A platter mat upgrade is highly effective because it affects the critical interface between your vinyl records and the turntable you play them on. Experimentation with different turntable mats is simple and quick. You find the sonic differences are usually noticeable. Even if your turntable is not supplied with a platter mat, this mat will improve sound quality. Origin Live’s Platter Mat Upgrade makes a far greater difference than most others, bringing a positive difference to every aspect of the music. The Origin Live Platter Mat Upgrade greatly enhances musical enjoyment, by bringing recordings alive. Music becomes better integrated and far more natural. Bass solidifies and timing improves–gone is a muddy bass that blurs performance. An extra octave of bass is often tapped by the Upgrade Platter Mat. The mid band acquires increased clarity. “The platter mat has improved all areas of the sound, most noticeable are the increase in soundstage, front to back mainly, the start and decay of instruments being played are also improved, detail is better, backing vocals that were audible before are now easier to follow, as are the lyrics of the main vocals. But the largest improvement is the Bass performance, all notes are much clearer and the extension better, it has improved the timing of the music areas also which makes the musical message much more obvious.” Rod Woods A Great Turntable Mat Has Three Functions First, it must decouple the record from vibration entering it via the turntable, this includes bearing noise, transmitted motor noise through the drive system, cartridge feedback, chatter transmitted via the tonearm into the turntable, ground and air-borne audio feedback, underground pumps, etc. Second, it must absorb and transmit resonance out of the record itself. A stylus vibrating in a record groove sets the vinyl resonating in a way that will feed back into the stylus if not highly controlled. This may be momentary to the tiniest fraction of a second, but will nonetheless create blurring of the signal and overlay other parts so that they will not be heard. In other words there can be loss of information and addition of spurious noise to the intended signal. Third, it must transmit the drive to the record without elasticity or slip. The surface that the record sits on responds to the amount of drag on the record. At best, this will be a very slight momentary elastic movement backwards, but enough to slightly deaden the impact of a bass note drum strike. At worst it will cause the record to slip backwards, which is only obvious when you can hear wow occurring–as in the case of a badly dished record that only contacts the platter in the center. Why a New Platter Mat? Initially we introduced a semi-rigid mat that we called the Performance Mat. Feedback was almost universally positive, with users reporting superior performance over the recognised market leaders they already owned. Further experimentation led to a new flexible composite material which sounded even better. Not just a bit better, a lot better. The Upgrade Mat does most things that the Performance Mat does, only it does them better. Will it work on my deck? Finding a mat that works universally well on all turntables is almost like the quest for the Holy Grail. In over 22 years we have experimented with countless platter mats varying from felt, fibreglass, air gap, various foams, cork, graphite, carbon fibre, acrylic, PVC, MDF, aluminium, rubber, silicon and steel laminates etc. This is to name but a few. Many of these mats yield significant improvements to some areas but have drawbacks in others. A mat that works well on acrylic platters is almost unheard of, but this one really does the trick! It also interfaces well with metal, glass and composite platters. The Origin Live Upgrade Mat is only 1mm thick, and so is well within the ability of most tonearm height adjusters. The material mix from which it is manufactured must remain confidential. Reviews “There was a staggering difference in clarity and timing, with the OL mat. To actually hear an improvement over a Lexan platter was almost beyond belief, so overall a very satisfactory purchase.” Read More – Full Review Tony Sharman – Review writer for 3 Hi Fi Magazines “I’ve no hesitation in recommending it” Best Accessory Award – Hi Fi World Magazine “The turntable mat however is possibly the biggest improvement I have heard from any upgrade so far.” Rod Woods Complete List of Turntable Platter Mat Upgrade Reviews
