Proper Ground for Tonearm and Turntable

Just wanted to thank everyone who helped my figure out that this was indeed a static buildup at the plinth side of my AS Triple X. I had tried grounding it to the phonostage but it needed to be grounded to my Krell Digital Vanguard negative speaker output. Went back and forth with Krell and they advised on the proper grounding. Super company and very responsive!
Thanks Everyone!!

Cartridges are naturally balanced devices. The tonearm is grounded to chassis ground of the turntable which is connected to chassis ground of the phono preamp. The minus terminals of the cartridge should be isolated from chassis ground or in other words chassis ground should not be connected to the negative side of the RCA cables. Having said this audiosaurusrex's symptoms are a bit unusual if the pop is not just the needle hitting the groove. As millercarbon suggests static electricity could do this and it might be worse if the turntable were not grounded. Zerostats are a serious joke as the second you put the stylus back in the groove static electricity is generated rapidly. The best way to discharge a record is by using a grounded sweep arm with conductive bristles and making sure it and your turntable are grounded correctly,

millercarbon, go to Sleeve City and get yourself a grounded sweep arm. The static you sense from pulling the record out of a sleeve was generated during the last play. Nothing like a nonconductive stylus rubbing a nonconductive groove for 20 minutes, a mini Van Der Graaf generator. You have to discharge the record while it is playing! 

Mijostyn you are very wrong on all counts. First and foremost, the tonearm requires a signal ground from the phono stage, and if you tie it to the plinth, you have just created a ground loop. Second, the phono stage needs to be grounded to the pre-amp / integrated amp. On an integrated amp, many manufacturers tie the common negative speaker leads to chassis ground. The OP was wise to consult the manufacturer on this, although the same result could probably have been achieved by grounding the phono stage chassis to a chassis screw on the preamp or integrated amp. Third, the Zerostat is a well-proven device to neutralize static buildup. A grounded sweep arm is not necessary, and in most cases it will do no good.