Jenn said:

In article . com,
"JBColeman" wrote:


Yes, the MMF-5 comes with a felt mat. The glass produces a slightly
"hard" sort of sound, though, not unlike a metal platter. I was just
wondering if, in general, acrylic is less resonant than glass (as you
can tell, I've never heard a turntable with an acrylic platter).


I believe that it is, but I can't say for sure. I CAN tell you that the
acrylic platter on my TT (Clearaudio) seems very dead; much more so than
the metal one on my old TT.


I once used an acryllic mat.
It was the best sounding mat I've ever had in combination with my
turntable and arm/cart combo, but I replaced it with a combination of
felt/cork, because of the fact that dust and particles were forced
into the grooves of my records.

The acryllic mat doesn't as much absorb resonances in the LP itself,
but it transduces them into the platter mass.
Arm/cart resonance (should be somewhere around 10 Hz) are attenuated
that way, better than absorbed with rubber or even felt.

However, the cork/felt homebrew combo does this almost as well,
depending on the damping of your arm.

My turntable has a suspended subchassis though, with a resonance
frequency of a few Hz at most (outside the range of the arm
resonance!).
It may turn out that on turntables without a subchassis, and
pronounced arm resonance, the acryllic mat will be much better.


Tuning a turntable is all about resonances, and the careful
damping/draining of them.
Remember that vibrations that you can't even detect, can be of the
order of magnitude of the stylus movement, so good vibration
management is of the highest priority.

So, just try, and don't be afraid to make something yourself.
A cork mat can be made for less than $5.........and you can experiment
with the thickness of the layer and the combination with felt or
velvet.

--

- Never argue with idiots, they drag you down their level and beat you with experience. -