What do defective phono tubes sound like?

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

Static discharge ! Thanks for your intervention, Atmasphere. I grounded the turntable to arm, separated the phonopreamp from turntable,check tonearm grounding and no more "pops". It wasn't the fridge! Are those static discharges harmful to cartridge coils or any components of the system?