2. analog
  3. 189880-190840

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!

chille1525
dogberry
647 posts
 

While I treat a record with the Destat III before playing, when I go to pick it off the platter to play the other side there is often static attraction that was not there when placed on the platter. It has to be the stylus/vinyl friction that caused it, I think.

lewm
13,017 posts
 

The cause of the (negative) charge on an LP surface is either direct transfer from another charged object, like you, the operator, who got charged up by walking across a carpet wearing leather shoes, or friction, like when you pull the LP out of a paper sleeve.  Low humidity only makes the problem more likely. Numerous experiments have shown, at least to my own satisfaction, that friction of the stylus in the groove is not a cause.  Dogberry, the Shure Corporation showed decades ago, and published in a white paper on static charge, that you may discharge the playing surface, but when you then turn that LP over to play the other side, static charge is accumulated on that side you did not previously discharge. So you have to do it again. Stylus/vinyl friction is not a cause, or certainly not a significant cause.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

 

@dogberry: It’s best to "spray" the record on both sides before placing it on the turntable, holding the disc in one’s hand. That’s true of not just the Destat, but all anti-static guns.

 

phillyspecial
23 posts
 

+1 for the ZeroStat. I use it on every record and again when I flip sides. Works like a charm. 

dogberry
647 posts
 

I have been using the Destat III on the side to be played, then using it on the other side when when I flip the disk over. I'll try doing both sides before playing the first and see if it makes a difference. The reason for using it at all is not so much that I can hear static pops, but that it makes it easier for my rocket brush to blow any specks off the surface before playing.

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