Anyone's tried acrylic mat on their TT?
I've been spending too much time on soundfountain.com:lol: and was inspired to DIY an acrylic mat. I have only tried rubber mats so I was curious to hear the improvements claimed for acrylic.
So I asked a colleague to quickly draw a 280 mm diameter circle with another smaller circle in the middle for the spindle (7.25 mm diameter), in Corel Draw.
I already had 2 mm thick transparent acrylic sheet lying unused at home.
Got two cut from a local laser guy who specialises in cutting acrylic sheets and thin (upto 8 mm ) wood or mdf sheets. It was a pleasure to watch for the first time the laser machine at work. The cut turned out to be perfect, absolutely clean cut, and no need to polish off burrs. It looks like it is already polished.
Since 2 mm is too thin, I glued two layers together.
Target thickness - 4 mm. Achieved 4.19 mm (I measured with a digital vernier scale).
Target weight is 400 to 430 grams. I don't have a scale to measure beyond 200 grams.
Thickness of existing rubber mat of the Lenco L75 - 4.11 mm.
Sound: immediate impressions are -
1) better focus throughout the audio band
2) bass is lesser but easier to follow - I guess one could say bass is less muddy.
Lessons learned:
1) chloroform, the chemical used as anaesthesia is the chemical used to glue acrylic. It sets almost instantly, like super glue.
2) one sheet of 4 mm is less work than gluing two x 2 mm.
3) frosted acrylic is probably better suited for this application as it is more likely to hide scratches. Of course acrylic comes in many colours so one can get adventurous.
4) if I were to make another one I will make it 290 mm diameter instead of 280. But 280 will work fine for turntables with smaller diameter platter (like ProJect Debut III or Technics SL 23).
Will post pictures tomorrow.
I've been spending too much time on soundfountain.com:lol: and was inspired to DIY an acrylic mat. I have only tried rubber mats so I was curious to hear the improvements claimed for acrylic.
So I asked a colleague to quickly draw a 280 mm diameter circle with another smaller circle in the middle for the spindle (7.25 mm diameter), in Corel Draw.
I already had 2 mm thick transparent acrylic sheet lying unused at home.
Got two cut from a local laser guy who specialises in cutting acrylic sheets and thin (upto 8 mm ) wood or mdf sheets. It was a pleasure to watch for the first time the laser machine at work. The cut turned out to be perfect, absolutely clean cut, and no need to polish off burrs. It looks like it is already polished.
Since 2 mm is too thin, I glued two layers together.
Target thickness - 4 mm. Achieved 4.19 mm (I measured with a digital vernier scale).
Target weight is 400 to 430 grams. I don't have a scale to measure beyond 200 grams.
Thickness of existing rubber mat of the Lenco L75 - 4.11 mm.
Sound: immediate impressions are -
1) better focus throughout the audio band
2) bass is lesser but easier to follow - I guess one could say bass is less muddy.
Lessons learned:
1) chloroform, the chemical used as anaesthesia is the chemical used to glue acrylic. It sets almost instantly, like super glue.
2) one sheet of 4 mm is less work than gluing two x 2 mm.
3) frosted acrylic is probably better suited for this application as it is more likely to hide scratches. Of course acrylic comes in many colours so one can get adventurous.
4) if I were to make another one I will make it 290 mm diameter instead of 280. But 280 will work fine for turntables with smaller diameter platter (like ProJect Debut III or Technics SL 23).
Will post pictures tomorrow.
