Rim and belt drives only work with the inertia of very heavy platters, DD‘s tend to be light for obvious reasons. My best results come from a very heavy acrylic platter with a Verus rimdrive. I use a Millenium carbon fibre mat and clamp with carbon fibre lining on the LP side. The logic of the mat and clamp is to damp resonances of the LP itself, so: yes, mats have a purpose
MAT - platter material, thickness/ resonant frequency - thoughts please
I've read quite a few posts and threads and am getting a little bit overwhelmed frankly. What I do not really see is any clear discussion/experience factoring in the difference of say:
1. the drive method - DD goes at the speed ie 33.3 - 45; belt 300rpm; rim (higher still but not sure)
2. platter material - Steel, Aluminium, Delrin all have different resonant frequencies
3. Suspension type - sprung vs rigid vs air vs sorbothane
4. platter thickness
I have been trying to get an OL2k mat for my SONY TTS 8000 (to no avail) for instance as I read in a HiFi News article by Tim Jarman that one can try other mats but the OL2K is the best overall.
As such logic clearly means that some mats work with some decks better - and as such i can imagine they are rubbish on another deck hence some experiences would be akin to having a salmon and banana sandwich which are not destined to work together.
I am throwing this out for some distilled advice and experience upon the following decks:
1. MAt for Sony TTS 8000
2. Mat for JVC TT101
3. mat for acrylic platter (Amazon Model One) (just experimenting)
I have a few candidates:
a. Ringmat
b. Tenuto
c. Boston
d. pigskin (cut to size)
thanks in advance