Hello,
I’m looking at mats right now.
I would like to try something other than felt or wool.
Is the Origin Mat worth a try?
Other alternatives also welcome, just not thicker than 2mm.
Regards
Hello, you will get many recommendations here for mats of all materials, which is great.
I didn’t get on with the felt mat provided with my P8, so took a gamble with the Funk Achromat…
Happy with it.
I don’t want to adjust the tonearm height. The Funk Firm is too thick at 3mm.
Ok.
Have been using a leather (type) mat on my P8 for a couple of months and have actually just put the original back today. The sound is much more dynamic with the original mat, so it’s staying.
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I trusted Rega’s engineers to supply the optimal mat.
If static cling is a big issue – wet record cleaning solved that issue for me.
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I’ve tried different mats over the years (P9, P10) and have always found the standard mat to be clearly better.
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The obvious question is why you are looking at mats? What’s wrong with the one supplied by Rega and designed to work with the deck? I always turn records over with the platter spinning, and that’s far easier with a felt mat.
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I’ve tried a few alternative mats with my RP10 such as the Acromat and the Herbie’s Audio. Herbie’s was horrible - pulled everything apart and made the bass detached and weird (yuck) - the Acromat was OK I guess, but in the end I came back to the standard white felt mat as my favourite. I guess Rega had already figured that one out…
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And Rega make their mats in some striking colours too. Although I note they do vary in thickness, but not so much I can hear any difference.
Now all they need to do now is drill the spindle hole in the middle. 
Quite. You would think that if they can get their bearings to such high tolerances, getting the hole in the middle of a circle of felt would be a piece of cake. But it seems not.
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Thank you for the answers.
I’ll probably stick with the Rega mat then.
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That would be a good decision I think. If you want a change from the rather boring black mat, why not spend £22 on a nice red one. Or blue, yellow or purple for that matter. They lift the rather austere looks of the P8 rather nicely.
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I had a nice blue one and the hole was in the middle but it had a flat edge where it had been cut from a bigger sheet I guess… most annoying…! I now use a nice red leather one…
The Origin matt in my view is well worth a listen too. They do a 30-day trial or money back on their products so not much of a risk. Some folk have good results with cork/neoprene mix mats for Turntables like the Rega too. There are some good acrylic mats out there too but I can’t think of one 2mm or less.
I have been using the Collaro precision cloth turntable mat on my P6 and now on my P8. A bit pricey but works very well. The nice people @RegaResearch liked Collaro mats on twitter too!
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Does the mat make a sonic difference?
Hi I brought this for my P6 a few years ago and was quite surprised in how it made the music more detailed especially the sound stage. I didn’t even bother talking the Rega mat out of the bag when I got my P8 I just slapped the Collaro on it, so I have not done a comparison on the P8. Highly recommended upgrade.
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