...a second listen

Moonglum....I can only attribute it to confusion when I fell off my bike and into a concussion around that time...but I've been known to make many bad judgements in my years.

Sometimes the best way to judge a component is to remove it from the system after several weeks or months of listening.  

The mat is a pretty important part of the turntable! It controls resonance in the vinyl caused by the tracking of the cartridge. If not controlled, the resonance can talk back to the needle and so mess up the sound.

The proper mat will be of the same hardness as the LP itself, so as to prevent any reflections of energy at any frequency. So they can affect the tonality!! No mat at all will be too bright and a soft mat like felt or leather will be too soft (and some oils will be imparted to the LP surface, allowing it to gather dust a lot easier). Felt mats are only used by DJs to act as a clutch between the platter and the LP surface. Mats of this latter type are not predicable sound-wise- they might also be bright and trashy, simply because damping is almost non-existent.

A good mat will also serve to damp the platter to some extent. This is a lot to ask of a mat which is why its a good idea for the platter be damped on its own. Two mats that I favor are the one made by Oracle and the Vibro Stop. I'm sure there are others but when examining the issue keep the principles I've outlined above and you will save yourself some cash.