Hiho, for the record, the Empire does not go off speed if properly serviced, and can be expected, once serviced, to run for years without further attention. I have seen the motor angle being so poorly set that the belt engages the wrong part of the motor spindle, and I have seen motor spindles so dirty that the diameter was increased. The actual spec of the stock machine is impressive- well within the specs set by the best of the DD machines.
Lew, I don't know all of what Warren put in his mat, but I understand it contains an aluminum disk, and there is a thin Sorbathane layer where the mat meets the platter, so the material is not amorphous.
Although it is by far the best mat that I have heard, it is obvious that it could be a lot better- otherwise damping the platter would not have the rather obvious improvement that it does! OTOH it might be that the best we can hope for is a platter pad that can do what I said- have the hardness of vinyl so maximum vibration transfer without reflection is achieved, and otherwise maximum deadness.
Lew, I don't know all of what Warren put in his mat, but I understand it contains an aluminum disk, and there is a thin Sorbathane layer where the mat meets the platter, so the material is not amorphous.
Although it is by far the best mat that I have heard, it is obvious that it could be a lot better- otherwise damping the platter would not have the rather obvious improvement that it does! OTOH it might be that the best we can hope for is a platter pad that can do what I said- have the hardness of vinyl so maximum vibration transfer without reflection is achieved, and otherwise maximum deadness.