2. analog
  3. 152387-138392

Vinyl turntable mat?

Anybody tried a vinyl turntable mat?
Some turntable manufacturer (Project?) had a turntable plater coated with (melted) vinyl. And  - it makes sense?
If you want to get rid of the resonanses in the vinyl - pass it on to some other piece of vinyl.
Then I read about the reso-mat (?) - wich was resting the LP on 10-15 small cones so that it was suspended from the platter(mat). I have to confess - I bought the argument; resonants will occur in the vinyl - so let them dissapear on the other side of the record instead of trying to minimase the impact it has when forced back into the cartridge.
Made sense to me.
So - I did a little experiment. Sacrificed a (crap) LP and glued small bits of standard furniture floor-savers (?) on to it.
(It was self adhesive - so if I ever get the urge to listen to Amon Düül:'Almost Alive' - it can be retrieved :-) )

The result?
Clear music. Extreme articulation. Immense detailed reproduction. Every hit of the triangle is articulated. Every instrument has it place in the picture. Nothing souns muddled. Did the ultimate test (Mothers of Invention: Weasel's Ripped My Flesh - Title track; identified 5 more instrumental parts :-) )
My poor, old RCD-971 is blushing in the corner. Making excuses. (and it's brilliant!)

OK - so I'm using a pretty detail-oriented cartridge; G-1042. 
Wich nobody else seems to be using. (If you want to hear every detail on your vinyl - you really should make it a contender..)

But - I digress. The vinyl mat. The reso-mat.
Air as the best medium when it comes to damping internal resonanse in vinyl.

Any thaughts?
baltus
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,384 posts
 
I use the Oracle hard mat on my Technics SL1200g and find that I get a wealth of information compared to the soft rubber mat that came with the turntable. 
lewm
13,019 posts
 
Your powers of description do not match your level of enthusiasm.  Can you say more clearly what you did?  What I read starts with a question about a vinyl platter mat.  And you point out that a vinyl mat might have the feature of draining energy put into the (vinyl) LP, due to the efficiency of transfer of energy from vinyl to vinyl (about as good as can be achieved, I agree).  Then you go on to talk about the Resomat, which in my mind is the exact opposite approach; the LP is suspended in mid-air.  Resonant energy can only be dissipated via the interface of the LP with air. (Maybe that's not so bad; I don't know.)  Then I get confused. It seems you glued some stand-offs to the surface of an actual LP and used THAT as a mat, with the test LP sitting on top of those furniture thingies.  If that's correct, what you created and used is most analogous to a Resomat.  Correct?  So here you are endorsing the idea of the Resomat, correct?
But you have not done, or at least not reported on, a comparison with a mat (vinyl or other) that actually might do a good job of draining resonant energy from an LP.  In science, this is called a "control".  And most of us, including me, have no idea what is a "G1042" or an "RCD971".  And at the end, the whole thing is based on your subjective judgement, so all you can say is you arrived at something that seems to work well, for you alone in your system with your selection of rock LPs.  That's fine.
baltus OP
8 posts
 
Sorry for the confusion. The G-1042 is the cartridge; Goldring G-1042.
The cd player is the Rotel RCD-971.
Of course I'm not making any statements about what is ''The Best''.
I thought it was self-evident that my description of my experience was exactly that. So here's the disclaimer: The description in the opening post of my impression of this mat is a description of my impressions of this mat.
Clear enough?
My question is if anybody has any thaughts about what is the best way to deal with the inherit resonanses in the vinyl?
Some means that the best way is to let them resolve on the backside of the record into air. Others use felt, or glass, or acrylic. Or vinyl.
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,769 posts
 
Millercarbon, have you heard the detail in an ASMR recording? Or a school brass band with a drum kit playing in a marble-floored hall? Pretty dang detailed!

More to discover