Wakefield Turntables
30-09-2015, 21:17
Quite some time ago I decided I wanted to try a Nagaoka crystal mat and was happy to pay the £125 asking price, however, trying to get one now is very very hard as they are out of stock in most places. I decided to look on various 2nd hand hifi sites and eBay, still couldn't find one, so I noticed this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Analogue-Studio-Crystal-Glass-Turntable-Platter-Mat-/291432791139?hash=item43dabf7c63 which is more or less exactly the same spec as the Nagaoka but at £52 cheaper. I've had good results on my 1210 so I decided to have a play on my 301. The Radford amp was allowed 20 minutes to warm up, the 301 was fed through my PS Audio P10, I used my Ortofon ST80 SUT going through my Croft Micro 25 onboard MM phonostage, finally the Silver Meister SPU was used. Listening was low volume.
First track was the opener on the Closer to the Edge by Yes, known for its hefty bass and complicated time signatures. I couldn't notice any difference bewteen the two mats so the score is 1-1. I decided to move to an old album that I knew inside out, Powerslave by Iron Maiden and listened to the next tune on the 301 which happened to be Powerslave. Again the two mats performed in an extremely similar manner albeit I noticed a slightly more pronounced echo effect on Bruce Dickinson's vocals using the Crystal mat, the effect was so little so I would still call the second track a draw, so 2-2. Third track was the opening track on the Black Sabbath album, Black Sabbath. I only listened to the opening 60 seconds where a haunting churchbell and storm can be heard, things changed this time around in that the Garrard mat produced managed to dampen the chiming effect of the church bells whilst the crystal mat produced greater end note harmonics, this one went to the Crystal mat, so the score goes 3-2 to the crystal mat. Fourth track of the night was "How many more times", from the first Led Zeppelin album, again very very little difference between the two mats, perhaps the crystal mat had a little more definition with the guitar to the end of the track, again a draw so the score at the end of tonight is 4-3.
Tonights findings seem to indicate that the Crystal mat would only be a very very marginal improvement over the stock Garrard mat. I don't think this improvement is worth £73. I'm going to be listening at higher volumes over the next few days with the same system, lets see what happens!
First track was the opener on the Closer to the Edge by Yes, known for its hefty bass and complicated time signatures. I couldn't notice any difference bewteen the two mats so the score is 1-1. I decided to move to an old album that I knew inside out, Powerslave by Iron Maiden and listened to the next tune on the 301 which happened to be Powerslave. Again the two mats performed in an extremely similar manner albeit I noticed a slightly more pronounced echo effect on Bruce Dickinson's vocals using the Crystal mat, the effect was so little so I would still call the second track a draw, so 2-2. Third track was the opening track on the Black Sabbath album, Black Sabbath. I only listened to the opening 60 seconds where a haunting churchbell and storm can be heard, things changed this time around in that the Garrard mat produced managed to dampen the chiming effect of the church bells whilst the crystal mat produced greater end note harmonics, this one went to the Crystal mat, so the score goes 3-2 to the crystal mat. Fourth track of the night was "How many more times", from the first Led Zeppelin album, again very very little difference between the two mats, perhaps the crystal mat had a little more definition with the guitar to the end of the track, again a draw so the score at the end of tonight is 4-3.
Tonights findings seem to indicate that the Crystal mat would only be a very very marginal improvement over the stock Garrard mat. I don't think this improvement is worth £73. I'm going to be listening at higher volumes over the next few days with the same system, lets see what happens!