I have the Mystic Mat now. In my system it is a much better mat than the Boston Audio Mat or the German Mat. It is similar in design on one side to the German mat but much thicker. It really doesn't change the sound a lot compared to placing the LP directly on the platter. What it does do is slightly improve the detail from the midrange on up. I find the bass slightly softened (very slight). The improvement in mids & treble make it worth it for me. It makes the treble cleaner & more defined. In fact it seems to me that it takes the hardness out of the treble letting you hear a more defined cymbal or snare. Midrange takes on a little more body. Again all these changes are subtle. You need to a/b several times to really hear the difference. We adjusted VTA to accomodate the mat with each a/b test. It truly is a pain but we did it for the comparison. I can see this mat being excellent with some tables which don't have a metal platter. My guess is it will probably give you the benefits of the metal platter due to the thickness of the mat and the mat sounding very similar to my metal platter.
We will be doing more comparisons in the upcoming days but I have spent 3 days a/b ing w. & without the mat. It truly is subtle. For me the other mats out there were not subtle but were not better either.
We will be doing more comparisons in the upcoming days but I have spent 3 days a/b ing w. & without the mat. It truly is subtle. For me the other mats out there were not subtle but were not better either.