Analog Gear News

Many of us use platter mats to dampen resonances and minimize other vibrations whenever we play our LPs. For those not entirely in the know, these mats are typically “waffer-thin,” to borrow the enunciation of a quite specific Monty Python bit, and they go directly underneath the LP that’s spinning and in turn reside right on top of the turntable platter beneath it. Seeing how I’ve been getting, shall we say, a bit restless with my current mat rotation, I wanted to take a fresh look at and listen to something new, and that led me the Mat Chakra Limited — a cool, current platter mat from the Italian manufacturer Sublima Audio Research.

While the Mat Chakra has indeed been out in the marketplace for a little while now, we’ve never focused any of our AP energies on it nor on the company that makes it, so I reached out to Sublima Audio Research founder Alessandro “Alex” Cereda to find out more about the Limited (LTD) edition of his platter mat, and why I might want to give it a literal whirl.

According to Cereda, via a direct email exchange for which he used Google Translate to assist with the translation of his native Italian into English (along with some bracketed linguistic clarifications from our end of things), “The Mat Chakra Limited works on four different principles: 1) electro-magnetic-capacitive interaction between the disc platter and the head, 2) contact/surface charges, 3) resonant cavities, and 4) mechanical resonances.”

Cereda (seen in action with the mat above) added that, during vinyl playback, certain error-related variants can occur and/or re-occur in a matter of a few seconds. “The record changes sound, and not all the information is extracted,” he explained. “The reproduction is altered and shifted by a few tones up or down the timbre spectrum.” Using this particular platter mat, he believes, will lead to “maximum naturalness” during playback. “The Mat Chakra LTD works on the principle of PSC (Phantom Signal Correlator), a personal study I started over 20 years ago on the correlated and hidden signals that are inside the musical signal,” Cereda confirmed. “The sound [you hear with our mat in place] is exactly what the microphone has captured, with great truth and naturalness.”

Furthermore, Cereda feels, the wear of a record and the stylus cutting into it is “significantly” reduced when you’re using a platter mat. He noted that experiments carried out in his company’s lab, in addition to “external collaboration” with other researchers, confirmed the main (though not only) cause of that wear comes from “the contact charges that form when the diamond [stylus] crosses the groove, forming a microcharge similar to passive electromagnetic induction. This problem disturbs the work of the cantilever with substantial alteration of timbre, especially [related to] playback fundamentals and the dynamic distribution of the harmonics.”

So, what’s the Mat Chakra LTD made of, exactly? “The base is a polycarbonate similar to PVC for aerospace uses, where about 30 natural mineral and non-mineral elements are sprayed in several passes, sealed by a very thin nanotechnological resin, and activated according to a patent-pending process,” Cereda replied. Naturally, I felt like I needed to test out the Mat Chakra Limited platter mat firsthand to hear it for myself, so Cereda is planning to send one my way at some point in the near future — and I will then report back on how the Mat Chakra LTD fares, once I’ve given it a fair spin (or ten, or fifty).

Oh, and finally, I should note that the SRP for the Sublima Audio Research Mat Chakra Limited platter mat is €350. In the meantime, please stay tuned for my hands-on test to come.

For more about Sublima Audio Research, go here.
To find an authorized Sublima Audio Research distributor in North America, go here.
For all international queries, contact Sublima Audio Research directly here.