Hi Mark,

I’m not a big fan of faffing about with turntable mats, you could spend a lifetime swapping them,
either find one that looks fit for the job (most probably the one that comes with the TT) and stick with it
or buy a turntable that doesn’t require one.
At some point with turntables you have to move on from the “lets try this mat, lets try that mat phase”
Yep, I totally agree - hence why the Sound Hi-fi mat had been happily doing its job on my T/T for nearly two years. The Achromat thing was totally unplanned and happened as a result of Arthur contacting me to audition his new tonearm.

However I'm glad he did contact me, as from an SPPV point of view, I've now had one of the best upgrades for my T/T ever...

One design factor is crucial for me, and this is that the Achromat shares very similar impedance characteristics with a vinyl record, which for me makes it the ideal interface between the record and the platter, and thus somewhat of a ubiquitous choice in that particular application.

The Achromat could thus be seen as a something with which to partner with your usual mat of choice, simply because of its unique 'vinyl mimicking' characteristics.

Therefore the Achromat will definitely be staying put as my reference 'record interface mat', regardless if I later choose to use it in conjunction with a copper mat, for arguably the ultimate mat combination with the stock Technics platter

Marco.