James H. Kogen, Phonograph Reproduction 1978, Audio Magazine May 1978, Audio-1978-05.pdf (worldradiohistory.com) goes into some detail on static; what causes it and what does not – the needle in the groove was not a source of static. |
I procrastinated on the Acaia, but I did buy an FMX003 static charge meter sold on eBay for $175. First experiment was to rip an LP out of its sleeve as rapidly as possible. Charge on the LP surface read -11kV. I then zapped the LP with my 50 year old Zerostat. This reduced the charge to about -0.25kV. So now I’m wondering why I need the Acaia or a Destat III or etc. |
(1) Who said anything about the Destat? (2) I don’t own a Destat, used the plain old Zerostat in my experiment described above, but Benjie’s post is in disagreement with your claim (Benjie is here replying to someone else, but his post does contradict your claim.): "When I treat a record with the Destat and measure the static charge on the record surface it is 0.00, surface is neutral. After playing the record I measure the surface again while the record is still on the turntable and I get a reading of 0.00 to 0.04 across the record. Which shows that the record surface is still static free after playing that side of the record. 0.04 is such a small amount you would never hear it through your system. I have repeated this process many times and with many different records. We seem to have very different outcomes using the same process." (3) There seems to be a consensus based on more careful experiments that playing the LP per se is not the cause of static charge build-up. However, it could be that when we step up to either flip the LP or replace it with another LP, we transfer charge from our body to the LP, which would erroneously support the notion that the stylus rubbing on vinyl causes static charge. And also, discharging one surface of the LP does nothing to any charge on its opposite side. So when you do flip an LP, that charge is now on the new playing surface. |
