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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... 
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slaw's avatar
slaw
21,439 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?


noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,769 posts
 
I tried the same experiment on my other 401 system. Same result to a slightly lesser extent as it's not as revealing as my main setup. 
Naked platter > 10" vinyl EP > 4" plastic strobe disk.

noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,769 posts
 
My wife never listens to the gear but I called her down. Using "The Gifted Ones" / Dissy Gillespie, Count Bassie, Ray Brown, Mickey Roken (Pablo 2310.883), she was amazed at the difference.
This is not a simple case of ringing or undamped vinyl. It is a removal of a pretty thick veil, and a release of the music heretofore suppressed. Please try it.
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islandmandan
1,260 posts
 
I have tried several different mats on my G-401, an Acromat, the suspended design from the maker of Trans-Fi Terminator (which didn't seem to work well at all for me), and a solid TTW copper mat (along with TTW brass weight), and I always come back to, and stay with, the copper mat and brass weight.

I don't know what to make of your EP mat, though I could try using the strobe disc from the KeyStrobe speed setting system. May be worth a try, though.

Regards,Dan
 
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