Jack Roberts' latest take on LP Mats and Stabilizers      
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Millennium’s M-LP-Mat Carbon Mat: $349
Millennium’s Silentor LP Weight Support: $349

Millennium is a German company that is imported by Brian Ackerman’s Aaudio Imports. Millennium produces several audio accessories that have a recurring theme, in that many of their products make use of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is a very light and very strong material that has very good damping properties. My Clearaudio tonearms are made of carbon fiber.

This combination worked great with my Clearauido peripheral clamp, and brought about a significant improvement in the overall sound of my system. The mat is a .3 mm laminated carbon fiber mat with one side having a thin, felt-like surface and the other side is the carbon, flat surface. The carbon side definitely has more resolution, while the felt-layered side has more of a warm sound. I used the flat side, though occasionally when listening to a rather bright sounding recording I would flip it over to the felt side and indeed this was quite nice.

The Millennium Silentor is a very nicely machined stainless steel center clamp made to use with any turntable. It couples very tightly to the spindle and LP by use of an O-ring and a series of precision-drilled holes filled with granulated quartz and covered by the carbon fiber mat that goes on the record surface. This attention to detail along with its weight provides very good damping of the LP and worked quite nicely in my setup.

The Millennium combo allowed my system to have a more powerful sound than it did without them. The bass was improved by having more power, and more air around the bass. The midrange had a little more detail, and the image depth was slightly improved. A lot of mats and clamps tend to over-deaden the sound, but the Millennium combo also allowed my system to have a very alive and focused sound, making the music easier to follow, and individual instruments and voices were more easily delineated. Overall, the system just sounded more musical with this combo then it did even with the Clearaudio Twister Clamp.

I tried the Millennium combo on several turntables and as good as it was on my Clearaudio Wood Anniversary CMB turntable, it made an even bigger difference on the Linn, and the Thorens 124. It also made a bigger difference on my Clearaudio turntable if I was not using the peripheral ring. I would assume that was because they both deadened some of the same resonances. In no way should that be taken to mean that you should not use both, because they definitely sounded better together.

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