Turntable mats, the good, the crap and the overpriced.

[Made in 1968]

Art sent me a pre production Achro. Nice of him but i didint like it,

[Manicatel]

The Collaro mat seems to be getting a lot of fans.
It seems like a decent product, but having heard a very good quality TT with it/ without it, I can’t honestly say I heard much difference.

[Barry]

The Collaro mat seems to be getting a lot of fans.
It seems like a decent product, but having heard a very good quality TT with it/ without it, I can’t honestly say I heard much difference.

I used to have a Collaro 2020 idler drive TT, so was surprised to see the Collaro name still in use, albeit by new owners.

I've dabbled in the past with various TT mats: felt (thick and thin); cork; glass and leather But none lasted long; preferring in all cases to simply use the original rubber mat of my TD124/IIs (and using the Mitchell spindle clamp).

[RobbieGong]

Same experience as most of the guys here and I've said many times before - tried untold different mats, including exotic, expensive, hard, soft, lost count of the different types. Always found the stock mat rubber mat to be the one that sounded right over them all.

Some mats killed the music, like a quilt over the speakers, some tilted the frequencies one way or the other, some introduced an unnatural 'clarity' / sheen and so on.

Either way, they all tended to change things in a way I just didn't like - I don't do things that add a flavour or signature of their own, to an extent that changes the overall presentation and to my ears, gets in the way of the music and that audio 'rightness'

[Cas]

After tinkering with a few different mats a few years ago and finding that there could be a difference from mat to mat
I suddenly realised what is/could be happening. Mats tried where of varying thickness, therefore when used the VTA
was being changed, so when trying different mats what I feel should be done is to reset the VTA each time to allow
for mat thickness, just a thought.

[Made in 1968]

Aye cos mats are generally 3-6mm thickness in some cases, so to think a SRA difference of up to 3mm could easily change the tone of sound.

[RobbieGong]

Yep, you absolutely have to change vta and carefully dial in again otherwise your wasting your time (and money)

[steve-z]

I bought one of these ages ago. Hell make one to spec size if you ask

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/cherry-au...p2047675.l2562

Those platters look extremely good vfm, the only thing that worries me is that it’s about 1kg lighter than the glass platter on my Planar 3, I wonder if the reduced flywheel effect would have an adverse effect on Wow & Flutter.


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[Made in 1968]

Its the mat i bought steve not the platter

[paulf-2007]

Copper mat on my DP80 I get no static issues and sounds more focused ( as some might say ) and far better IMO than the DP80 rubber mat . I use a weight with it to stop any slip while cleaning records with a velvet pad.