Hudson Hi-Fi Acrylic Turntable Mat - RedLit (can Look Pink Under Different Light Conditions) - LP Slipmat

When you think of a turntable mat, the first thing that comes to mind is a thin piece of rubber or cork that is often used to top a relatively lightweight platter.In my experience, most mats add nothing to the performance of the turntable and often actually detract from it.I came across this product almost entirely by accident. Having taken on a project to revive an old Lenco GL 75 turntable, as part of the process I replaced the the stock tonearm with a Mitchell TechnoArm. Even with the VTA adjuster set to the lowest point, the stock Lenco platter needs a considerable height adjustment. To address this, an excellent platter by LencoHell made from Corian was stacked on top of the stock platter and its rubber mat. With a Denon DL-103R fitted to the arm, the combined platters still needed a further, small height adjustment to bring out the best in the cartridge. This is where the Hudson "mat" comes in. The photos show my use case.I use "mat" in quotation marks because to me, it is not a mat. Rather it is a 3mm thick piece of rigid acrylic that adds solidity to a base platter. Sonically, this should make a positive difference due to the materials used and its construction. In my use case, it worked perfectly, bringing the overall platter height up to ensure that the VTA of the arm could operate within acceptable adjustment.Care is advised though - if you are replacing an existing, rather thin mat with this, the Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA) of your tonearm will be affected. For those who are not familiar with such terms, a simple explanation of this is that when you are playing a record, your tonearm should look like it is sitting virtually parallel with the record being played on your platter - if the cartridge side of the arm is sitting too high, the arm will look like it is sloping down towards the arms pivot point - in general terms this will make the sound a little bit dull at the high frequencies. The opposite can also occur, but this mat will not make this difference to a currently correctly calibrated turntable, so I will not go into that. Therefore, if you are going to use this mat to replace a stock thinner one, you would want to make sure that you have the ability to adjust your tonearms VTA, effectively raising the pivot point of the arm to make it parallel again, otherwise there is a potential for the mat to affect the sound negatively in such situations. That said, some turntable set ups are not that sensitive, so it still may work for you if you cannot adjust your VTA.With that care note out of the way, I can say that the product is indeed very good and worthy of a recommendation. It looks funky too, which is quite important to my 14 year old.

I bought this a little worried due to the review about his arriving dirty.Mine arrived sealed and the mat flawless.It has the label part a little recessed which i am glad about because when using a record clamp the vinyl album will sit flat on the mat.The colour i purchased red but if has a orange/pink glow.It looks like a neon sign when lights are on it, it does look very classy esp when placed on a black record deck.Please view my pictures.Any light in the room does reflect against the mat which looks so cool.I think visual can aid to musical enjoyment and this mat helps with that because when the record is resting in it and spinning you can see a glow of red underneath which has the effect of led lights under your record.

The product arrived in a vinyl kind sleeve, very nice packing, but no adhesive protection like I read on the others feedbacks. The quality is really good, I didn't need to adjust anything on my Pro-Ject Debut II. The only downside is the color, its for sure not red, its Orange.

I am very sceptical when it comes to hi fi equipment claims.This mat, however is delivers a genuine improvement to sound quality.I have a Systemdek record player and replaced the stock wool mat with cork. No noticeable difference.Some people upgrade the glass platter with acrylic but this is expensive so I thought I would try this instead.I am genuinely amazed at the sonic improvement. The overall sound is improved but particularly the bass which is tighter and fuller . The cymbals now sound clear and sustain longer. They sound more real. Static has also reduced noticeably.I was going to upgrade my cartridge but feel its unnecessary now such is the improvement the acrylic mat has given me.It also looks very good.I heartily recommend it. You can't wrong for £20.

I’m impressed. Wasn’t expecting this to look as good as it does. Photo doesn’t really do it justice, but the acrylic mat amplifies low light and has the appearance of being lit up from within. A really nice effect. I can’t say if it improves the sound quality of the turntable, as it was good enough for me already, but one thing I do know is that the mat stays put when taking a record off. My previous felt mats would invariably leave the platter and be welded to the record (thanks static), but the acrylic stays where it is.Finally I would say that delivery was super fast, was scheduled to take place on the 12th of August, but it arrived on the 5th. Thank you Hudson Hi-Fi.

I am reading reviews here from 2017 by people complaining that they ordered red, but got orange. I gonna join them, unfortunately. It is certainly not red, and certainly does not look like in the pictures here. I asked my neighbour what colour it is and he offered "pink", but I think orange is more like it. It does not seem to bother the company, because now it is 2019... for that, 3 stars from me.

Arrived in good time, packed well and in mint condition, also has recess in the centre to accommodate record label. Looks great on my rega planer 3 glass turntable and looks to glow from the edge. Well recommended, no pops, nor crackles noted to date on any vinyl I've played.

This is a random purchase and was not sure if this was a gimmick but so far I heard the sound on a lenco deck does improve... has stability in sound stage... will check my audio technica deck next week (waiting on a new amp)... I am loving the various colours but on amazon they are priced with massive varying quotes from 16 to 38 pounds... I went for red colour as was 19. I wouldn't pay more than 20 (im assuming other colours are imported from America ? ) ... makes your deck stand out too.