Platter mat insanity

The record to platter interface is a critical design element in a turntable.

While it ranks behind bearing & speed accuracy in the hierarchy of things, it does make a difference and system tastes and interactions will definitely affect your preferences.

I liken the "free air" preferences to folks who prefer a little bit of reverb. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I’ve found this to be recording-specific - something I’m always wary of.

Strictly speaking, you’re trying to drain as much stylus chatter (noise) as possible from the LP, into the platter and the right mat help in this regard.

This is where matching the acoustical impedance comes into play. The closer the speed of sound of your platter surface matches that of an LP, the more absorption (and less reflection) you’ll have.

It’s the reason we like our carbon fiber top plates (and graphite before that). It’s also the reason we’re puzzled by preferences for acrylic over PVC in monolithic platter designs, because PVC is better behaved with respect to absorbing noise from the LP. It’s not as pretty as flame polished acrylic, and many folks buy with their eyes instead of their ears, but that’s a story for another day.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

My search stopped with graphite. I use a 1" slab of graphite atop the platter, like Nottingham Analogue (Tom Fletcher design).

Does two things - couples to vinyl, and deadens the platter.

I am feeling much better about the design-intelligence in the 1/4” thick rubber mat on my Technics SL-1700mk2 turntables after this thread of conjecture. Seems Good ole Technics had it right all along, despite less than optimal tonearm geometry. Yet another reason to ditch the archaic SL-1200mk2 derivative. 

" I am feeling much better about the design-intelligence in the 1/4” thick rubber mat on my Technics SL-1700mk2 turntables after this thread of conjecture" 
Okay I'll bite... Where from this thread did you get the idea that a .250 thick rubber mat is a good idea?

Everybody I knew dumped their rubber mat when the Audioquest Sorbothane mat came out. Then companies started exploring, as Thom @ Galibier put it, impedance matching materials like Acetal (Delrin), Graphite, even lead.