[topround]

I was at a vinyl friends house today.

He was helping me setup my son's turntable again.

 I had setup his table in my system and even though it sounded good , the high end sounded a little hard, and there was a lot of woofer(subsonic) rumbling(movement).
My friend suggested a clamp, which he had a few lying around. We tried one and it helped.
Then he remembered someone had sent him a new Mat 1 from Boston Acoustic and we decided to try it. It was still in the unopened box.
The Mat1 is a hard carbon disc that replaces the soft felt usually found on the platter.
When we played the same record this time we looked at each other like asking ourselves do we really hear that?
It really cleaned the sound up alot, bass was cleaner and tighter and much faster with better attack, detail and soundstage improved as well as just the whole Prat of the thing. Treble was very clean and Delicious,.Also woofer movement from subsonics was gone, I mean gone, and this is from two large woofers, that previously was quite apparent of movement.

Now I haven't been into vinyl since 1991 or so, so I am no expert, but what I heard was quite apparent, and I will be getting one of these soon.

Thanks
Mike

[giantsteps]

 Dr. Prat....with that endorsement they should give you one.
 PS: Get one for me too.


  Frank

[topround]

I agree they should throw them to us like they throw beads to girls at Mardi Gras!!

But honestly I was astonished a tweak that was a major improvement, not subtle shades but holy shit wow!

[giantsteps]

   
     
             

  Groove to the heart and soul of music!


  Frank

[Marcos]

I've tried several different mats on different tables and I've never been able to say that mat "X" provides a consistent improvement on every table.  When I bought my first tt since the 80's, a MMF-5, the Herbies mat was a huge improvement over the stock felt.  It extended the bass and greatly improved the midrange as well.  However, when I tried it on my Linn, it actually decreased the bass significantly.  Figure that one out.  In addition to the damping difference, mats also affect the VTA, which also change the sound, which we may initially attribute to the mat.

One thing which I've found makes a big difference is the shelf material the table sits on.  I have a Linn on a Target wall shelf, and I was amazed at the difference in sonics between the stock wood shelf, glass, Corian and a Neuance platform. 

[TheChairGuy]

To me, from experimentation, there are two purposes for a mat....

1.  To damp platter resonance
2.  To damp the record itself (as an interface)

Not all mats do either right...and precious few mats do both right.  Two mats work best for me.

A bottom, sub-platter mat....the damps down and 'absorbs' resonance (EAR ISODAMP works like no other I know or found...by the old Audioquest sorbothane mat works second best).  For DD decks, inherently poorly isolated...this one is HUGE for performance - creating almost a 'split' platter for resonance to be wicked away.

A top mat that gently damps the record itself and has similar impedance characteristics to vinyl itself.  The Herbie's mat has succeeded like no other in that regard.  Mine is the thicker mat (if he still sells this way) - with the thin layer of proprietery Herbie's material and a bottom layer of open cell foam.  This is the far harder mat surface to get right....as each turntable needs different levels of record damping (too much and it deadens the sound)

It's a rather thick affair and VTA should be adjusted....and some (like Technics SL-1200 owners) may find their spindle length too short for this type of sandwich. Cost is around $100 for both (and you need a steady hand to cut the EAR ISODAMP into a 12" round and make a small incision for the spindle at the exact center), but they work like no other I've found.

From time to time I also use a 12" round section of TI Shield...that theoretically is there to act as a buffer barrier for stray EMI from the motor to shield the delicate cartridge but, try as I might to substantiate it's benefit, can't find any (at least on my JVC QL-F6 deck)

The idea of Boston Audio's carbon fibre material is very appealing and I almost bought one several times before happening upon this combo.....good that you found something that works on your bud's deck.  If it doesn't have quite the same benefit on yours (each deck needs different levels of damping so there is variability in findings on mats for most), you might want to try the sandwich affect described above.

John (up at 2:30AM because of allergy response to the damn (GIANT) blooming jasmine tree next door)

[lcrim]

I didn't think that mats made much difference, once upon a time.  Today I use the Sound Dead Steel Isoplatmat on both my KAB/Tecnics 1200 and my Dual CS5000 but in combination.  I also use the Herbie's thin mat on the Technics and the stock mat w/ the Isoplatmat on the Dual.  The Isoplatmat, previous thread-
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=40265.msg359171 
has worked well w/ all decks it has been tried on.  I realize that there are those that beleve that it works by damping ringing of the platter but I've found that it improves playback by mostly sharpening the leading edge of notes, then another soft mat is necessary to take a bit off that edge.  Nothing wrong w/ the Boston Acoustics mat, I just went down a different path.

[nature boy]

Boston Audio Mat 1 

I have one in my system.  Now try a Neuance shelf under your turntable.  The combination is SWEET.

NB

[low.pfile]

All the legwork that you AC guys did (and others on the interweb) got me started off on the right foot.... from day one I had the Isoplatmat and herbies mat on my Technics. So it sounded right from the start. Thanks




Lookie....

I didn't think that mats made much difference, once upon a time.  Today I use the Sound Dead Steel Isoplatmat on both my KAB/Tecnics 1200 and my Dual CS5000 but in combination.  I also use the Herbie's thin mat on the Technics and the stock mat w/ the Isoplatmat on the Dual.  The Isoplatmat, previous thread-
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=40265.msg359171 
has worked well w/ all decks it has been tried on.  I realize that there are those that beleve that it works by damping ringing of the platter but I've found that it improves playback by mostly sharpening the leading edge of notes, then another soft mat is necessary to take a bit off that edge.  Nothing wrong w/ the Boston Acoustics mat, I just went down a different path.