What do defective phono tubes sound like?

Sirspeedy,
If you changed the tubes and you are still experiencing the same results. To narrow it down even further ,borrow a table from a dealer.Any model that you can plug into your system.
Or a phonostage from a dealer or from one of your buddies.

I know its even more work ,but it will tell you right away if it is your new arm.

However I suspect its not.

The out standing quality of your new arm would not have left the factory untested and checked over thoroughly, me thinks.

Stilty,the phonostage can be had,I think.The tubes are most suspect as of now.

As to the arm....I am not so sure about that,due to circumstances which my loyalty may have attributed to.One reason why "if" it is the arm(and it is not taken care of promptly)I will be "peeved"!!

As I said,I am taking a day off Tuesday,to rol up my sleeves on this.
Thanks to ALL for actually giving a darn!

>>What do defective phono tubes sound like?<<

A whiney, complaining, syrupy, effeminate, please feel sorry for me, sort of sound.

Can you hear it?

Sirspeedy, your description of the problem sounds like a static discharge to me. If the arm is improperly grounded it is possible for it to *not* hum, but have discharge problems, especially with low humidity. The needle tracking the LP will create the static charge and if not drained off by the grounded arm, you will get a random static 'pop', which can be quite loud once amplified by your electronics!

A hint is that this problem showed up when you changed arms. If the prior arm is available, I would swap it in and see if that sorts it out. If not, I would test the arm to see if it is really grounded correctly. BTW the turntable should be grounded to the arm too. If not, that can cause static discharge too.

Atmosphere thanks So much for the advice.

Audiofeil,you expose yourself again,as a total jerk,but I've been aware of that for some time.Thanks for the kind words anyway.

Best