TT mats


I have a VPI Scoutmaster TT and am wondering if any of you can recommend a matt for the platter and why?
Thanks in advance
Steve



handymann
I use a 1" graphite slab, don’t see how you could call a 1" piece a mat. It damps the 45kg cast iron platter down to dead dull; it sounds just wonderful, alive without undue emphasis.
dorkwad, In what respect are you agreeing with noromance?  Noromance uses an LP as a platter mat, not a bare platter.  And really, using a bare platter only means that you are placing the LP on a surface that is native to that particular platter.  In other words, one man's bare platter is not another man's bare platter, unless both use the same turntable.  Parenthetically, LPs have rounded circumferential edges that I think were once put there so that when one is using a record changer, the piled up LPs on the spindle do not make contact with each other on the playing surfaces.  Therefore, noromance is technically suspending the LP in space.  That's the idea of the Resomat, too.

I've got an upgraded Lenco, too. The platter was sprayed with a dampening paint.  Then I use a BA Mat1 on top of that.  Anyway, my only point is that mats are like seasoning on food.  There is no universal right answer, and what to use is not subject to a vote.  I can sub in the SAEC SS300 metal mat on any of these three turntables, and that changes the sound by a very little bit, perhaps toward more of the sound that noromance prefers, perhaps better reproducing the leading edge of transients.  Not sure.  I certainly do not perceive the detrimental effects that noromance describes.  His entire vinyl system is geared to a big, in your face sound, which I kind of like too.  (I had a Decca London for years and enjoyed it very much.)
Has anyone ever tried the Dereneville Magic-Mat made in German?
Dr. Feickert Analogue distributes and sells it.
It is only 0.4mm thick, and it eliminates microresonance.

I have been using the K-Works Ersamat for about 8 years on my Thorens TD-166 MkII.  The designer, Igor of K-Works, developed it using his VPI 'table with aluminum platter.  It acts to block RFI and EMI from reaching the stylus and entering the signal chain. 

https://www.ttvjaudio.com/K_Works_Ersamat_p/kwo0000001.htm




Saec SS-300 is great mat, very well designed, not only for "12 inch records, but also for "7 inch records. It's a lightweight mat which i'm happy to use on Luxman pd-444. 

Micro CU-500 is heavy gunmetal mat that i use only on Technics SP-10mkII