Static electricty - Can it damage audio gear

I too have had the static thing. While it is windy here in So. Cal;turning off a flourescent light (one time, even a wall switch) will hang-up my dac / thus no music. Then it can take 20/30 mins. to get the music back. ---real pain.

Grounding straps for listeners... the final tweak. LOL.

There was a preamp that had a grounding fault that caused it to absolutely self destruct after being zapped by static. I have an old NAD that I zap every day. It just causes a "pop" to go through the spekers. So far no damage. I wonder if I were to strap it to the CDP if it would bypass the amplifier on its way to ground?

This happens to me every day. I just touch my stand first and dissipate the charge.

ESD is a primary cause for damage to Surface mount chip technology, or in other words most home theater components. ESD can be produced by leather rubbing poly carpets or wool leading to a HUGE voltage discharge. If you feel a spark it could be thousands of volts of electricity. This will fuse small circuits. Typical humidity in a living environment should be around 40% this will reduce the potential greatly.

Something fun to do is to try to see the arc of electricity between you and another person, that has also become charged. Your bodies act essentially like the capacitors on your amps. A typical 1 inch spark is 60,000 volts of electricity.