Felt Mats or ???

Taking another stab at this, I do not use a clamp with the Mat 1. In fact, I haven't used a clamp since discovering that, for me at least, that silly paper-and-cork Ringmat sounded better on my VPI TNT Mk. II than the recommended mat-less platter and supplied VPI clamp. I couldn't have been more surprised (I had borrowed the Ringmat after being cajoled into trying it). Once I was clamp-free, I decided to see what else was out there and wound up with the Boston Audio which fortunately also sounds the best on my current replinthed Lenco. Dave

My table is the maplenoll ariadne which has a lead platter that is countersunk in the middle to account for the label thickness. Hence no pad is recommended as the clamp attempts to ensure solid contact of the lp to the platter. My platter does not have a vacuum system or outer ring clamp so severely warped records are not firmly contacted, but most other records are contacted by the entire platter. i did try a felt mat once but did not like the sound. it seemed the bass response was less

Felt mats blow.
Anything is better than a felt mat.
Feltmats seem to be a cost cutter for production line turntables.
I hate 'em.

Nrenter,

Great insight and an interesting spin. Clearly a mat could be combined with a clamp to provide a coupling system. That isn’t the way mats normally get used but on the right table that’s no reason not to try – and you may have exactly the right table.

As an example of the wrong table, consider my old H-K/Rabco ST-8. Its noisy bearings (#1), motor (#2) and multiple belts (#3) all precluded clamping. I tried it and it seriously raised the noise level. Letting the LP float in isolation on the mat sounded best.

Your much better rig addresses issues 1-3 well, so the biggest remaining challenge from my list is indeed #4. We’re agreed that acrylic alone does not effectively control intra-vinyl resonances and those are very destructive of good playback, as George Merrill’s, Ddarch44’s and now Dopogue’s results all attest. (Dopogue’s platter is also solid acrylic, so his preference for a mat is consistent with all this. Apparently VPI should be selling Ringmats, not clamps!)

So, using your clamp to couple to a mat could provide valuable resonance dissipation, while your table’s good behavior on #s 1-3 prevent any of the potential downsides that lesser tables might suffer.

Put a mat on your holiday list!

Just for the, er, record my platter is metal. Zinc, I believe. The TNT lost out to the Lenco some time ago.

I'm not sure I'd try to clamp a graphite map (Boston Audio) because of its composition/fragility. But then I wouldn't try to clamp anything :-)

And oh boy does it save time and eliminate the danger (ask me how I know) of dropping a clamp on an LP! Dave