What do defective phono tubes sound like?

Jloveys,the apparent solution was what Atmosphere mentioned.He has superb experience,and is very well intentioned.I thought through his comments,and it coincided with my dilemma(I'd not been able to spin vinyl for about six months,due to what I thought was going to be an upgrade,with all the back orders,and reliability issues....this should end soon).The arm mfgr realised this too,and was very open to a "new" arm and cable.

thanks for the concern

Bad news, "pops" came back... I am also leaning towards tonearm connection failure, when i move the pivoting bottom of the Phantom awful pops appear.
I thought problem was resolved, but it was a short relief, maybe because I unplugged everything. Monday I take the tonearm back for checking. Fortunately we have a very good aftersale system here in Belgium and they lend me a new tonearm during repair.

Hmm?I experienced that too!Yet,now I have new headaches.
This is becomming as much fun as the last five miles of a marathon -:)....

I would check for continuity between the ground of the table and the chassis ground of the preamp.

Atmosphere,I had noticed my pre giving me some noise,"now" when playing CD's Friday night.The vol control started sounding "whoosh/static like" sounding,as I moved the nob(even a little).
Then,as I stopped CD play,and just moved the vol control to hear what the story was,it (the pre)gave a pop,and I could not get anymore output!!
I simply decided to wait a few days,so as to not get upset,as I've been experiencing too many hassles.
Could the table/arm "ground problem"(if it actually was the arm ground,and not the pre all along) have caused the pre to die on me?...."Oye vey",is this getting annoying!!

Thanks