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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

 

lohanimal

Showing 2 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,632 posts
 

@lohanimal Acrylic can be variable in hardness. Oracle makes an acrylic platter pad that is really close to the hardness of vinyl and not surprisingly, works quite well.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,632 posts
 

A platter pad needs to do two things: control resonance in the LP and minimize resonance in the platter.

To do the former the mat has to be the same hardness durometer as the LP so all frequencies are absorbed by the mat. If the mat it too soft or too hard there will be colorations as a result.

IME its a good idea to have the platter treated to be non-resonant. Generally speaking an amorphous material like acrylic or metal will not suffice on its own. Technics recognizes this in their current machines and so their platters have damping materials applied.  

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