Albert Porters after market panzerholz plinths

the copper-tops are platter surfaces, not mats. Steve sells a Garrard 301 copper-top platter that lowers the noise floor 4-5 db compared to a stock platter and sounds great. i don't think he makes any copper mats that i know of.

all three tt's do large scale music nicely; maybe the Rockport slightly more nicely as it can separate musical lines in a cresendo like no other tt's i've heard. low noise, amazingly stable soundstage, perfectly flat record.

I use the CU 180 on my Mk III and my Mk II. They are actually made of Gunmetal and sound slightly more alive than copper. The performance of the Mk II improves substantially with the CU 180 mat. Maybe I have been lucky but to date no sonic issues with the added weight.

I also have used a copper mat on my Garrard 301 beneath the stock rubber mat with good results. I believe this adds substantial mass to the platter in essence damping the chatter of the original aluminum platter and lowering the noise floor. I have listened to the Garrard without the stock rubber mat only the copper mat and prefer it with both. Once again no problem with the extra weight on the Garrard.

I would like to try a CU 180 on the Garrard, but have not to date tried one
because the CU 180 does not fit the spindle of the Garrard and needs modifying.

All the turntables are mounted in Porter panzerholst bases.

Logenn both your Technics tables and your Gerrard did you change over to panzerholz plinths from other custom plinths?

Yes, with the Garrard I built a baltic birch plinth with multiple layers anticipating big performance gains, but the performance was mediocre at best and very disappointing. It was a reasonably substantial plinth, but not until the Porter and Semrod designed panzerholst plinth did I realize the potential of the 301 turntable as a reference turntable. Their massive plints with numerous tweaks to enhance the resolution elevated this idler wheel turntable past some very formidable competition.

I am also using the Loricraft motor controller with the torque control, which recreates the original 50 Hz sine wave that the 301 was engineered for in the 1950s (courtesy Steve Dobbins). Presumably this improves the operating smoothness of the powerful 301 motor to reduce rumble and noise. The torque control allows you to reduce the torque and still maintain speed control with the net effect further reduction in vibrations.

The Technics Mk II arrived in their top of the line Obsidian base, which was not to bad, but certainly not in the same league as the Porter panzerholst bases. Transformation is amazing and moves these turntables
to the top levels of performance.

My mark III arrived with no base for any comparison.

Thanks, Mike, for the info on your "copper tops". We've discussed this before, and I should have remembered that those surfaces belong to the respective platters, not to any mat.

Logenn, or anyone, as long as you have the correct adapter in place so that proper rotational speed is achieved (the name of the part escapse me), can you tell me a reason why a Garrard will sound any different with a 60Hz AC supply vs a 50Hz one? I've read endless arguments about the effects of high vs low voltage on the performance of that motor, but this is the first time I have seen anything about the effect of frequency.