Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

I must admit that Copper mat is not my fav, as I've found it somewhat coarse with a rough and overwhelming projection but also overall thin body of sound. Maybe this reflects the system matching & fine tuning in my set-up? I don't know but I would love if it could manage to sounds like it looks. Not Delrin, neither Copper but also never anything soft with even the slightest elasticity no matter if it is cork or leather or felt or especially rubber.

The Cu180 on its own does have a slight brittleness in the highest frequencies but if one places a very thin leather, suede or felt mat on top, this vanishes and the bottom end solidifies even further.
I've reached a compromise by eliminating the Victor rubber mat and placing the very thin Victor suede (pigskin) mat directly on the aluminium platter.
This gives me almost the same advantages of the Cu180 yet the platter stops dead and reverses slightly exactly as the manual dictates.

Hi Halcro -
I suddenly realised from In_shores post that my 4.5kg copper mat is used with the recommended 1.8kg gunmetal weight. The key to successfully using a copper mat is probably the use of a weight in combination with it.
Some of my friends have used Goldmund Mats with their SP10 MkIII's with some success.
Have you thought about trying the original thicker Acromat or Graphite - these would be worth trying in my view, perhaps along with a lighter record weight.
On the Goldmund Studio's a couple of mates had ruby thrustpads made - maybe its worth thinking about whether you can improve the existing bearing. ??

Hi Dover,
I'm not so worried about the extra weight on the bearing although I hear what Aigenga says.
The TT-101 has a 'brake' action when you press the stop button but it is not a dead stop that apparently the SP10s have......rather, it 'brakes' and then provides an instantaneous reverse thrust of the motor to bring the platter to a halt and then the motor 'disconnects' from the platter.
With a heavier platter than was designed....the 'brake' and 'reverse thrust' action of the motor is simply not strong enough to stop the platter and I fear that the continual fight against the inertia of the heavy platter will eventually do damage to the motor?
I don't want to risk that :^(

FWIW, my "other" LO7D (the one I still own), came with the Kenwood record weight. I do not like what it does at all. In fact, my experience with this weight parallels all my other experiences with record weights; they seem to take some "life" out of the sound. I realize that that sense of liveliness could also be called "distortion" due to LP resonance, etc, but it is a kind of distortion that brings me closer to the experience of real music played by live musicians.

I think I already wrote this, but I agree with others that the SAEC mat is excellent (now using it on my SP10 Mk3). I would not be inclined to mess with the stock mat on the LO7D, because I think it was carefully engineered for the turntable, but I do not like the typical rubber mats that came with Technics, Denon, etc. (I used the SAEC on my Denon DP80, also with good results.) Which is to say to Halcro that there are lighter weight metallic or graphite or other types of mats that I believe would outperform the stock rubber Victor mat, which in photos looks like the Denon rubber mat. You might try Boston Audio Mat 2, if you don't fancy the SAEC SS300. I have the deja vu feeling I have said this all before, more than once. Mats make a crazy big difference, IMO.