Static electricity....again


Ok, I'm ready to burn the house down and move to Florida. I had a similar problem last winter. I live in Colorado and it's been snowing here like crazy. It is super dry here. My brother fried two pre amps last winter due to lightning bolts flying from his fingers to his pre amp anytime he touched the pre amp...

So here's what I have going on. I have all of my cables lifted off the ground with wooden blocks. My Equipment is plugged into a ps audio quintet, except for my amp which is plugged directly into the wall (porter port).

I don't have any remote controllers in my set-up so whenever I touch my equipment, I ground myself on a screw on the light switch first. I'll have so much electricity built up in my body that I can actually feel the hairs on my legs stand up when I do this.

Okay, well it has gotten to be so bad now that when I am just walking across the room, I can hear a few small pops coming out of my speakers. These are directly related to the static that is building up via my socks dragging across the carpet. I'm %100 sure of that.

My question is, what the heck do I do to remedy this problem before I damage any of my equipment? My house is probably 20 years old. Am I having these issues because the ground in my house is no good?

Btw, last winter when I was having these issues, I sprayed fabric softener all over and that seemed to work for, oh, about 20 minutes.

I'm going to get a humidifier and see how that helps. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'm about ready to change my user name to Zues!
128x128b_limo

Showing 4 responses by cerrot

I should buy the static mat but I do have a box of dryer sheets and they work fine. Right now, my first taste of 'light' static, all I need to do is to remember to touch one of my racks before I touch any gear and I am good to go. (and, easy to remember as I did fry some fuses last season on one of my amps from static (and the year before, and the year before...)I open my cd tray but then its remote only. When the static gets worse, I just rub my hands on a dryer sheet before I touch anything. I finally got the unscented ones so really no downside. The scented ones kind of made the man cave feel a bit 'girly'.
On the static on CD thing...I ordered the furustat destate II and have been using it religiously (as well as my walker talisman) on all my cd's since xmas. made some upgrades and I've been in digital bliss. I was in the sound room and just wanted to play a cd without any cermony - just throw it in and have a listen while I read something quickly - and actually noticed that digital sound you get on CD's. slight as it was, it was there. The new destate really does improve the sound of my cd's. I was able to easily tell the disc hadn't been treated. Pretty slick.
B_Limo. Funy you said that. I am wondering why this years static was a non-issue for me (and I am in NY and we have had the same winter as prior years, maybe worse..) and your post made me figure it out.

Very dry skin for me this year and first year I have been using lotion (there, I said it too!) and, I guess its keeping the static down!
I had a cd playing ritual...and a vinyl playing ritual. I now am adopting a lotion applying ritual.

Kidding aside, I had lightning bolts shooting from my fingers as well. I had so much voltage going through me, I'd shock MY cardiologist. I fried a pair of fuses right before a group listening session last year (and found out I had no back ups...standard or otherwise-now I have a spare fuse taped to my waistband).