What are the audio differences you hear with turntable Mats.

What audio differences can one expect with different mats? Felt, rubber and acrylic.

@joscow The platter pad has two jobs: damp resonance in the LP when its being played and damp the platter as much as possible. When damping the LP, it must not reflect energy back. To this end, it has to have the same durometer (hardness) as the LP. If softer or harder, the platter pad will have a ’signature’; some will be bright and others dull and the bass is affected as well.

An easy way to tell how effective your platter pad works is to play an LP with the volume down and just listen to the stylus in the groove. If its audible that’s bad. It should be really quiet. When you can hear it, that’s the LP resonating a bit- in essence, ’talking back’ to the cartridge.

You’ll find that damping the platter has a nice effect on the presentation as well- better bass, smoother and more resolved mids and highs.

Felt, rubber and bare metal don’t cut it. The best commercial mat I’ve seen so far is made by Oracle. Its acrylic; acrylic can be made to match the hardness of vinyl.

@atmasphere 

The Oracle acrylic mat sounds interesting to me.  

However, when I read a description of it, it said ".....The acrylic mat is machined with a slightly concave surface which helps flattening of the record more efficiently when using the Oracle record clamp."

I don't use a record clamp with my turntable as it is not recommended (it's an LP12) so I wonder how this mat might work with it having the concave surface with out using a record clamp?  Any thoughts or ideas you could share with me?

Thank you and best wishes,

Don

@no_regrets , My Nantais Reference Lenco II has the Oracle mat adhered to the platter. Jean said it was the best-sounding of the many he tried. It works perfectly well with weights and clamps other than the one made by Oracle. Personally, I like the Origin Live Gravity One (out of many I’ve tried), which weighs almost nothing but sounds terrific on the Lenco.

It’s an interesting question.

I’m no expert but seems to me the mat helps isolate the stylus from any physical noise or vibration that might be transmitted by the motor to the stylus while playing. Just the way I look at it. I suspect felt pads are popular for that reason.

My direct experience of a substantial improvement over a Felt Mat on a Linn Deck has been when a 5mm Thick Forex Foam Mat was used.

Forex Foam is a mat made from the same material used for the Commercial offered DAT Mat.

On the day the Forex Foam was selected, there was approx' £1000 in value of Mats to be demonstrated, with a few Mats retailing between £300-£500.

The Forex Foam Mat as part of a Group Buy and one of Four Mats purchased for the GB (2 x 3mm and 2x 5mm) had a cost of £30 for all four mats purchased.

It is well worth looking to acquire a Mat made of this material, as the cost will not be a concern, and the end result of using it, might just be what is desired.