Poor ground caused HUM, not crackling or pops. No HUM, your existing ground is fine.
You need to clean your LP's to prevent crackling and pops.
Grounding a turntable and a tonearm
As I learn about the world if high end audio I hit moments I feel really dumb and this is one of them. So I have a SOTA Sapphire VI turntable and a Audiomods tonearm. I have the ground that comes out tonearm going to the Phono stage ground post. But I am having a nightmare time with static and popping etc on the turntable and someone said I have not grounded the turntable.
Well looking under the turntable there is a ground post. So I have two grounds and I am not sure the right way to wire this! Do I wire the tone arm into the ground on the turntable, and then run a wire to the phono stage, do I run two wires to the phono stage, whichI think could cause a ground loop? Do I take the turntable ground somewhere else? Just trying to figure all this out.