TW Acustic Turntable Mat

Hmmm.. if it is Zanden mat, I tried them last year with TW Raven AC-1 and I did not like the result very much. I tried both thickness, 7mm and 3 or 5mm if I remember correctly.Looks and feel similar to rubber mat that came with VPI Classic 3 but a lot thicker.

fancy that a discussion regarding TW would bring out VPI basher as well! Geez...
I wonder what is the different between Zanden and Zanden/TW mat. Zanden mat that I tried was very soft and rubbery and it damped down the sound too much. That was when I still had the old Raven AC platter. I rather like Millenium mat but with felt side up (I know the carbon side is supposed to be up)for both Raven AC and BN platter. Mat/center weight are rather system dependent as they will alter sound. It may work in certain system better than other or not. With old Raven AC platter, I never found any clamp that work well with it until a local dealer let me burrow Creaktiv Systems Twister Stop Diablo which is an acrylic center weight. With BN platter, I am back to no center weight.

so is this the case of a competing manufacturer/designer bashing another product?

Material science certainly has a use in audio and I think TW spent significant amount of time in material research to come up with their platter. However, if a particular mat sounds good on TW, is it only the flaw of the turntable that demands the use of a mat. Could the mat be correcting the sonic problem of the cartridge, tonearm or equipment downstream?
We already have various opinions from many owners on TW, no mat, mat a or b, heavy center weight, no center weight, light center weight etc etc work best in their particular system.
I think that is a reflection of the rest of the system and personal preference and taste. If the mat corrects a particular flaw in the turntable, I think most people would have more unified opinion regarding using mat or not and which mat.

Audio is not a billion dollars (at least on boutique, small operation scale which is most high end manufacturers) so no surprise that R&D is not going to be as extensive as aircraft, cruise missle or space industries and since it is audio, the final judgement is always going to be in listening regardless of how much science went into it, in my opinion.

Moonglum, thanks for the description. I saw the picture of TW/Zanden mat and it has a different colour but otherwise I can't tell if there is any other difference. However, the Zanden mat that I tried had only the soft rubbery material single layer so it sounds like it is different from TW/Zanden with dual layer soft/hard side.