@noromance
Well, after realizing my misunderstanding about my built-in integral SOTA ‘mat’, the cork mat has been removed, for good. Reset VTA. I’m still a bit smitten with @slaw ‘s MyMat without any clamp. Tried an LP unclamped directly on the integral mat/platter, but sounded better with slaws mat. Makes sense, as that is how Steve designed it.
Interesting enough, a couple of the LP’s in the Solti-Edition collection I am playing now are significantly warped, and I needed the SOTA clamp to flatten them a bit. Immediately, although not sounding ‘bad’, the soundstage ‘closed-in’ and everything became more center focused. Without the clamp the stage and ‘air’ are much more open, and I’ve been sticking to that the last several albums.