Project Acryl-it Platter

Hi, P. The Herbie's mat is an excellent upgrade for the Pro-Ject metal platter. As Grinnell points out, the mat improves bass response, and I found that background noise was was quieted as well. Made for a more resolving mid-range and treble and seemed to increase dynamics as well. As David says, it's a relatively inexpensive upgrade that makes a noticeable improvement with that metal platter. I even use a Herbie's mat with the acrylic platter on my mmf-7 turntable.

The one good reason to replace the metal platter is if you want to use low output moving coil cartridges as they get pulled (magnetically) right down onto the metal platter. The acrylic platter isn't ferrous so doesn't affect LOMC cartridges, which contain strong magnets.

Tom

Hi, P. Yes, the Herbie's mat does cut down on the static problem. Doesn't eliminate it completely, but it made a big difference for me.

Tom

Hi, Jedinite24; the mat that is recommended by Herbie for Pro-Ject turntables, and the one I use with my mmf-2.1 turntable, is the standard Way Excellent II-2mm mat. There's a 280mm diameter mat for the smaller platter found on the Debut III.

Regards,
Tom

Hi, Jedinite24; I use a Herbie's Way Excellent mat with my mmf-7 turntable, which has an acrylic platter, and I agree with Pefstratiou that the sound is improved using the mat. Improved dynamics, reduced noise, better tonal balance. However, you may want to start with the Herbie's mat and see if the improvements are just what you're after without spending even more money on the Acryl-it platter. The Debut III may not be worth putting too much money into upgrades and I found that adding a Herbie's mat to my mmf-2.1 made a big improvement and it now sounds quite good.

More food for thought and don't forget that it's just another opinion. :-)

Regards,
Tom