I purchased a hudson hifi acrylic mat which fixed all of my issues at once.
Uturn orbit acrylic no mat.
Without a mat the orbit had a propensity to skip where it hadn t before.
The orbit s arm is optimized for use with a 1 8 thick mat.
The orbit comes with the choice of either a basic mdf platter or an acrylic platter.
Choose your finish cartridge platter and more.
I used their cork mat for a long time but could discern a muffling of certain frequencies with it as opposed to no mat.
Model has acrylic platter ortofon om5e and arm lifter.
I would recommend the cork mat for no other reason that it supposedly helps with static.
Acrylic s high density and low stiffness helps the platter trap and dissipate vibrat.
I recommend trying both and going with whichever sounds best to you i ended up preferring using a mat with mine.
That said the at91b isn t bad.
Listened to a u turn orbit at my son in law s tonight.
If you do upgrade something the cartridge is a good place to start.
Acrylic is a solid transparent plastic often known by brand names like plexiglass.
Upgrade your orbit s mdf platter to acrylic for improved speed consistency and detail.
When i had an orbit the felt mat sounded worse than just the acrylic platter.
If you have a pre amp you don t need another though u turn s preamp does appear to be very well regarded.
Built to order to your specifications.
K4rstar oct 4 2017 164.
When i bought a u turn orbit recently i grabbed a 1 8 cork mat to place on the acrylic platter thinking that it would sound good protect the acrylic from dust and scratching and be less likely than a felt mat to stick to records because of static.
I contacted uturn audio about the need for a mat with my acrylic platter and this was their response.
90 add to cart.
Highly recommend doing that until u turn comes out with a 3mm thicker.
All of our turntables come with a standard felt mat included.
Mdf medium density fiberboard is a wood composite material made by binding wood fibers together with heat and pressure.
That said many folks prefer using no mat with the acrylic platter.
Our acrylic platter is a full pound heavier which translates into improved speed consistency 0 125 wow flutter compared to 0 175 for mdf.
But it looks amazing.
If you want a good mat check out the gemdandy rcc mat and the herbie s audio lab way excellent mat.