APM - Advanced Platter Mat - *NEW* Just 5mm thick

APM — Advanced Platter Mat

• NEW — NOW JUST 5 MM THICK •

Do you need a better turntable? Or, do you need your existing turntable to be made better?

They're NOT the same thing.

Good analogue sound is REALLY good. But isn't what you're hearing not just the record, but also your equipment joining in?

So, WHICH bit of equipment matters? Because you've always been told it's the deck, and specifically that means the plinth, the bearing, the motor...

But is that the case? Look at it this way.

Despite what you’ve been told, at the very worst, motors will JUST buzz. Plinths will JUST go "klong". Bearings will JUST rumble (a bit).

The reality is that when you put them together and add them all to music and then listen, they sound pretty benign. Yes, you can hear them but here's the thing: they DON'T affect sound quality. They're not responsible for "analogue sound"! 

So where's your less-than-great "analogue sound" coming from?

There are two components sitting either side of the cartridge that no one talks about — the mat and the tonearm.

Yes, just the mat, and just the tonearm.

So, what can they possibly do? It's all to do with the stylus.

Becasue the stylus traces the groove, it's covering the entire audible range — 20 Hz to 20 kHz. And you've been told to bolt it hard to the tonearm. Within 20-20kHz there's a lot of vibration and of course the arm will now vibrate.

On the other side of the stylus, we have the mat. Poor mats reflect stylus energy, again across the entire audible range.

And sandwiched in-between is the poor cartridge? It's the rubbish collector, and it's busy picking up all this junk and adding it to the music.

No: new deck, new motor, new plinth, but all from a poor mat and a bad arm.

Now compare:

 What will buying a new deck give you?

And,

What will simply changing the mat and arm give you?

It's as binary as that, and it's your choice.

Let's start with the mat.

Where does the energy that the stylus releases into the record go - it has to go somewhere. Most mats don't dissipate that energy evenly, it gets back to the stylus. You can call it colouration, but more simply, it becomes part of what we recognise as "analogue sound".

25 years ago Achromat was an industry game changer.

Its unique structure, containing millions of microscopic bubbles, dissipates that energy instead of returning it to the cartridge. (See the images below)

And now, with APM — Advanced Platter Mat, we've taken Achromat considerably further.

APM’s fully bonded glass sub-plate - this delivers two benefits:

First, the glass fully grounds Achromat, optimising its ability to dissipate unwanted energy.

Second, the glass damps the platter itself.

Many turntables have thin, resonant platters. Tap one and you'll hear it ring. It's practically telling you, "Look, I'm budget."

Add APM and that ringing is killed. Instantly, your lightweight platter becomes remarkably dead, behaving much more like the platter of a £5,000 turntable.

All for the price of a mat. 

You haven't changed your turntable. You've changed what it delivers. inother words, DON'T undervalue the role of the mat. 

There's nothing else like APM on the planet.

And now APM is just 5 mm thick, it accommodates Technics' short spindles.

Available in five colours.

Compatibility

Technics: SL-1200 MkII–VII, SL-1500C, SL-1200G, SL-1200GAE, SP-10R and vintage models.

Rega: Planar 2, Planar 3, P3, P6, P8, P10 and more.

Linn: LP12, Axis, Basik.

Pioneer: PLX-1000, PLX-500, PL-12D, PL-512 and other vintage models.

Garrard / Goldring-Lenco: Garrard 401, Goldring-Lenco GL75.

Thorens: TD150, TD160, TD166, TD124, TD125 and modern variants.

Also suitable for many models from Sony, Trio, Kenwood, Yamaha and others.

Key details

• Achromat energy-dissipating structure with millions of microscopic bubbles
• Fully bonded glass sub-plate
• Damps record vibration and platter resonance
• New 5 mm thickness
• Available in five colours
• Part of The Funk Firm's Isolation Bubble concept
• 850g weight
• Fits all platters – lipped and flat: mat: 297 mm dia and glass: 285 mm dia