I think Sean is on point, there is no one answer to which mat material is best. What works for one TT may not work for another. With that being said, in the hay-day of vinyl, a lot of scientific research was done on turntables and their components. Kenwood's testing suggested sonic improvement as the platter mats progressed from rubber, to felt, glass,and ceramic mats. the use of an outer record weight and spindle mounted record weight increased the sonic performance greatly. If you accept this line of testing, the ridged mats should work the best. I use a currently use graphite mat with an inner and outsdie record weight, but intend to test a carbon fiber mat in the next week. I have also used the latest harmonix record mat with excellent results.
