Here you go Lewm
https://thelastfactory.com/last-record-preservative/how-do-i-get-rid-of-static-on-vinyl-records-i-e-static-cling/ and Antinin. Lewm you may be right about the probe. I have a very fast meter with a very high impedance. Tonight I will connect the negative lead to house ground and see if I can measure it.
Lewm I have to say you have excellent taste in loudspeakers. Have you tried subwoofers yet? What are you using to drive them?
The other theory as to how static forms on records is that the spinning record creates "friction" with air generating the charge. This is unlikely as the formation of a static electric charge requires "intimate" contact between two objects at opposite ends of the triboelectric series. Intimate contact such as the belt in a Van De Graaff generator or the stylus in the groove. You can not generate a static charge by waving your feet in the air but you can rubbing your feet on carpet with all your weight on them. Tonight I will put a neutral record on the turntable and let it spin while I check out the news and see if it develops a charge.
In surfing the internet on this subject I have noted that there are a plethora of theories and opinions on the generation and management of static electricity on records. They can not all be right. Once you understand how the static electricity is formed all you need is logic to form a management plan. It is not rocket science and I am not a rocket scientist. Static is formed by the stylus rubbing the groove stealing the electrons from air. Here is a decent general article. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/static-science-how-well-do-different-materials-make-static-electricity/#:~:text=Static%20electricity%20can%20be%20created,to%20produce%20a%20static%20charge.
Antinin, great article with some aspects I disagree with. He "oddly" dismisses the sorce of static as the rubbing stylus. As measured by who and under what circumstances.The Last Factory also disagrees with this analysis. There are a number of ways you can detect static. Take a neutral record and play it. You will notice a static charge develops. Something about playing a record developes static electricity. Are there circumstances that a charge won't develop? Perhaps high humidity, An arm or turntable grounded in a certain way, a conductive cartridge body that runs very close to the record. Obviously I do not know for sure. Tonight I am going to let a record just spin and see what happens. Put a neutral record in a paper sleeve and nothing will happen. But, if you put a charged record into a paper sleeve the paper will cling to the record and you will even get snapping and maybe even shocked as you pull it out. This is why people think that paper sleeves cause static under normal circumstances. If you take a paper sleeve and rub it briskly over the record you can develop a nice charge and ruin the record in the process.
This is an experiment I have done. My records come off the turntable discharged and the ones still in paper sleeves never develop a static charge.
He talks about dust and confirms most of what I have said. He "oddly" thinks you need a longer stylus shank to prevent clogging the stylus. Today we use very tiny short styli without any trouble what so ever. This improves tracking and frequency response by lowering the effective mass of the assembly. Lint (large fiber) is easy to remove from a record It is the smaller particles and pollution that are the real problem in terms of record wear. Most people deal with this with various record cleaning devises and methods. I deal with it my not letting my records get dirty in the first place. I never put anything on my records. All I do is the conductive sweep arm and a dust cover.
Lewm I have to say you have excellent taste in loudspeakers. Have you tried subwoofers yet? What are you using to drive them?
The other theory as to how static forms on records is that the spinning record creates "friction" with air generating the charge. This is unlikely as the formation of a static electric charge requires "intimate" contact between two objects at opposite ends of the triboelectric series. Intimate contact such as the belt in a Van De Graaff generator or the stylus in the groove. You can not generate a static charge by waving your feet in the air but you can rubbing your feet on carpet with all your weight on them. Tonight I will put a neutral record on the turntable and let it spin while I check out the news and see if it develops a charge.
In surfing the internet on this subject I have noted that there are a plethora of theories and opinions on the generation and management of static electricity on records. They can not all be right. Once you understand how the static electricity is formed all you need is logic to form a management plan. It is not rocket science and I am not a rocket scientist. Static is formed by the stylus rubbing the groove stealing the electrons from air. Here is a decent general article. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/static-science-how-well-do-different-materials-make-static-electricity/#:~:text=Static%20electricity%20can%20be%20created,to%20produce%20a%20static%20charge.
Antinin, great article with some aspects I disagree with. He "oddly" dismisses the sorce of static as the rubbing stylus. As measured by who and under what circumstances.The Last Factory also disagrees with this analysis. There are a number of ways you can detect static. Take a neutral record and play it. You will notice a static charge develops. Something about playing a record developes static electricity. Are there circumstances that a charge won't develop? Perhaps high humidity, An arm or turntable grounded in a certain way, a conductive cartridge body that runs very close to the record. Obviously I do not know for sure. Tonight I am going to let a record just spin and see what happens. Put a neutral record in a paper sleeve and nothing will happen. But, if you put a charged record into a paper sleeve the paper will cling to the record and you will even get snapping and maybe even shocked as you pull it out. This is why people think that paper sleeves cause static under normal circumstances. If you take a paper sleeve and rub it briskly over the record you can develop a nice charge and ruin the record in the process.
This is an experiment I have done. My records come off the turntable discharged and the ones still in paper sleeves never develop a static charge.
He talks about dust and confirms most of what I have said. He "oddly" thinks you need a longer stylus shank to prevent clogging the stylus. Today we use very tiny short styli without any trouble what so ever. This improves tracking and frequency response by lowering the effective mass of the assembly. Lint (large fiber) is easy to remove from a record It is the smaller particles and pollution that are the real problem in terms of record wear. Most people deal with this with various record cleaning devises and methods. I deal with it my not letting my records get dirty in the first place. I never put anything on my records. All I do is the conductive sweep arm and a dust cover.