Direct Drive vs. Idler Drive vs. Belt drive

Apparently Pioneer also adopted a very tight control. I refrained from trying out the CU-180 (which took some discipline), but did try alternatives within the same weight range, like hard rubber, cork and leather (even a sandwich of the two). This was no improvement. Quite the opposite in fact, so I decided to stick to the standard mat.

Did you try Boston Audio or The Mat ? This is a lightweight mat (454g) if your turntable drive suffering from heavy gunmetal mats like Micro @edgewear

When i’m looking at my Denon DP-80 or Victor TT-101 i think it would be better with lightweight mats like SAEC or The Mat. Because the platter is lightweight.

When i look at my Luxman (made by Micro Seiki for Luxman) i know that i can use Micro Seiki CU-180 on it and this is what i do. The platter is thick and heavy. But CU-500 mat is definitely too heavy.

@chakster , have you considered graphite? The good people at the Graphite Store were very helpful. I use 1", which they thought was a bit over the top.

@terry9 

I have no source for graphite
As i can see The Mat is not pure graphite, it's different carbon graphite material, so the thickness is just 4mm and cheaper that previous versions made by Boston Audio. 

Another mat made from  extremely high grade of polycrystalline graphite
is OMA Graphite Mat  (6mm thickness), but i never tried this one myself, too expensive.    

@chakster , graphitestore.com helped me with expert advice and a good product at a very fair price. I was told that they have provided platter mats before, but never as thick as an inch.

My big iron platter rings at 500Hz, the graphite top rings at 2000Kz, and the combination is dead as a tomb.

2000Hz