New Turntable

Lovely photos and the new deck looks great as does your Audiomods series V tonearm. I can see now why people select the gold accents, very nice.

My Source comes equipped with a 1.5mm felt mat, sitting on the substantial brass platter.  Having a 5mm FunkFirm Achromat in stock as used previously, I have tried the following; Origin Live (1mm), Achromat 3mm, Oyaide 5mm my old 5mm Achromat.  My Audiomods enabled easy adjustment to VTA for all but the Oyaide and 5mm Achromat.

 

The OL was nice to look atl, soft and flexible.  Soundwise was noticeably more forward and did project vocals and midband (and the only mat to make a noticeable increase in surface noise).  Possibly more punchy & power in the bass but generally a lighter balance and appeared s little more dynamic in some ways.  Fine detail may have been greater albeit possibly a feature of the more prominent mid-band.

 

OE Felt mat - softer and warmer with a fuller bass, and whilst in some ways less dynamic seemed more so in other ways suggesting perhaps the OL projected the dynamic aspects but ultimately acted as a limiter to true dynamics which were probably better on the felt?

 

Achromat 3mm - positive first impressions, with seemingly a more open but forward mid-band, though there was a slight mid bass boom/bloom not encountered with any of the other mats.  Possibly imaged better and more punchy?

 

Oyaide BR12 - rather dulled and rolled off lacking sparkle and nothing really to commend it against the others, the first one to reject though am mindful that until I can rework my arm board to raise a few mm this may have been suffering as nearly 2mm lower on VTA than the others.  Bass also seemed a little 'dead' and lacking colour and detail and a bit lifeless.

 

Achromat 5mm - whilst sharing some of the characteristics of the 3mm it sounded quite splashy and detached, strident and aggressive - again the VTA may have had an impact though exactly the opposite of the Oyaide!

 

OL on top of felt mat - I have heard recommended this option, and having tried it this it did pretty much combine the best of the two, though surface noise remained a little higher than the felt alone.

 

Trying the 3mm Achromat again this did provide some benefits but longer term listening did leave me with the view the Achromat was introducing some colouration into midband, masquerading as greater openness? 

 

The 'hard surface' of the Achromat wasn't my preferred route given records tend to put placed on to the rotating platter...then again with the Origin Live/felt mat whilst I don't generally suffer from static, after cleaning a couple of albums with a hand held brush cleaner on the platter, the mat decided to attach to the album when removing from the platter then fell off which got far too close to my stylus for my peace of mind!!

 

Enter Blue Horizon......

Lucky enough to also borrow a Blue Horizon which is a composite cork, rubber, leather combo which whilst I wasn't that keen to depart from the 'black' mat look this was relatively soft and kind to the vinyl at least! 

 

Using only the single layer (1.5mm I think?) this did provide a really well balanced presentation, solid, well defined bass, good imaging and provided vocals with a sweetness not seen with any of the new mats and appeared to build on the best features of the felt mat and didn't take very long to decide this was the route to go down.  By comparison it did show up the OL, Achromat as being coloured in bass, mid, vocal areas and a little 'confused' in the mid range emphasizing sibilance/sense of splashiness; which the Blue Horizon separated and left far more enjoyable and relaxing.  This was also better focused and a more satisfied listen.

 

I suspect that the mats are highly deck/platter dependant and may provide very different results from TT to TT but are a way of tuning the sound, presentation was the most obvious changes and would liken the changes similar but smaller than between similar price point cartridges.  The changes were subtle fa4 more subtle than changing interconnects, speak leads or mains cables but with all but the Blue Horizon would have felt I had been left with a compromise whichever option I had taken.

 

Footnote, whilst awaiting my Blue Horizon, listened to a new remastered 45rpm  'Tales of Mystery & Imagination' (APP) box set (v1976), 45pm twin disc, very clean sounding, ultra quiet pressing (disc1 anyway).  I did buy a S/H first edition version a couple of years ago which was a very good pressing but this new pressing is wonderfully spacious and detailed and appears to have improved clarity, space, fine detail and dynamics...I recall some coarseness to the loudest passages though haven't played my old copy on The Source yet, may well be the remastering and or 45rpm?  I would recommend to any APP fans (Bob?) - the box set also includes 1976 & 87 CD edition, I believe this 'new' version and unreleased material though haven't played them yet.  Disc 2 isn't up to what I would have expected pressing wise, appears visually perfect though side 3 did have quite a lot of grove roar LF bangs (not warped) and on the first track and side 4 'stuck' between tracks 1 & 2 so will be returning this (one hopefully) for a replacement - never come across that before.  Sadly the remastered CD wouldn’t play either on my Leema CD or car CD!