I acquired an Oswald Mills Audio (OMA) polycrystalline graphite platter mat. To my ear, it improved the music quality enough that I judge the mat to be worth more than the cost ($465 delivered). My turntable is a Technics SP10 MK2.
Why does it work so well? I suggest one possible explanation below. Maybe someone can help me to understand better what is going on.
There is almost no information about this mat available. OMA states that the platter mat material is “an extremely high grade polycrystalline graphite." What is polycrystalline graphite? I found that more than one form of it exists, including graphene. One research paper compared wave propagation in two configurations of graphene sheets: single crystal and polycrystalline. I don’t think the OMA mat is made from graphene material. However, it may be that the OMA material shares the wave propagation characteristics of polycrystalline graphene.
Graphene is a two dimensional form of graphite. As described at www.nanografi.com:
“Graphene is a material composed of pure carbon, similar to graphite but with characteristics that make it extraordinarily light and strong. A sheet of one square meter of graphene weighs 0.77 milligrams. Its strength is 200 times greater than that of steel and its density is similar to that of carbon fiber. All these make it resist high bending forces without breaking. It is one of the most conductive materials for electricity and heat, which makes it the perfect material for electronics and many other industries.”
Oscillating wave propagation in polycrystalline graphene is reported to be isotrophic and highly damped. A material that propagates oscillating waves identically in all directions is said to be isotrophic. So, oscillating waves propagated through polycrystalline graphene are highly and equally damped in all directions.
These polycrystalline graphene properties, if shared, may mean that the OMA mat absorbs oscillating waves received from the stylus and from the platter but effectively dampens their reflection. This result would explain the beneficial effects of the OMA mat that I have heard.
Cited research paper:
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2017/ra/c7ra03744a
Why does it work so well? I suggest one possible explanation below. Maybe someone can help me to understand better what is going on.
There is almost no information about this mat available. OMA states that the platter mat material is “an extremely high grade polycrystalline graphite." What is polycrystalline graphite? I found that more than one form of it exists, including graphene. One research paper compared wave propagation in two configurations of graphene sheets: single crystal and polycrystalline. I don’t think the OMA mat is made from graphene material. However, it may be that the OMA material shares the wave propagation characteristics of polycrystalline graphene.
Graphene is a two dimensional form of graphite. As described at www.nanografi.com:
“Graphene is a material composed of pure carbon, similar to graphite but with characteristics that make it extraordinarily light and strong. A sheet of one square meter of graphene weighs 0.77 milligrams. Its strength is 200 times greater than that of steel and its density is similar to that of carbon fiber. All these make it resist high bending forces without breaking. It is one of the most conductive materials for electricity and heat, which makes it the perfect material for electronics and many other industries.”
Oscillating wave propagation in polycrystalline graphene is reported to be isotrophic and highly damped. A material that propagates oscillating waves identically in all directions is said to be isotrophic. So, oscillating waves propagated through polycrystalline graphene are highly and equally damped in all directions.
These polycrystalline graphene properties, if shared, may mean that the OMA mat absorbs oscillating waves received from the stylus and from the platter but effectively dampens their reflection. This result would explain the beneficial effects of the OMA mat that I have heard.
Cited research paper:
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2017/ra/c7ra03744a