Turntable mats

From what I've read here, I would go for either Boston Audio Design or Herbie's. What is your turntable? Remember the mat is part of the total TT system and needs to work synergistically with it.

In my experience that depends a lot on the actually turntable platter...all mats, clamps/weights,alter the sound to a degree...I have been mainly using the Goldmund mat and the Goldmund clamp,they appear,to my old ears,be adding or subtracting less than the others I have...it is a bit of a trial and error...the Boston Audio mat is also very good...I am getting some copper,bronze and maybe some stainless mats made,which should be better on direct drives ... in general I like carbon fibre,the BRD cones for instance are one of my favourite's,but did not like the carbon mat I tried,that is why I have a collection of platter mats...IMO there is always one who works better on this turntable ,but not so well on another...hope this helps a bit...Enjoy the music ...

I like the Funk achromat.

It definitely depends on your platter, and even on your drive system, because different platters and drive systems resonate at different frequencies, and different mats are going to suppress different frequencies better than others.

A machined aluminum platter (a la Technics SL12x0 series) is going to ring differently than a glass, acrylic, or MDF platter. I have a Technics, and to my surprise, found that the thin, slippery felt DJ mat actually kills more ring than the standard rubber one. So I have both of them on, with the felt directly against the aluminum.

Also, the motor noise level and pitch is going to vary according to motor speed, tolerances, and how successfully it's isolated.

Herbie's works very well on my MMF-7. Tightened up the bass and darker background. I actually don't use the clamp anymore with this mat.

You definitely will have to experiment. I will say that on my Garrard 301, I really like Herbie's Grungebuster mat.

I have owned quite a few mats out there. My favourite is the Harmonix TU-800EXi. This mat sounds fantastic and miles ahead of the Boston Mat1 which is by itself very good. Right now, my magical combination is the Harmonix on top of a Micro Seiki gunmetal mat.

Thanks for the input...BTW, I'm using a MMF-5 with glass platter.

I have a Rega planar 3 with a glass platter and the 5mm Funk Achromat really cleaned up the sound versus the felt mat.

I have exactly the same Rega P3 with glass platter and Funk Achromat does nothing but makes everything sound bassy. Gone extreme highs and all I got in return is slightly more bass.
Thank you I'll keep my felt mat.

Boston = get rid of the felt mat and try this...guaranteed you wont go back

Agree, Boston. Beats everything else I've tried.

I made the best mat myself. It is not "UNIVERSAL" mat, as there is not such thing since every record sounds different and mastered differently.
I made a mat to tame some of the Hard Rock records that have distorted highs.
I took cork shelf liner with self-adhesive back and attached it to the old and heavy LP record.
No I did not make donut out of it, you may try if you wish.
I just thought along the lines of: Since heavier records sound better than why not make all my records at least twice "heavy" by laying them over another thick record.
That alone would be to "ringy", so I added a layer of self-adhesive cork liner to the bottom of that defunct record.
I use this mat to reduce harshness of some records and in extreme cases I flip it cork side up to get even more muted response.
This is an easy project and might provide benefits for some of your harsh LPs (Slade-"Slayed" for example).
In conclusion: I realized that to have one "universal" mat for TT is not a real solution simply because there are to LPs that sound alike.

I tried a herbies mat on my Teres coco platter &
did not notice an improvement.
I'm sticking with no matt for now rather than ride the
merry matt go round.