Technics SL-1200GAE or VPI HW-40 or …?

I think to @pindac point, some do work…. and listening and experiment is how you reached your conclusions….. 

@tomic601 A friend of mine (who now works at ARC and has been there 25 years or so) worked for about 10 years on a platter pad project. His ultimate product was excellent, but not cheap- the last one I saw for sale about 10 years ago went for about $1200.00. But it was the most effective platter pad out there, years before anyone else seemed to pay attention to the product.  He told me many times that the platter pad had to be the same durometer and the vinyl in order for it to damp vibration properly at all frequencies.

The difference is very easy to hear. But that pad hasn't been made since sometime in the 1990s. So we went on a quest for a platter pad to support our model 208 turntable. I have LPs i recorded and so have the master tapes- very useful as a reference. The Oracle is the best we've seen so far and in most cases by a wide margin.

@tomic601 The best platter pad we've head so far (most don't work at all) is made by Oracle. It has its own self-adhesive backing.

So, if you adopt the principle that the mat ought to transmit energy into the platter (I don't disagree), you then have to worry about isolating the bearing and any other sources of noise, like even that which can be transmitted by the belt from the outboard motor pulley of a BD, from the platter and mat. Denon paid some attention to this issue in their higher end DD turntables, back in the 80s.

Damping between the motor bearing and the platter will allow the tonearm to pick up vibration that might exist in the plinth; the platter surface must be as rigidly coupled to the plinth as possible. To that end the bearing (which is usually low noise anyway) should not be isolated from the platter.

 As for Mat's it is impossible to recommend a Mat for your set up, and listening environment that will work.

This statement is false. The job of the platter pad is to absorb vibration from the LP at all frequencies and to that effect isn't a tone control. If this is being done correctly it will benefit any system.

If you can hear the stylus tracing the groove in a complex passage with the volume all the way down from only a foot away from the cartridge, you know you have a problem with the mat. It should be dead silent even if you are only a few inches from the cartridge as it tracks.

@arvincastro Good choice. 

We used to make a turntable we called the Atma-Sphere 208. IMO it was better than the VPI in every way. More neutral, more speed stable and so on.

But I think the Technics is a better machine than our 208 so that is what I have at home. I replaced the platter pad, as that is far more important to the sound than most people realize.

You might consider doing the same- the best I've heard so far is made by Oracle. If you get it you'll have to raise the arm which is a matter of a second or two; the pad is meant to be permanently applied so you don't want to use the bolts that affix the platter to the motor else you'll never get it apart without a chisel to remove the platter pad. But it really helps the 'table to be more neutral and its easy to hear and measure.