Turntable Platter Mats

Sorry just use my techies original mat, sounds fine to me.
I do find improvement using a record weight though.

Colloms did a test once and found the best mat varied from deck to deck. certainly there were differences that could easily be measured as well as heard, so it's not bullshit!

The techie platter is claimed to ring like a bell despite later ones having a rubbery damping on the back (I think) but add the mat and it's dead. I rather like cork (not the silly money ones) and adding one of these may lighten the tone if needed. Cork seems to love idler decks (puts the 'driven bass quality' into better perspective although GL75's and similar prefer their own ribbed mat.

The Ringmat worked on Regas and pre-Cirkus LP12's were better too. Not sure it worked as well with a Cirkus LP12 (so long ago now).

I used to like the Avon heavy rubber mat, but less so the squidgy 'Dumpa' style mat which stuck the records in place if clean.

I LOVE the NAS Spacemat, sold for around twenty quid, but again it's slightly deck dependent. I plonk one on top of my Dual 702 stuck-on mat and despite the VTA being ever-so-slightly affected, the 'fidelity' seems improved and I hear the music slightly better.

Anyone with a Thorens mid 70's model (160/125mk2 etc) MUST try replacing the mat with either the 160 Super one, or maybe the other way with spacemat or cork (someone used to supply one with a larger centre hole for not much money).


Christ I do go on I wanted to add that it seems the inner part of a record is perhaps more important than the outer edge and better support here seems to help a bit.

Hehe I'm only teasing Westie . I haven't tried one on a Linn either

I'm looking at it slightly skewed possibly. If the record is better supported at or near its centre,the need for a weght may well be reduced. All my Duals have a slightly dished mat and no centre support. I used a soft 'spacer' such as you find in purchased CD-R stacks and am convinced it helps (if anyone's interested, have a look in my VE 'gallery' for loads of stuff none of you would ever dream of looking at )

I guess neoprene is a similar material. Your impression of sorbothane and June of neoprene are similar too. Intuitively I’d expected it to be good, shows how much I know.

Ringmat is one of those products which looks like it can’t possibly be goood, yet somehow defies expectations. Very little material cost, but must be fiddly to put together.

It's closer than having the deck on a 'table' type support I remember. I'm not trying to big the Rega up beyond it's price class (the belt drive part is by far the weakest part although the 24V motors and better external supplies do a good job of minimising the 'issues' I have), but the current one does look great, the arm was sorted a while ago I believe and is now pretty benign - the old sweet toned R200 increases feedback on this deck - It's still got to be better than a bloody Pro-Ject, which suffers from importer-profit syndrome imo as well as inferior design under the skin, also imo... 

The Carbon (posh AT91) was ignored by all and sundry including me as it's so basic and cheap, yet the German Lowbeats site found it to be really good technically as well as sonically (sound-bites posted too). They went up through the Rega cartridges and have done the same for all the new AT magnetic types (the 110E is kind-of the AT520 now at £120).
I spoke to my old mukka and Rega Sales Manager last Autumn about their MM cartridges and all he said was that 'they're aware of it.' I used the rather funky Ania MC as proof they needed to do something. Remember, the current home made MM's go back almost as far as the RB300 arm (mid 80's I think) and are actually quite intricate in the way they're (hand) built. i fond them so 'wrong sounding' though and my other experiences aside, the Ania and Apheta prove it to my ears anyway...

Last week for an old pal of mine, i did a direct comparison of a Carbon (which we both like for the basics) to an AT95E (not the absolute current one which has a slightly finer diamond profile and gold-ish pins on the back). The 95E does take the fine mid-bass and lower mid region quality higher into the lower high frequencies and I still feel this one gets better with the deck. My now obsolete AT120E (sounding fine in a gash Garrard ) is rather better though and this lives on as an AT530.

For the likes of 'us,' An AT91 or 95E are really stand-by models as I suspect most here have heard where vinyl can go in terms of quality. Such a shame that better cartridges now cost so much more - maybe the 91 and 95E are loss-leaders and made automatically by the thousand still... How a Dynavector 10XVcan cost £499 when it's no better than a DL110 at £180 or so is totally beyond me (they used to cost the same too!)

When *new,* the LP12 mat had a slightly smoother side and along with Valhalla kit fuse direction and belt upside down/inside out and so on, we thought we could hear a massive difference - and then I heard a deck fr half the price or so which out-performed it, needed no special racks or support and no faffing around in terms of set-up...

Prey tell Dave.......What was this half price David whom slew the mighty LP12 Goliath ?

The predecessor to the 530 was the 100E which was discounted to £60 a year or so ago. Still available at £80. Essentially the same - they tweaked the tracking weight up and likely cantilever stiffness to tame top end brightness but I believe there are losses elsewhere from reviews.

Realised it's the 520EB that is the 100E successor. Anyway a 50% price hike! The 100E doesn't sound a whole lot worse than my old OC9 II on the Pioneer PLX 1000 and has the benefit of not picking up slight hum as MCs do on this deck. I'm a bit sceptical of the ultimate value of some of the expensive MM models AT now do, essentially just better stylus on same design.