My first Rega upgrade - groovy baby!!

[gabriel1998]

This is interesting Rolf, because in my P25 the Herbie's Way Excellent Mat II is clearly superior to the Rega felt mat in every way.

I second that!! The herbie mat is amazing on my Rega p25.

[RoDa]

Excuse me for beeing rude, but the word "amazing" Doesn't tell me much about the improvements in sound quality.

I'll be back with my impressions in a not too distant future.

Regards
Rolf

[brianmch]

brianmch,
To continue with 'feet'
They do make a huge difference, including positioning of...
I removed the Rega feet & placed two home made brass footers @ the back & one @ the front in line with the main bearing.
It really is worth experimenting

I may be able to get my hands on some brass cones and will try them as well if possible.

To address Roda's comment below regarding mats...
I got better detail. Individual instruments became more noticeable as did their placement in the soundstage. While detail improved stridency, that sort of hard wall of sound, diminished a step. Bass depth improved as did clarity. Additionally, the sound of the song hanging together remained.

[gabriel1998]

Excuse me for beeing rude, but the word "amazing" Doesn't tell me much about the improvements in sound quality.

I'll be back with my impressions in a not too distant future.

Regards
Rolf

It doesn't really matter what difference I give whether minimum and Great because Guess what? We don't have the same system. So If I say that bass has alittle bit more punch or that it lowered the Floor noise to a ridiculous amount. or that the music became a tad bit more focused than this doesn't mean it going to happen to your system. is it? Only you can decide that with your own ears. And yes, It does sound Amazing and It got rid of that ridiculous Static attack monster felt crapola

[nabil]

Excuse me for beeing rude, but the word "amazing" Doesn't tell me much about the improvements in sound quality.
Rolf

Agreed Rolf!

Because listening to a sound system is pretty subjective (we each have a differing aesthetic), I will try to stay away from any 'sensual' descriptions of what I hear and try to stick to more objective descriptions.

I am a musician, so for me, I want a sound that is as similar to a 'live' performance as is possible. This is the main reason I prefer Rega over the other turntables I have heard. The sound I hear from my P25 is very musical (it has soul and verve); simply put, when I listen to my P25 I hear music, not HiFi. I want to hear something that brings me closer to the actual performance of the artists who made the recording. Herbie's mat brings me closer to that objective than the standard Rega felt mat. I believe that the most difficult thing for stereo equipment to reproduce is the onset and decay of a pitch. This is where Herbie's mat really shines and is the clear winner over the Rega mat. With the Herbie's mat in place the ebb and flow (crescendo and decrescendo) of a musical phrase is more 'natural' sounding to my ear. To me the felt mat has a drier, more mechanical (HiFi), presentation.

Hope this helps.

Bill

[RoDa]

Thank you Brian, Gabriel and Bill!

Your thoughts on the Way Excellent Mat is to me very interesting.
I'm surprised that we have so different experiences with it.

Yes, I can hear a lowered noise, more details in the bass and a perhaps a more focused sound.
But most of all in my system I hear a dull sound with the Herbie's in place.

If you change Rega with Herbie's in your text, Bill, we totally agree.

Why it is so? Not shure at all.....
Maybe my system already is too laidback, and the Herbies pulled it in the wrong direction?

To me the music is more alive, interesting, foot-tapping and fun with the original mat.
I have an Achromat coming in, looking forward to try that one too.

For now, I'm sticking with the "ridiculous Static attack monster felt crapola." To me it just sounds better.


Best regards
Rolf

[gabriel1998]

Like I said, Unless you have the same atmosphere, acoustics, equipment and so forth, its quite "Ridiculous" to take anyone advice and expect the same results, especially something so subjective as sound. lol...Only by hearing it yourself can we judge. Guess I was proving right. One man's "CRAP..ola" is another man's treasure. and it sounds AMAZING!!! not to be rude..

[justhavingfun]

Rather than making another thread, I want to express my initial impression of Groovetracer reference subplatter upgrade to my Rega Planar 3. It is still too early for me to judge any detail differences but one thing for sure is that noise floor is dropped significantly.

The noise floor was one thing that bothered me from the stock form but now this Rega Planar 3 is much more pleasure to listen to. Once I know how quiet this table can be, I don't think I can go back to stock form any more. Groovetracer subplatter is definitely worth its price tag without question for me. Now I am wondering about its acrylic platter upgrade .

My installation took little longer than usual due to my pulley was riding too high and belt was keep slipping in its original position. So I had to relocate the motor pulley little lower and that took me little longer. I am very satisfied with Groovetracer subplatter upgrade .

[plastico]

Hi Justhavingfun. I too did the Groovetracer subplatter upgrade and it made a big impact on the music. I played around with all kinds of mats on my glass platter; carbon, leather, Ringmat, cork with rice paper- you name it! I took the plunge and got the acrylic platter from Groovetracer, and boy! Now were having fun! I hope you are reading this RoDa! Cheers, Plastico

[justhavingfun]

Plastico, have you ever worry about laying your LPs directly to acrylic surface rather than felt or other soft material for potential scratch? This subplatter upgrade made one of the biggest differences to me for this table. However, I don't expect to have that much differences from acrylic platter upgrade but judging from my positive experience, I might have to upgrade again soon after all.

Beside, like you I was going to experiment with different mat other than felt mat anyway.

[RoDa]

Like I said, Unless you have the same atmosphere, acoustics, equipment and so forth, its quite "Ridiculous" to take anyone advice and expect the same results, especially something so subjective as sound. lol...Only by hearing it yourself can we judge. Guess I was proving right. One man's "CRAP..ola" is another man's treasure. and it sounds AMAZING!!! not to be rude..

I'm not shure if you understand what I'm trying to do with this thread?
This isn't about winning the discussion, it's about telling what happens with the sound when I try different upgrades/tweaks on my P5.

Also, I don't agree with you regarding "only by hearing it yourself".
To me it seems that we are hearing many of the same changes in sound from the Herbie's but due to preferences and systems we don't agree whether it's a good thing or not.

It's not about amazing, gold or crap, it's about describing the differences.

I was lucky enough to be able to try the mat without buying it, and I also enjoy some of the changes it brought.


Regards
Rolf

[RoDa]

I took the plunge and got the acrylic platter from Groovetracer, and boy! Now were having fun! I hope you are reading this RoDa! Cheers, Plastico

LOL

We'll see......

Regards
Rolf

[plastico]

Hi Justhavingfun. I worried about scratching my records when I first tried the other mats, particularly the carbon fiber mat. I found I had to stop the platter - still do, to change the record. I kept the mat clean so there was no danger of scratching, but if you tried to take the record off while still spinning , disaster! In general I found the different mats gave me a different flavour with each. When I installed the acrylic platter, it gave me a better PRESENTATION, everywhere! Thats what I was looking for. And to answer your question about the acrylic platter scratching , just stop the platter between plays , and you won't have a problem. Cheers, Plastico

[RoDa]

And to answer your question about the acrylic platter scratching , just stop the platter between plays , and you won't have a problem. Cheers, Plastico

Except with Mr Gandy
Rega says that the platter should be running for the entire record playing session. Not shure how important this is.

Actually that's one of the things that makes me happy with my Rega in daily use. No threaded clamp or other things in the way of playing records, and changing them rapidly.

Regards
Rolf