Cork for the win

Why Cork? 

Well there are lots of great reasons. Most of us inherit a slip mat from the person we bought our first turntables from and to be fair, there’s probably nothing wrong with it.  

I have 3 turntables in my life. Two (previously loved) Technics SL1200’s and one vintage ERGO, solid cherry wood plinth beauty. The ERGO is a belt drive, like the REGA turntables, with a glass platter and came with a felt slip mat.  

In the first few weeks of running this beauty I found that the felt mat was continuously sticking to the vinyl record when lifted off the platter. It’s annoying and means you must first remove the felt to just turn the disc around.  

Then a friend introduced me to cork and well, I haven't’ looked back. Cork is not only beautiful to look at on your turntable, but it works like a dream too. The next decision faced was what thickness to use. You can choose between 1.6mm thick or 3mm thick, so of course I tried both.  

Full disclosure, I’m no audiophile and so the honest result here was that there was really very little difference in the sound quality between the two.  The decision for me came down to the feel of it and for that reason I went with the 3mm.  

It’s sturdy and solid all round, as cork slip mats go. The other consideration was cost and given that as vinyl rekkid junkies we spend a small fortune on the black gold itself, I didn’t want to go crazy. Cork slip mats ticked all the boxes, so much so that I’m now selling them in our online store.  

I ended up getting two for my Technics SL1200’s too and only because I don’t beat mix. If there is a downside to Cork slip mats, it’ll be that it’s not ideal for beat mixing. I’m sure there are a million technical terms I could throw at you here, but honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.  

So, if you’ve got your deck set up at home and you’re like me, a regular listener of vinyl rekkids, get one. You won’t be sorry.