turntable mat- helpful, harmful, or doesn't matter

What's VTA?

One question might be "Is static a problem?", our hobby is notorious for curing problems that don't exist except in very limited situations. The hardness of the mat is probably not at issue as the land part of a record comes in contact with the mat, not the groove walls where the music lives. It is necessary to keep hard platters very clean so that pollutants are not mashed into the grooves. It is, however, much easier to keep a hard platter free of contamination than it is to keep a soft mat clean. And yes, everyting, even the color of your carpet has an effect on the sound or the way that we perceive it.

So it is the installation of the tan berber in place of the green Saxony that makes my TT sound so nice now. And all the time I thought it was the Shelter 501. My bad.... :-O

No wonder Martha Stewart wears headphones!

Or is that to drown out the questions from Federal Regulators?