Gold Again: The Strata Tops a Second Ten-Mat Shootout

When a reviewer with decades of analogue experience puts a £325 platter mat up against ten others, including references he’s owned and loved for years, you expect a polite, hedged verdict.

That’s not what happened, and what’s more, following Paul Rigby’s verdict two years ago, it’s now the second time.

In Positive Feedback (Issue 145), Bruce Kinch ran the Origin Live Strata head-to-head against the field: the Funk Firm Achromat, multiple Herbie’s mats, and a clutch of exotic vintage designs.

The Strata took Gold.

Yes, the Origin Live Strata won Gold, dramatically out-performing the rest of the field on the massed cellos, as it did with the other records discussed here. Definition, detail retrieval, tonalities, dynamics, soundstage, coherence – it was simply unmatched.

Seriously, what has our audiophile’s world come to?

Back in “normal” times, getting better sound was straightforward: spend some money, and expect a commensurate audible return on investment. Plump for a big ticket latest and greatest, or pay the mortgage and upgrade economically. Tweaks, tubes, footers, that sort of thing, under $100, maybe $200. A new platter mat, perhaps.

Now comes a review of a £325 platter mat, the Origin Live Strata.

US prices on imported goods currently fluctuate. Spending $523.44 (today’s retail at Analog Matters, a US Origin Live Dealer) to replace the free felt or rubber mat that came with your, say $2K turntable, might seem ludicrous. Unless, of course, it made your rig sound better than the $3-5K+ table, arm, or cartridge you’ve been mulling. Or maybe, if it simply made listening to your vinyl that much more pleasurable.

The Strata is the latest innovation from Origin Live, the noted UK turntable and tonearm manufacturer. It is a major upgrade from their original “Upgrade“ mat I reviewed (Here) in concert with their Cartridge Enabler head shell isolation pad and the Gravity 1, a 67g record “weight”. The latter was recently replaced by the 70g Gravity 2 (Here). All their analog add-ons will work with virtually any brand turntable or tonearm, and can be economically shipped anywhere direct from the UK.

Yes, some turntables are designed to be used without a platter mat – usually because the design adequately isolates the LP from mechanical drive-motor/bearing noise. My venerable Well-Tempered turntable screw-clamps the LP directly to a slightly concave acrylic platter, for example, and sounds quite fine. My Nottingham Analogue SpaceDeck’s metal platter has a label recess for naked disc play, but they strongly recommend a pricey graphite “Heavy Kit” for best performance. I’ve compromised with a thinner Boston Audio graphite mat instead, which does indeed deaden the platter nicely.

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