Static electricity with the vinyl record and the cartridge as you flip it? I have owned tube phono stages for decades an have never had any pops. Does it seem controllable with flipping... or does it just happen if it sits there? I assume the table is grounded.
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You left the volume UP flipping records? You say you swap, you have a switch or have to swap leads? Make sure the ground and the leads are tight and plugged in all the way. It's new? After it's warmed up tap the valves with a pencil. Make sure the volume is down. Up to two weeks to find out if transportation caused valve damage. It's just the cost of transporting valves via shipping.. Pull and reseat the valves.. If the timing of the "Pops" is random something is loose. Is something being shaken when the pops occur? Are you moving the tonearm? Little more feedback about what you are doing.. Regards |
Interesting. Never heard this one before. It sounds like the record is discharging to the plater when you lift it up. So first off you have a static problem. Get a conductive brush for cleaning the record and short it to ground with a wire. Discharge the record before you pick it up and see if the popping stops. If it does disconnect the ground wire from the phono stage, play another record and without using the brush pick up the record. If the popping is gone and the system does not have a hum you are all set. If the popping is gone but you have a hum I would say the design of that phono stage is bad or it is defective in some way. The choice of what to do is yours. Either way you have to create a system to defeat static. Using the brush before and after play is fine. I use a conductive sweep arm that cleans and discharges the record during play. |
Use Zerostat (anti-static gun). |
@chakster, the Zerostat reminds me of those cheap plastic toy guns we used as children. Cap guns were better and they had this great smell. Now they want to make boys play with dolls and flowers. American males need to get their testicles back. Defend your families, don't buy a Zerostat. Get an AR-15! |
Shouldn’t need a zerostat (or an AR15). Nor mute the whole system when touching the LP. This sounds like a grounding problem in the tube preamp but not the SS. Is there a ground lift switch on the tube phono stage? That would probably fix it (if it’s in the wrong position). Otherwise try to mitigate static buildup until you fix the phono stage |
Yup, volume DOWN. I always do, she set's at ZERO while I tinker. No foul no harm...or NO POPs either. Static discharge? Wow.. must be VARY dry with synthetic apparel and rugs. ADD a little moisture to the air. Use a ground strap or touch a ground pad.. The ground lug on you phono stage or preamp will work just fine too. Regards |
Sorry, have never heard of a tube amp causing this issue. I’d say it is more likely a major build up of static electricity at the turntable platter. Maybe try zapping it with a zerostat. Is turntable grounded properly? What mat are you using? Felt can add lots of static. A leather mat works wonders...also the cleaning of a record while on a spinning platter can add lots of static, especially If using something like the old discwasher d4 system. The audioquest carbon fiber record brush seems to work well. |
If it is static electricity, you will feel the hairs on your arm raise when you lift the record off the platter no matter which phone preamp you're using. If this is the case, deal with the static discharge with one of the suggested solutions. Less likely, it's a grounding issue on your tube phono preamp. Either way, get in the habit of using your mute button before cueing your tonearm down or up. That's what it's for and your amp will thank you. |
If you have to mute or adjust the volume then clearly something's wrong; most likely either static or microphonic. Muting is certainly not a procedure I'd ever be willing to adopt. Anything that sensitive is likely to be a mismatch. Why not get a top digital system and enjoy the silence when there's no music playing and stop worrying if someone sneezes? |
The Zerostat is very good at neutralizing static. Purchased mine in 1975, white with blue logo. Still works as good as day one. It warps a piezo electric cell, one way is positive, the other negative. Try one, put it on your arm round tip against your arm. Slowly pull and release the trigger, you Will feel the device working. But, hey, I know nothing, major universities and institutions use it in their labs. It works. Like mc said..... |
All of the above !! However the only slight pop you should hear is when you remove the pickup from the record with the volume up. I always mute my preamp when engaging or removing the pickup; - - - - this avoids any chance of a loud transient going through your speakers causing "possible" damage. Even the best of us get a little case of the "clumsys" occasionally. I am fond of tube phono preamps but have not used one that is prone to the condition of your concern. You could always change preamps. I guess I'm not too fond of having to use "antistatic devices" every time I play a record. At least I have never found the need, and I have experimented with one. |
You can always tell the Rookies. You MUTE or Volume down. You know like it says in ANY older and a lot of new manuals. Try lifting a phono low MC cart with a 30-1 SUT and all valves. You’ll go broke replacing tweeters to woofers and usually the phono stage takes the brunt of the improper procedure. Folks just because you don’t practice GOOD TT 101 rules you get the big "Stand in the corner and learn" with a pointed hat.. It’s obvious you NEVER used just valves. If every piece of gear is point to point using valves and you don’t volume down. You will blow something up.. plane and simple. ANYONE that says different is just to young to remember or never used a TT in the 50s on up.. 1959 for me. that’s when my DADDY taught me the fine art of dropping the ol tonearm.. BTW.. Volume was ALWAYS turned down on the first Marantz console with JBL RANGER METREGON C45s. Don’t volume down.. Pure rookies.. Same people don’t use their turn signals when they drive AND ride (not drive) bicycles.. To lazy and defiant to learn, the RIGHT way.. It’s an easy fix OP.. Volume down and that alone usually discharges you enough to do a record flip.. 63 years of flippin’ vinyl for me, share 78 or 16 rpm stories any time.. Anyway OP easy peasy fix... I just got my new Decware ZP3 I’m watching it just set there and glow. LOW NOISE. 29 db.. just turned it on 20 min ago... I’ll leave it on a week or so.. Then maybe some tinkering.. New valve units with new valves, NOT going in my system until I make sure there are NO valve failures. I know you rookies don’t do that either.. You’re so smart. Now you know the trick to not replacing 2K in tweeters every time you add a new piece of gear. POP my foot. BANG!! and smoke comes rolling out... Don’t volume down.. And start using your turn signals, too busy playing with your Iphone while your herding your cars around (not driving). Puttin' on makeup drivin'. :-) Dumb (not young) whipper snappers.. Quick to talk, AND SLOW to listen and learn, heaven forbid..... I’ll talk slower next time... Regards to the OP he/she is trying to learn why and HOW to fix and issue. Not learn, the WRONG way of using equipment.. |
For many of my years in this hobby, static plagued my enjoyment of vinyl playback. I used to (carefully) remove the polonium strip from a Staticmaster brush and glue it to the underside of a Watts Dust Bug until I found the needle talk to be audible after switching to a lower noise phono preamp. Rabco, H-K, Linn, Technics, SOTA...all had static. I used a Discwasher Zerostsat for years. Then I got a Well Tempered TT/TA and have never had a pop since 1989...heating season, summertime all the same. My theory is it’s the viscous damping and the acrylic platter that together make it immune. Whatever the reason, WT has solved an age old conundrum of vinyl playback and no one seems to regard this as a breakthrough that should be emulated. Has anyone else identified another make of TT similarly static-proof? Clearaudio uses a synthetic platter and a magnetic bearing that may confer the same benefit, but I’ve never lived with one. |
Hi oldhvymec and others. All very well to mute after every side if you have a mute switch. But if you have to down the volume pot and then up it again every 20 minutes you will soon wear it out. After all many get noisy after 20 years of normal use (i.e not often touching it, muting at end of a session). At that rate you could even wear out a mute switch, although this is much cheaper to replace than a pair of high quality pots. I once got the static 'pop' and cured it with a Zerostat aimed at mat and turntable. I haven't had it since so am safe to leave the volume up. I flipped my first record in about 1962 and I've used valve pre-amps since the mid-70s. I leave the volume where it is and have never had any problems, certainly not with blowing tweeters every month or two. I don't get 'pops'. Leave fetish to the fetishists. |
I don’t get pops either. Analog volume controls require movement to stay clean. A C20 is the last true off on volume pot.. No movement it WILL get noisy. The mute buttons on Macs will last 75 years if they last a minute, same with a volume pot.. If you don’t use them.. 10-15 years before you have clean them correctly, for another 10 years of use. After a couple hundred TT repairs and builds.. I’ve seen a few weird things.. Always volume down. My newer C2500 does it automatically. It mutes then ramps up the volume (slowly) to the last volume set.. You can actually set that ramp up speed too. I wonder WHY? It’s in the manual look it up.. Geez.. Who want’s to test the "It hasn’t happened to me yet", guys suggestion.. Mine doesn’t pop either, HIS DOES... This is the fix. Go argue with GOD, I’m just the mechanic.. :-) I don’t care if you're too LAZY to turn a nob.. Like I said, I BET money you don't use your turn signals.. I BET.. HE'S asking for help, not, "I don't need any, mine doesn't pop".. Good for you.. Just one POP away from the tweeters you probably can’t hear anyways, so WTF, ay? Silly advise from silly people.. Regards |
Wow, seriously folks? The OP asks a legit question and you respond with "noob" and "rookie" and smartass comments? How churlish... And if he doesn't have a mute switch, no matter: Temporarily switch to a source with no signal to save wear on the volume pot. Be kind. No one here was born all knowing. To the OP: You do have a static issue. I don't believe it's a ground problem else you'd have an audible hum. I would agree to try an anti-stat gun before every album side. It it's still a problem, an anti-stat wand while you play your LPs. Also what is your TT mat? Some are more susceptible to creating static. Good luck and... Happy listening. |
Geez. Buncha idjits. Make sure to slam the stylus down on the vinyl while you're at it (but make sure you have the volume up to your normal listening level)! If the tube phono pre has a separate power supply (or wall wart), make sure it's located well away from the phono pre and the turntable. Sometimes proximity does funny things... |
No one is BULLYING the OP. If you read the GD post its the addition of commits like "You don't need to volume down" "I've never done it", "
I have owned tube phono stages for decades an have never had any pops.". The OP ask why, and I offered a solution in leu of an actual fix. So MR musicfan and Mr ghdprentice, READ the whole thread before you offer your opinion on folks you know ZERO about.. Like ME or anyone else around here. Keep your NAME callin' about ME to yourself.. pretty simple. BOTH you HEROS need to learn some "I'm the new guy manners". I'll be your huckleberry, Ringo!! Mouth got the best of him too. He should have been listening too.. Just like you should have read the WHOLE thread before running to someone rescue. ROOKIES... there was no fire, only smoke and YOUR at the wrong house with your FIRE HOSE OUT... Semi Regard, that's a 6 out of a 10 on the regard scale... Silly people |
jefgerard, would you please let us know what you discover? I use a mute switch now because it is a big honking toggle switch right where my right hand is. The reason is I hate taking the volume up and down and I have a very powerful subwoofer system and the thump when the needle hits the record is enough to knock the squirrels out of the trees. |
This is a hateful problem.
Blame the Victim. Trying Not To.
Where is this static coming from, being picked up from, that didn't exist before? Can you go back to SS Phono no problem now? Temporarily move tube phono far away from TT/LP with longer cables, problem gone? It's the same LP's, same procedures, only problematic since the tube phono was added. The whole story: what else changed/moved? Something/somewhere, like the wall wart, ... something changed, wearing different shoes? A new felt hat! Different cables? New platter mat? Platter mat removed? Something moved near where you keep your LP's that is loading them with static when you move them in/out? My method is to change to an unused input when I clean the stylus, luckily I never have to worry when flipping sides or on/off. |
....I ran into this....thought y'all might like one.... https://www.teewony.com/mu-h-he-04062102-nd-maybe-3-people Now, I DO own some LPs....but, I'm a bit more of this 'attitude' on occasions... https://www.lightinthebox.com/de/p/herren-t-shirt-heisspraegen-tier-druck-kurzarm-alltag-oberteile-1... |
Thank you all for your remedies. Based on so many suggestions of static and grounding the table properly I reexamined all of my connects. I t turned out that the ground connection on the turntable had gotten very loose. When I discovered that I tightened everything up and my problem was remedied. What I still don't understand is why my solid state phono stage did not cause a pop but the tube phono did. Well alls well and thanks to everyone who took time to help me out. |
Static is what you hear . Two solutions. First buy a zero stat gun. I use all the time with great results. Second solution get a pair of tommy copper socks to wear when you are playing albums. This for me has eliminated the shocks I use to get touching my system and tonearm. Someone had posted this on here one day and it works. |
I’m glad you checked and fixed it.. Micro Arcing. The valve unit has all kind of little antenna inside the case picking up the micro arcing in the ground circuit. Pretty easy to see how it could get noisy. I imaging it didn’t help with floor noise either. I suspect the ground on the SS was lifted and or a different grounding setup than the Valve unit.. I been tinkering with a secondary parallel RJ45 central grounding system. I thought what the heck, how easy could it be, a lot less expensive setup than someone else’s 2-20k system and RJ45 patch cable is very inexpensive and QUIET.. Easy to make up. I gutted a brand new older 100mb hub for the main ground collection point.. Super tight fitting RJ45 females terminals and a heavy gage sheet metal case A work in progress but sure is working out.. I have 35-40 dollars in it.. Now an EARTH box ground? LOL I’m not buying into that one just yet.. BUT you never know.. Have to consult with Master M and get a little lateral advise :-) He's always tinkering.. Regards.. |
