Raven AC one motor

In the UK, the Raven one used to come with the Millenium mat and counterweight, now it does'nt. The distributor, who is very experinced, feels neither is necessary. I imagine he stopped including them to reduce costs, the £ abd $ are falling against the Euro. I must say I am very happy with the basic Raven one, but I found, even with a wall shelf, stillpoints are a clear improvement over millenium feet. The table can be supplied as you know, with OEM stillpoint feet

I am a big fan of the plain copper platter over most mats. I do prefer the Living Voice mystic mat over all other mats I have tried including the Boston Mat & Millenium but based on further listening tests, different mats can be used to "fine tune" different LPs/recordings. On a different note, you can use the RSR outer ring w. the TW. It does make a substantial improvement, but I never use mine. It interferes w. the Phantom and you need to move the Phantom out of the way to use it. I think the 9.5 inch Phantom would solve that.

Hi, I don't have a TW but have used the Boston mat1. The main character of this mat is that it roll's off the highs too much. That's why i sold it. The Boston sounds slow and sluggish. Good for bright sounding turntables.

If you want a nice sounding combo, try the Harmonix TU-800exi mat along with an HRS clamp

I used the Boston mat last night. I prefer the Millenium mat.
With The Millenium there seems to better hight end extension and better bass flow.
With the Boston, the treble is not as detailed and the upper mids is a little forward. Me with a lot of non audiophile recordings the Boston has too much forwardness.
The bass of the Boston does not sem to have the same sense of flow, PRAT and punch as the Millenium.

Small differences yes, but definately easily heard in my system.

I have used the Millenium mat but have obtained the best result using a solid graphite mat 1/4" thick.

I also have a VPI HRX and the VPI outer ring definitely does not fit.

I invested in a Orb ( OEM of air tight old model) LP flatener from Japan. Works well except on new Universal 180gm re-issues.

I tried the VPI Ring. It did not fit the platter. The record sits on the section of the platter which is copper and the outermost circumference of the side walls of the platter extend beyond the copper portion making the overall dimension greater than the VPI Ring.

don't mean to jack the thread but does anyone use a periphery ring?

FYI - The Raven AC one motor currently comes with the Millenium mat. That may be fairly recent though.

I am interested in opinions on this subject.

TD

Ditto to all my fellow TW owners and the responses posted. I use the Millenium Mat supplied by TW Raven and I have added the HRS Record Weight. In spite of TW's insistance that a clamp or weight is unnecessary with his TT, the addition of such is a no brainer and the benfits of giving the record a more secure mooring against the platter are instantly obvious.

Something on the copper - doesn't matter what - is much better for details in all frequeny areas. The Millenium is nothing special, on the carbon side the record will slide. Try the Harmonics mat and clamp, that's something serious.

I also have the Raven AC (one motor) and agree with Downunder.
I tried the Millenium may on and off. I like it on. I also tried the mat with the felt side up and the smooth side up. Both work well however I think this is where it becomes "fine tuning" your system. This is where, depending on your speakers and amps, you can play around.

On another not, a record clamp also made a difference in the tuning of the overall sound.

Rick (RWD)

I use the Millenium mat that came with my TW raven AC-3 and it is very good. This is what Thomas recommends and uses I believe.
I also have the Boston mat, but have not really used it yet. I will try it out and comment