I agree that felt platter mats have not been good in my experience, but I never owned an LP12, and it's just possible that felt may sound good on an LP12 platter. Dust covers suck, too. Just couldn't resist contradicting Mijostyn. He knows how I feel about dust covers.
I have yet to see or be able to find scientific evidence that the stylus tip, which is made of diamond, we hope, is the major cause of static charge build-up, but the idea that it is one of the causes is appealing, I admit. I tried to find where diamond sits in the triboelectric series, and I cannot find any table that lists "diamond". However, all tables do list vinyl near the bottom of the list of materials that accept an electron (become negatively charged), as Mijo says. Do you know what materials ARE listed at the very top of the list of materials that lose electrons (become positively charged) most readily? Human skin and air. Since it's impossible to play LPs without exposing them to our skin (unless you wear gloves) and the air around us, is it not just as plausible that LPs acquire negative charge from either or both of those two sources?
Years ago, the Shure Corporation published a lengthy white paper on static charge vis a vis the LP. That paper should be read by anyone interested in the phenomenon. In that paper, they said they looked for evidence that the stylus tracing the groove is a cause of static on LPs, and results were negative. Unfortunately, they failed to describe the relevant experiments. Whereas, they did describe many other experiments in detail, and the results are interesting.
I have yet to see or be able to find scientific evidence that the stylus tip, which is made of diamond, we hope, is the major cause of static charge build-up, but the idea that it is one of the causes is appealing, I admit. I tried to find where diamond sits in the triboelectric series, and I cannot find any table that lists "diamond". However, all tables do list vinyl near the bottom of the list of materials that accept an electron (become negatively charged), as Mijo says. Do you know what materials ARE listed at the very top of the list of materials that lose electrons (become positively charged) most readily? Human skin and air. Since it's impossible to play LPs without exposing them to our skin (unless you wear gloves) and the air around us, is it not just as plausible that LPs acquire negative charge from either or both of those two sources?
Years ago, the Shure Corporation published a lengthy white paper on static charge vis a vis the LP. That paper should be read by anyone interested in the phenomenon. In that paper, they said they looked for evidence that the stylus tracing the groove is a cause of static on LPs, and results were negative. Unfortunately, they failed to describe the relevant experiments. Whereas, they did describe many other experiments in detail, and the results are interesting.