Does a turntable mat make any difference?

I forgot Terry Bozio.

@jjbeason14 
No, it is not harmful, but it may change the sound in a way most people would never notice.

@lewm 

Great minds think alike. I do think we got his best years, trumpet players never age well especially when you piss off your wife. She shot him in a NYC jazz club. Age 33. There is a great documentary on him, "I Called Him Morgan." 

@atmasphere 

More great minds! My amps are singing beautifully. The DEQX Pre 8 should be arriving shortly. I'm going to cross to a Bricasti Design M25. Roger West recommends 5000 Hz. What do you think?

@atmasphere 

Sota's mat is also the same durometer and mechanical impedance as vinyl and 1/4" thick. I do not think they sell them separately. The silent needle test also works best when the record is firmly clamped to the mat by either vacuum, reflex clamping or CS Port's trick with the heavy weight and concave platter. I remember as a child listening to the needle talk of my Zenith Portable. Remember the Cobra tonearm? It even had eyes painted on it. 

@bigtwin 1+

Signals and Moving Pictures are classic records. Gavin Harrison, Dave Weckyl, Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, Jimmy Chamberlin and Bonzo are/were great drummers. Lee Morgan is my favorite trumpet player. Tragedy that he left us so young.

@atmasphere 

It gets rid of the RC network between the transformers and will definitely extend the high end. The question is will my old ears be able to hear it. It will also take a big load off the MA 2s as the processor is pushing the amps to make high end up to the limit which I think is 6dB. Sorry folks for commandeering the thread.

The best mat will be heavy and have the hardness of vinyl. More important is that the record be firmly held to the mat. Reflex clamping as used by SME, Kuzma, Avid, Oracle and CS Port, or vacuum clamping as used by Sota, Basis and Techdas, are the best solution. Record weights are a half way solution. 

@atmasphere 

From 5 kHz?

@atmasphere 

They are going to handle 5K and below. 5K and up is going to a Bricasti Design M25 which has a very low output impedance and doubles at least up to 2 ohms which is 600 watts. It has a HUGE power supply. I know the is less energy from 5K up, but you can not predict what the processor is going to do unless you have an amplitude graph of your Speaker/Room. Remember, I burned up (literally) a high frequency balance control with a processor that had no limits. Smoke and that acrid burning electronics smell. Whatever that takes to accomplish is what that JC 1 threw at that control. 1000 watts? The MA 2s are happy as a lark, this is where they do best with this speaker. What else can put 220 class A watts into 20 ohms. The JC 1s are down to about 75 watts at that impedance. And the MA 2s are rolled off at 100 Hz 48 8th order. They will be running 100 to 5000 Hz. I have the hottest midrange amps in town, with triggers no less.  The M25s have a crystalline high end like my old Krell KMA 100s. I can not believe this won't be an improvement. The only problem will be if I do not have enough room in the conduit for two more signal wires, it is 25 feet long:-(

@atmasphere 

I was figuring 20 ohms at 100 Hz where I start rolling off.

@jjbeason14 

I would just toss it, it is probably garbage anyway. The plastic protractor that came with my MoFi Beatles set was crap.