turntable mats: should I use one?

The idea of a hard acrylic surface is that if the mat or platter is of the same material as a record then in effect you wind up with a thick record which dampens out all vibration. My Basis turntable has an acrylic platter and I use no mat as recommended by basis. Just a clamp to press the record to the platter
Alan

I reviewed the Boston Mat2 in my system post.

It is usually recommended that a clamp is used with acrylic platters. I have a clearaudio clever clamp that I don't need anymore after going to a rega rp6. Email me if interested.

The Sota is certainly a better sounding table than my Thorens but they both incorporate spring suspension. I use a Herbies Way Excellent II mat for my TD 160 aluminum platter and I'm happy with the sonic improvement that its made.
Herbies makes a variety of mats dependent on the design of both the table and platter. I can't say that this would be the best mat for a Sota however there is a 90 day return policy and it's considerably cheaper than the Boston or any of the other carbon fiber mats.
I wish I had the Sota with a 9 inch Thomas Schick tonearm.

No way. Don´t waste your time & money on mats whatever they are. They change the sound, sometimes may improve it in some extent but not improve it as whole.
Buy a Reso-Mat instead. Vinyl sits on acetate spikes allowing resonances vanish into air and not bouching back from platter´s surface to cartridge smearing the original sound from your stylus. It just works. ;)