Platter mat

[Blaster]

Can anyone recommend a mat - one that won't break the bank - to use with a Notts Ace Spacedeck? The foam affair that comes with it seems like it could be improved upon. Manufacturers tend to market these things at light-ish, or suspended platter turntables, so I wondered what type of mat I should be looking at.
Cheers.

[freefallrob]

I've no experience with an NA, but cheap mats you could DIY with some shelf/drawer liner, leather,cork, any you can find really that can be cut to size easily, they all sound different.

Cheap bought options, Linn or Rega wool felt mat, sounds very good and is consistent, acrylic mats found on ebay etc, Achromat, SDS mat etc..... but it can start to get expensive.....

I've tried quite a few on different turntables, but I tend to prefer and keep coming back to a high quality wool felt mat, I currently use a stiffer/harder felt mat called OPUS 3 someone was selling on ebay a while back.

[Joff]

as far as I remember, I believe Tom recommended not to use a mat but included one as many people didn't like the idea. Try it and see what you think.

[Peter Empson]

The foam mat sounds quite soft, it's very pleasent but hardly the last word in resolution. As said above try running it without a mat as a cheap alternative (just remember to adjust the vta). My two favourite mats with these decks are the Ringmat and the Pure Sound copper mat, the former brings a lot more detail/clarity, the latter builds upon this with a richer, fuller and more dynamic presentation.

[Blaster]

Thanks for your thoughts. Trying without a mat is an attractively cheap option.

[tkimages]

Investigations with mats on an LP12 showed that the standard felt mat definitrly lost out in terms of resolution/clarity to a Ringmat as mentioned by Peter, but still retained the musicality. The outcome of the trials led me to favour the Ringmat over any I trialled, though I didn't try the Pure Sound copper mat - didn't know it existed. Probably didn't when I conducted the tests.

[gwynne61]

Have used this mat for a few months, brings vinyl to life and extremely well made for the money.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XTM1-FROSTED-A...item19c0d10dea

[willbewill]

Try a DIY Spotmat
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/ind...?topic=1356.15

[uncl_nigel]

Interesting things mats... I have not come across a hard and fast dead-cert winner for all decks (four of my six are up and running at present despite my (half-hearted) efforts to sell a couple).
No choiice on the SME - it is bonded to the platter
On the JBE slate I found a layer of Throens composite under a Funk Achromat works really well
The Funk thing also works very well on the Sony TTS3000 - so gets swapped over when needed
Went back to the felt mat on the LP12 (I needed the Achromat elsewhere)... I suppose I could try comparing the Ringmat/Funk/felt on this again since I have now moved to a better phonostage and I find the LP12 rather boring compared to the SME and the JBE.

The acrylic mat now gets used as a dust cover for the SME - the only out and out loser mat I have tried.

[Blaster]

Have used this mat for a few months, brings vinyl to life and extremely well made for the money.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XTM1-FROSTED-A...item19c0d10dea

That gets to the gist of my question, though. None of the decks listed as 'suitable' in that ad have a platter anything like a Notts Analogue.

Tried without a mat with disturbing result. Sounded OK but I got a crackle of static through the system every time I took a record off, so won't be trying that again.

[gwynne61]

may be worth contacting the seller on the bay to see if he has a mat suitable for the Notts deck