New Synergistic Research Record Mat

That was Mijo.  He has a point.

I think of record mats as akin to seasoning on food.  Not everyone will have the same preference, and so price of the mat need not have a linear relationship to performance, since performance is both a personal opinion and also dependent upon the other elements in the closed system where the mat does its work (platter, cartridge, tonearm). Or have I already said this somewhere above?

I like that paper from 2016.  That would support the utility of a crystal in this application. 

I am guilty of not reading your citation.  I did goof in a way by saying that the piezoelectric effect in a crystal results in release of RFI; it is the release of electric charge by a crystal under pressure, or applied mechanical stress. I apologize for that error.  But it's only a small boo-boo because the electrical energy released by a piezo material can be of very high frequency, e.g., up to 1 MHz. That's RFI territory.  I wrote not one word about EMI, by the way.

If it's "all around us", then putting a tiny crystal on top of a cartridge is like pissing in the wind, if you will pardon my colorful language.  The question is, as I stated already, can a tiny crystal reverse the piezo-electric effect, which as you probably know is the property of a crystal when placed under pressure to emit an electrical field akin to RFI.  I have done a literature search, and there is not much evidence to support the notion that a crystal can also absorb RFI and turn it into heat, or whatever SR would have us believe it does with the RFI, but I am not in a position to say categorically that such a transduction of energy is not possible.  Despite my theoretical and I hope scientific questions about the PHT, I don't deny that some folks like them, and I am not about to say that such persons are delusional. No one in my personal experience who has tried them was converted to PHT-ism.

Yes, the PHT. My fave, too.  But some persons whom I respect do swear by them. It, first of all, hinges on whether crystals can effect a reverse piezo-electric effect, by absorbing RFI and turning it into heat.  The second question is why would there be a particular concentration of RFI anywhere near to the cartridge proper.  The third question is can the necessarily very tiny crystal inside a PHT do this in sufficient magnitude to be heard.  The fourth is why should color of the crystal change the sonic signature of the end effect.

testpilot, SR and their customers are credulous.  Their claims are incredible.

Fuzz, that record mat you cited would make me cross-eyed, if I watched it spinning on my turntable. However, it is very good value for money compared to the subject of this thread.

$10 for carbon fiber. $385 for UEF “treatment “.
What PT Barnum said.