I live in Colorado where the winter months include often dry air, leading to a noticeable increase in static on my vinyl. I simply run a humidifier in my listening room, and am able to eliminate virtually all of the static pops. Might be worth a try.
Static on turntable
Hello all!
I see there are some very smart people here who can probably give me some advice.
I've been getting into listening to vinyl. Have a Fluance RT84 with Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge. I've upgraded to the acrylic platter. I have also been using one of the Fluance record weights. My receiver is a Denon AVR X2800h.
Everything has been sounding quite great until recently. Recently I listened to the Getz/Gilberto Acoustic Sounds reissue and it was wonderful. As was the Dave Brubeck Time Out recording.
I had gotten a Rachmaninoff album from Warner Classics. It was sealed. I did notice that the record seemed extremely staticky. I put it on the turntable and played it (after using the Fluance carbon fiber brush on it to remove static). Very quickly I started noticing some very loud pops (almost electric sounding). They continued throughout fairly regularly. When I took the record off the turntable, it seemed the entire platter and turntable were now more statically charged.
Then I tried playing a brand new copy of the Miles Davis Kind of Blue UHQR from Analogue Productions. Even this record was experiencing these loud pops.
I found that things seemed to improve when I took off the acrylic platter and washed it with a damp microfiber and then cotton cloth.
I then washed this Rachmaninoff album in my Spin Clean and it did sound better initially but soon seemed to recollect static and start popping.
Has anyone experienced such a thing? Any solutions? Kind of frustrating!
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@chille1525 Afraid I don't have any "ah hah!" diagnostics and/or solutions for you. However, a couple or three questions: How old or, more importantly, how much mileage do you have on your stylus & cartridge? In other words, do you have a method or tool (e.g. Stylus Tracker) to track the hours of use of your stylus/cartridge? Do clean your stylus regularly (e.g. before each side of an album)? If so, how so and with what (e.g. stylus cleaning gadget; liquid stylus cleaner)? Do you store your albums in good quality anti-static poly sleeves? Have you checked, cleaned, secured, etc. your TT and pre-amp phono contacts? There are other possibilities. However, my advice would be to check the basics, first. Good Luck! |
@chille1525 One more basic thing to check = stylus force (i.e. with a good quality, accurate stylus gauge). |
- 23 posts total