The Article
SOUNDECK PICTURE DISC
8th January 2024
I reviewed this weighty platter mat back in February 2022. The price for the basic PM platter mat from Soundeck is £117 (£97.50 outside of the UK) but the company has added a twist for this mat and it’s this. You can now add graphics to the surface for an extra fee of £48
Anything you fancy. Anything at all.
The final price for the mat and the upgrade together is £165, all in, £137.50 outside of the UK plus local taxes. To do the job, the company uses its own in-house UV printer.
The printer is a Mimaki 3042 UVA which the company bought in second hand for £7,500. It uses ultra violet to cure the paint on the mat.
Setting up your artwork will take 90 minutes. That’s partly because the printer has to print white on the black platter mat first to get good colour depth. This printer is apparently one of just a few printers that can print white.
If you fancy adding an image to your mat, all the company needs from you is a high quality graphic or photo image in a shape that can be cropped into the circle of the mat. So you will need to be a little bit careful about the image you choose. It has to fit into a circle. Saying that, the graphic doesn’t have to cover the entire surface, it could be in the centre label area or anywhere on the disk.
Personally? I think it looks rather nice. The potential for this upgrade runs as far as your imagination, I reckon.
Performance-wise in HiFi terms? No change. Although, because there is a micro thickness coating on the top of the mat now, and it is super thin, the mat feels a little smoother now than the earlier textured mat.
It’s not very smooth more the other direction, that is, it’s not as textured. So that might actually please those users who might have been slightly concerned about how that texture was interacting with their delicate vinyl. Not that I experienced any problems. But even so, if the textured surface was an issue for you with this mat, then the new image-laden variant will help on that score.
You may have questions regarding all of this so contact [email protected]
