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Platter mat insanity

I was doing an idler upgrade to my 401 (more anon) and when finished used the Keystrobe disk to ensure speed. I use a 10" EP as a platter mat. I played a bunch of albums and it sounded fantastic. On the 6th side, I noticed I'd forgot to remove the 4" strobe disc. Duh. I took it off and figured VTA was responsible. So I lowered the arm to see if that made it sound so good. Nope. Put back on the 4" strobe disk and raised arm. The awesome sound returned. So air under the record removed haze, smearing, flattened soundstage and muddled bass; and made it so more musical. Comments... 
128x128noromance

Showing 5 responses by slaw

slaw's avatar
slaw
20,508 posts
 
www.mapleshade.com  


slaw's avatar
slaw
20,508 posts
 
@terry9 ,

OK..you just blew my mind!
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,508 posts
 
@noromance ,

Your last approach, the brass screw heads, may be similar to Pierre Spray’s mat with teeny brass points? Also, are you, or anyone else posting here, using a weight or clamp in your testing?

@terry9 ,

Although I haven’t looked to see if you have a virtual system, I was wondering about your 1" graphite mat. Does this mean, the spindle doesn’t protrude from top of the mat?
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,508 posts
 
@noromance ,

Yes there should be room for the lp label, but what I was referring to is that at least 50% of all lps have a raised center right around the spindle hole at around 1 & 1/4" in diameter.

I’m not sure if your original post diagnoses the difference you heard properly. There may be more going on?  Your 10" lp as a platter mat seems like a good idea on paper and it may have provided good results on some lps but I'm skeptical of it going forward.
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,508 posts
 
I'm unsure of "air under the record", is the deciding factor. There's a lot going on there, so, from a distance, I'm skeptical. 

One point to always remember, 50% of lps are/have a raised center. Is this something you're aware of?


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