LIVING   VOICE

UK

Living Voice Mystic Mat

We have developed and refined the mat over the last 9 years, for use with high- mass turntable designs. Let me tell you a little bit about it.

I am sure you know all too well that high mass and low mass platter materials offer almost diametrically opposite strengths and weaknesses. Whilst we want the pitch stability, and the assured, planted presentation of the high mass platter, we also desire the naturally illuminated tone colours, lucidity and dimensionality of low mass platter materials like acrylic and polycarbonate.

On the other hand, low mass platters can lack bass extension and pitch stability whilst the high mass platters can sound monochrome and dynamically pinched.

It seems that just as high mass stores energy as rotational inertia, so it stores vibrational energy from the interaction of the stylus and record. This energy is released back into the record producing constructive and destructive interference, and hence the lack of low level resolution / dynamic range / tonal colour.

Polycarbonate, for example, disperses this energy very rapidly without either storing or damping (which is why in polished form it is used as bullet-proof glass). As a platter material it has some very remarkable qualities, but unfortunately, simply using a 'super' mat of polycarbonate on top of an existing high mass platter does not produce the same result as using a single homogenous platter material. Something more involved is required.

The material we have evolved over the years is composite in construction.

The shiny side is a hard gel coat glaze impregnated into the carbon fibre fabric. This is a poor energy transfer interface and an ideal surface to face down onto the existing platter material. It is advisable to remove any supplied felt or rubber mats before fitting. This glazed carbon fibre surface is backed with a layer Spheretex. This is a ceramic textile which pulls the gel coat through the carbon fibre weave to create a substrate of remarkable compressive strength. On top of this is a 2mm layer of expanded polyurethane foam and then another layer of carbon fibre, but this time without a gel coat. It is this matt surface that the record sits on. The centre hole is made deliberately tight so that the mat does not slip on the sub platter during use. It also obviates the need for bonding materials like double-sided tape.

 We supply a Michell clamp to gently grip the record to the mat.