Record Mats In Combination With Weights

@dover

Well, foolish or not, the sound quality from my setup suffers on everything I play without those options.  Maybe I have been just lucky?

I have the Denon DP450 with the Ortofon 2M Red. I am now using the Archomat rather than the rubber mat that came with the turntable. I use the  Fluance Hifi  weight and haven't determined any issues with turntable function.  I have tested albums with the Fluance Hifi weight, both on and off. With it on, before I got the new mat and the sound quality was more structured and it solved some hissing noises and hollow sound effects. The Archomat adds a new layer of structure and clarity.  Based on the positive attributes that have been revealed, I take the position that these items are a positive influence on the system I am using.

Right. Because you are listening. But not lucky. That's just the way it is. Far as I can tell anyway. Every single thing I ever tried was better than nothing, than just a record on the platter. When I first brought this up to DJ Casser in the early 90's he made me a carbon fiber disk with a hole in the middle, crudest thing he ever made I bet. But that's the way it is when you test, doesn't have to be pretty. It worked, and that was enough.

Since then I tried lots of things. Playing a record generates a tremendous amount of vibration. Never seen any measurements but I bet the stylus in the groove generates far more vibration than the bearing, motor, everything else all put together. This should by the way be obvious and uncontroversial. Play any record, you can hear the music clearly just from the cartridge body vibrating. Can't hear the motor, platter, bearing, plinth, anything else. Just the cartridge. Main source of vibration.

Mats, clamps and weights all help to control this vibration at least in the vinyl. Things like OL Cartridge Enabler or fO.q tape can help with the cartridge. All these things help. The challenge is these vibrations run across the whole audio spectrum and dynamic range. It is super easy to dampen some enough to hear improvement. That is basically what all the different things do. What is super challenging is to control equally well across the whole spectrum. This is harder to do and also a little harder to hear. When one or a few things are made better this stands out. When everything is improved equally well the full nature of the improvement can actually be a little less obvious and harder to hear. Or another way of saying it can take a while to appreciate. But these are worth the effort because they are exactly the sorts of things we appreciate more and more as time goes by.

@guakus

The point I made was that each turntable is different, and will yield different results. In your case you succeeded in gaining improvements from the specific mat/weight you purchased. The key is exactly what you said

I take the position that these items are a positive influence on the system I am using. 

"on the system I am using"

@dover

Agreed.  I began this post to see if there was something I was missing about weight.  Whether it was something I needed and as it turns out, it's sort of like asking, "What's the best Bourbon?"  It's 110% subjective. :)

110% is lacking in the hyperbole department….. of course, i just had a shot of small batch redemption 

Bob Ludwig a noted master of well mastering uses the unique Brinkmann clamp and platter system…

Enjoy the music, and the Bourbon. We serve John Jay Bowman when we are out of rotgut.