Turntable Mat question

Nobody here heard a turntable with vacuum hold down? Basis, SOTA and Air Force take things to a whole new level. Walker also. 

You do have to be careful with vacuum hold down. I have records that are permanently noisy on that account alone. 


A record mat has a specific job: control platter resonance and control LP resonance. If you can tap on the raw platter and it rings- the platter pad will help. But the LP is trickier- the platter pad has to be very nearly the same hardness as the vinyl (a durometer is helpful) to be most effective. Otherwise the pad will fail to absorb certain frequencies and may reflect them.

One way to tell your platter pad is working right is to turn the volume all the way down and just listen to the stylus in the groove. It should be pretty quiet. But if you can hear it from a foot or more away that's a pretty good sign your platter pad is failing at its job.

I have a KD 500. Using the original mat. Sounds fine. Are there particular ones I might investigate for this turntable? Only if you have personal experience. Theory only goes so far. Thanks.

I had a Kenwood KD-500 for about 18 years with a Grace G-707 arm.  I used the Platter Pad on it and it was a very good sound.  Only traded it in at the end as the speed started having problems staying true.  Bought a Maplenoll Ariadne air bearing TT/ arm that after about 9 months, I got working perfectly finally.  The Kenwood with Grace combo was highly reviewed by at least 2 rags at the time.  It was a very good sounding combo.  The 'Noll was much better sounding, but the PITA factor of all the possible ways the air delivery from the pump could go wrong wore me out.  Twice it caused the cantilever to snap close to a 90 degree angle.  I bought the Kenwood for $160 new and the Grace for $97 new from mail order places in California in the late 70's.  Tough to beat combo for that money.

Bob

Hi ...Thank you for all your responses. 
Atmosphere ...I would like to ask you about using record for record mat.
You said that using an LP for record mat is trickier but should be the same hardness as traditional record mat. I have tried it ...sounds good.
Am I losing anything sound wise ?
Thanks Ralph