Origin Live Strata

REVIEW
Chris Frankland
Jun 24, 2025

A turntable mat that works on any turntable with any platter material – too good to be true? That was the bold claim from designer Mark Baker about the Origin Live Strata. I spoke to him at the 2023 North-West Audio Show.

Before this review, no mat has improved on playing vinyl directly on the Lexan (a robust and inert plastic) platter of my Audio Note TT3 turntable. Baker searched for 20 years for a mat to work on his turntables’ acrylic platters. He finally found the right material, which he used in his entry-level Upgrade mat.

Eight years later

Eight years and thousands of prototypes later, the Strata is an evolution of that. Baker found no one material was effective at damping the resonances across the entire audio frequency band. Hence, the triple-layer construction of the Origin Live Strata. However, he preferred not to reveal details of the materials used.

Elaborating on the role a turntable mat plays, Baker explains that it helps to decouple the record from resonances in the platter. These are caused by the stylus vibrating in the groove, friction in the turntable bearing, motor noise, and airborne vibration from the loudspeakers.

I decided to try the mat on various turntables with different platter materials. Primarily, I used the Strata on my Audio Note TT3 turntable, which features a Lexan platter.

I also visited my local retailer, Home Media in Maidstone, where they let me try the mat on a Gold Note T5 with its glass platter, a Planar 10 with a ceramic platter, and a Clearaudio Performance DC with its POM platter. Thanks to the guys at Soundcraft in Ashford, I tried it on a Linn Sondek LP12 with its metal platter.

No disappointments

I started with the Origin Live Strata on my Audio Note TT3 at home, which did not disappoint. On vocals as diverse as Stephen Fearing, Linda Ronstadt and John Mellencamp, the Strata improved vocal intelligibility. It smoothed out any sibilance or rough edges. Overall, there was a coherent and layered musical soundstage with great rhythmic push and integrity. Funky bass lines had the growl and movement they should. Additionally, the sax had bite and subtlety, and the guitar had excellent inner note detail and shape.

I tried it with equal success on the Gold Note’s glass platter, the Rega’s ceramic platter, and the Clearaudio’s POM platter. In all cases, the vocals were smoother, and the layers in the instrumentation were better separated and defined. Also, bass lines were punchier, and drums were more dynamic and sharply focused.

As a final check, I tried the Strata on the Linn Sondek LP12 and got similar results. The Strata achieved the same improvements over the LP12’s felt mat it had achieved on the other turntables.

The Origin Live Strata turntable mat performed with remarkable consistency across a wide variety of turntables with different platter materials. This held true for both budget and much more expensive models.

If you consider the Origin Live Strata as ‘just a mat’, £295 sounds expensive. But viewed as a significant platter upgrade, £295 (with a manufacturer’s money-back guarantee) is a realistic proposition. It is well worth a try.