Static electricity: Unique to Vinyl Systems?

At a show I once observed a demonstration of an all digital rig apparently get fried, from a CD with static electricity. The demonstrator laid out all his demo CD's on the carpeted floor in front of the rig. After picking up one of these CD's from the carpeted floor, inserting the CD in the drive, and hitting play, some rather ugly noises and flashing lights briefly appeared before everything appeared to die. Fortunately for the demonstrator he had a couple of more similar rigs already set up, and he just continued on. A friend I was with just walked out, thinking the demonstrator/designer/engineer so foolish that he couldn't possibly offer anything worthwhile. I later returned to enjoy a rather interesting demonstration that still haunts me (in a good way) to this day.

Richard, am I correct in thinking that the phono stage is the Jolida JD9? And if so, to what values have you set the input resistance, input capacitance, and gain?

In particular, if you presently have input resistance set to a high setting, especially 47K, try changing it to the minimum possible value (100 ohms). If the problem is being caused by RFI, resulting from static or anything else, that may help. If it does, you could then increase the value one step at a time to determine a setting that is optimal sonically but does not result in the popping and clicking.

Also, I'm thinking that since the noises apparently occurred with the prior phono stage only while a record was playing (per your second post in the thread), that symptom and the new symptom of noises occurring while no record is playing may have two different causes. The original symptom perhaps being static-related, and perhaps requiring either just destaticizing your records, or experimenting further with turntable grounding. And the new problem perhaps resulting from the Jolida either somehow being more sensitive to RFI, or being defective and generating the noises itself.

Are you sure that the noises you presently hear when a record is not being played sound similar to what you heard during record playback with the previous equipment?

Hope that helps. Regards,
-- Al

Al, I'm not certain if the prior phono stage didn't make the same sounds when it wasn't playing a record. It certainly did while playing a record, but it has a loud transformer hum (not present in the Jolida) that is really noticeable when no music plays, to the point where I would immediately shut off the phono or the power amp when an lp would stop, due to fear of frying my speakers. I'd have to reinsert it answer that question. I can also try playing with the impedance of the Jolida (it is indeed set to 47K, per their suggestion to match the cart).
i didn't buy the zerostat because I'm not convinced this is a static issue. maybe I'll spend another $100. I've been hydrating the room and the tt to eliminate static, but no results.

There's probably no need to reinsert the old equipment. I think you are saying that the popping and clicking sounds you heard with that equipment while playing a record were very similar to what you hear now with the new equipment when no record is playing. Which answers my question.

But given that you've been using a 47K load impedance, and I assume you were also using that impedance with your prior cartridge which I take it was a moving magnet, I would definitely make the 100 ohm experiment the next order of business. There are multiple reasons why that might help.

Regards,
-- Al