Basis and table mats?

A friend has a 1400 and some time ago we tried all manner of mats with it, including the Boston Audio Mat I I use on my VPI TNT, a Ringmat and a couple of homemade Spotmats. Clamps and weights included the Michell, a drilled hockey puck (not bad) and others I've forgotten. Result: bare platter, no clamp, was the consensus winner.

BTW, what REALLY made a positive difference was ditching the stock belt and going with one made of dental floss. I wouldn't have believed it.

If you like the dental floss belt, try mylar tape, like VHS tape spliced to the correct loop length.

The Teres owners group have been down this road with the various belt types, and have tried the rubber, dental floss(silk cord), etc, and at present the 1/2" mylar tape is the best thing found.

You may have to try a different pulley, if your pulley has the V-groove in it for the round section belts. Tape requires a flat surfaced pulley, with flanges on top and bottom.

I agree with other about the mat. I use my 2500 with no mat, but I do have the Basis clamp which works very well.

I thought about trying the dental floss or silk string, but the pulley seems to have a convexed shape so I'm afraid the string would ride either at the top or bottom of the groove and perhaps not give the proper rotational velocity. The mylar is an interesting choice. Does it come in 3/16 or 1/4 inch widths?

Dan_ed,
Our normal source for mylar ribbon only sells it in 1/2" and wider. You might try 1/4" recording tape, the thicker the substrate the better. Use it emulsion side out so it doesn't deposit particles on your platter or pulley.

I imagine the reason dental floss works well for Dopogue is that it isn't stretchy. A non-stretchy belt provides tighter coupling of motor to platter. This helps resist stylus drag. Of course a tighter motor/platter coupling provides a path for motor vibration and cogging. Whether that's an issue depends on the motor.

The mylar tape favored by Teres/Redpoint/Galibier owners is also non-stretchy. The wider contact area compared to dental floss results in less belt slip. I've tried both and the tape is definitely better. I also recently tried the slightly stretchy belt from a friend's Amazon. Definitely a step backwards, we lost some leading edge transients.

Doug, You may want to try some silk ribbon as an alternate drive belt. I have been experimenting with several samples of silk ribbon on my Galibier for the past few weeks, and I generally prefer it to the 1/2" mylar tape that you mention. Walker supplies 4mm silk ribbon with his Proscenium Gold table, which is where I got the idea. It's available at craft and embroidery stores. Of course, the ribbon needs to be cut and the ends joined with contact cement.

It's amazing how much the sound changes with different belt materials. The width of the silk ribbon has a major impact also, my favorite so far being the 4mm that I started out with.

Dave