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
noromance, you mis-spelled the names of nearly everyone on that record, and to be honest, whenever someone says "even my non-audiophile wife, (daughter, brother, therapist, et. al).heard the difference", alarm bells go off in my head.
@jnorris Hmm... so I did. Getting old is no fun. Whenever I see a comment like yours contributing nothing, I want to punch a wall. In fact, what is the point of your existence? I am detailing an observed phenomenon and passing it on so others might try it for themselves.
@jnorris Actually, my wife is a classically-trained musician and I trust her ears over your suspicions. I played the same track twice without telling her anything. 20 seconds into one of them, she commented on the difference. 
noromance, The intent of my post was not to suggest that you purchase a Resomat.  I was merely trying to point out that possibly the inadvertant effect of leaving the strobe disc on your platter, thereby raising the LP off the surface of the mat, was analogous to the effect deliberately achieved by using the Resomat.  You may be liking that effect of letting the LP resonate freely in air, essentially. 

By the way, the Resomat was not by any means the first and only implementation of the idea.  Decades ago, the Transcriptors platter did the same thing; the LP sat on felt dots mounted on a set of regularly arranged pucks fixed to the surface of the platter.  It was not even possible to use a conventional mat with the Transcriptors.  I am guessing that the Transcriptors idea must have influenced Vic of Trans-fi, in his design of the Resomat.  Vic is English.  Transcriptors was a British product.
While the Terminator arm is temporarily unavailable (Vic builds them in batches), Trans-Fi is still in business and the Resomat currently available.