer and kind of mingled with it...and yes, as I said before, this lacquer was on the caps for a couple of months under tube amp type temperatures so I have no doubt that the lacquer was totally cured and dry...and, the shelf liner material was at least a few years old so any initial outgassing of solvents in the foamy stuff had been accomplished a long time ago...

IOW, don't leave an LP on that shelf liner material any longer than necessary...I would also be tempted to wash an LP after being on that stuff just to make sure that there wasn't anything left from the shelf liner on the record...

There are also round foam place mats from IKEA that can be used as platter mats...they come in all kinds of bright colors, and black....

Me?

I use a Herbie's on my Linn, a Ringmat on my Dual 1218, and a Fulton Kinetic Barrier on my Micro Seki...I figure why risk an LP on a piss-poor piece of shelf liner that may screw up the LP...and I would never put a shellac based record on that stuff....

.

 

[bhundu]

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.

I've seen this tutorial also. In my VTA adjustments, the gimble end seemed as low as it would go. There was about 0.5mm clearance so I left it and did not do the proceedure. In my experience(very limited) it was the headshell end that needed to be higher according to the cart.

 

[ehoove]

Folks, be aware that some of the shelf liner material that is touted here as a good material for a mat can mar the vinyl should you fall asleep like overnight or pass out while listening to an album...I've seen this happen with my own eyes. In fact, I tested it with some LP's that I didn't care about and with some of these materials, leaving on an LP little spots in the pattern of the shelf liner on the LP after only a few hours...and, these spots wouldn't wash away....

It looks like the plasticizers that keep the foam surface of the shelf liner material soft and grippy can migrate into whatever it comes into contact with...I have used the heavy duty type of this stuff as toolbox liner...I polished up some Vitamin Q capacitors that had a brass shell and gave them a coat of clear lacquer....after using them for a couple of months in a tube amp as coupling cas, I put them in one of the drawers of the toolbox that had that lining in it....guess what? The liner melted the lacquer and kind of mingled with it...and yes, as I said before, this lacquer was on the caps for a couple of months under tube amp type temperatures so I have no doubt that the lacquer was totally cured and dry...and, the shelf liner material was at least a few years old so any initial outgassing of solvents in the foamy stuff had been accomplished a long time ago...

IOW, don't leave an LP on that shelf liner material any longer than necessary...I would also be tempted to wash an LP after being on that stuff just to make sure that there wasn't anything left from the shelf liner on the record...

There are also round foam place mats from IKEA that can be used as platter mats...they come in all kinds of bright colors, and black....

Me?

I use a Herbie's on my Linn, a Ringmat on my Dual 1218, and a Fulton Kinetic Barrier on my Micro Seki...I figure why risk an LP on a piss-poor piece of shelf liner that may screw up the LP...and I would never put a shellac based record on that stuff....

.

If you wash the liner and then rinse it real good sqeeze out the remaining water and let air dry, you will remove most of the chemicals. I have left an old lp on mine for 2 days with no problem.
Regards,
Jim

 

[Puma Cat]

I believe that you are right! I hate felt mats!

No, this is incorrect. Felt mats sound better than most other mats...that's why they are used. Get a Rega mat for your Thorens and it will sound better than your rubber one.

 

[RickB]

If you wash the liner and then rinse it real good sqeeze out the remaining water and let air dry, you will remove most of the chemicals. I have left an old lp on mine for 2 days with no problem.
Regards,
Jim

I did exactly that with the last one I made a few months ago for my PL-41.....it still left those marks after the LP sat on the stuff overnight....there's another type that I'd like to try..it's a black, solid surfaced, not the nubby, woven textured stuff, and I use it as a topper on my work area...I got a roll of it at Lowe's...just need to pick up another one and cut out a mat and see how that stuff works...

Anyway, I recently was able to find a bunch of circular cork pads so I'll be making a Spotmat clone for the PL41 next time I put it into rotation...can't use the "real" mats I have because of the raised ridge in the center of the Pioneer's platter....

 

[musichal]

One thing I've always liked about the Thorens mat is the very high quality of the rubber itself, but I didn't like the thin raised ridges upon which the record actually rests. I wanted to use my Thorens mat, so I bought some cork, measured the distance between the Thorens ridges, and used a compass to mark and cut two concentric 'rims' upon which the record now sits, raising it but a hair's breadth so VTA was unaffected. I can't say that I noticed much difference in the SQ (which is very good), but I feel better about retaining the mat.

BTW, I remember a post sometime past in which a Thorens owner noted that his old, original mat was hardened - I rather suspect that it must have been subjected to temperature extremes in its past because my current one, and a couple others I have owned over the years, seem(ed) to be as supple as I remember from a brand new Thorens I bought in 1972.

 

[autoexer]

well I got my Herbie's mat today - looks and sounds great...

 

[pmsummer]

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

Or something else?

That stuff WILL leave residue on an LP. :thumbsdn:

 

[Greene Deere]

Now I'm really confused (not an unusual state of affairs). Does anyone have a Rega P3/24 that has tried the different types of mats and can compare? I'm all for buying another mat if it's going to improve the music but don't want to invest if it's not really an improvement. Any info would be appreciated!

 

[pmsummer]

FWIW: I put a Swedish felt/carbon-fibre mat on my all-metal Fons platter, and static electricity-associated pops decreased.

 

[Axcel]

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

imho no you can a ton o money tweaking but to hear any diff well its a waste
but a lot of fun to yak about