Does a turntable mat make any difference?

I use the funk firm mat. It sounds great to me. Some of the things I like about it is I do not have to turn off the motor to change or flip the record. Also it does not leave any lint on the record. I have friends who use the Herbie on the Rega. I believe is you use what you like. If you do use a thicker mat then you were before make sure to check the VTf so you are not overl loading the cartridge. As I said before. One of the things you are hearing is the change in the cartridge weight. This might be a good thing if you do not have adjustable VTA. It lets you fudge the VTA by going to a different thickness mat. Someone said above that extensive turn tables do not recommend using record mats which is true. But Acoustic Signature makes six figure turntables and come with mats as do many other very high end turntables.

It takes approximately 4 mm of adjustment on the bearing side of the tonearm to make 1 degree of difference on SRA. ( angle of the stylus)We can play from 100g to 200g records which have different thicknesses without any adjustments.
My point is that it does change the sound not because of the difference in height but because of the of the change in VTF or cartridge weight. Most people think it is because of the change in SRA. If you want to play with mats go ahead just measure the VTF after the change so you are comparing apples to apples. I feel the included record mat is like the power cable that comes with your phono stage. it’s there to test that it works. In the end it is up to your ears, the only ones that truly matter.