Vinyl foibles

@whart 

I have used VPI turntables for many years. First the TNT 3 and now the Prime Signature 21. Both have heavy metal platters over 20 pounds. They are part of the reason that VPI turntables are so neutral and stable. Yet they are static magnets. VPI has a metal finger lift for the arm, and until I used plastic screws to fasten it I frequently got shocks. 

That being said, some records develop a lot of static and others don't. I use plastic inner sleeves like Big Fudge and I have just ordered Sleeve City inner sleeves on a recommendation from a person on this forum. 

Before I purchased the Pass XP-25 phono preamp, I tried out the Audionet PAM 2. It sounded fantastic but I don't think I had it fully grounded. Using the Audionet, the cartridge developed so much static it would skip several times while playing one side of a record. Otherwise, I don't really notice static when I'm playing a record. I think the record picks up static while it is playing on that heavy metal platter, and then I notice the static when I go to take the record off the platter. I can feel it on my hands and it also lifts my cork mat off the platter.

I'm not sure what static sounds like when I play a record, though, except for the skipping stylus when I used the Audionet phono preamp.

Have you read Neil Antin’s masterpiece PACVR-3rd-Edition?

My take is that ultrasonic cleaning is the only way to get at the 1-micron dirt that hides deep in the grooves.  I bought a cheap Chinese unit but it works.  I use it once on all new and used records.  Then they go into new Nagaoka anti-static sleeves.

Then before playing every side, I use an AudioQuest carbon fibre record brush which earths itself (through me!) when it is closed.

I have been ridiculed for the following theory on this site, but a lot of dust picked up from records turns out to be diamond dust.  Stylii wear, so no prizes for guessing where the diamond dust is from.  Now if you rub an excellent insulator like diamond on an excellent insulator like vinyl, stray electrons jump between them.  Compared with gravity, electrostatic forces are huuuuuge - roughly 10**36 times bigger.  That’s why on a dry day a few extra electrons on a comb can pick up bits of paper against the gravitational pull of all the atoms on earth.

There is anecdotal evidence of a dealer demonstrating the effect of closing a dust cover.  It held so much static charge it half lifted the tone arm from the record.

So my bet is that a few stray electrons scraped off by the passing stylus attract minute charged dust particles, including those worn off the stylus.  Electrostatic attraction increases as the inverse square of distance so at the micron level, it is doubly huge.

Water, treated with a recommended wetting agent, is a passable conductor.  Getting it deep into the groove with an ultrasonic cleaner should discharge the static and release the dirt.

The problem with anti-static guns seems to that they alternately charge and discharge the record, and getting the record into a neutral state at the end of the process is hard.

Line shaped stylii seem to bridge over record wear caused by other shapes like elliptical and shibata.

Many old records I have bought recently have much lower surface noises than some new records - I will single out Decca (er London?) as particularly bad, especially with their flashy new folded cardboard inner with no anti-static sleeves.

@audio-b-dog It's more likely that you are bringing the static to the turntable where it us being grounded by the metal platter.

I think the record picks up static while it is playing on that heavy metal platter, and then I notice the static when I go to take the record off the platter.

I feel a little bit foolish to be constantly repeating myself, but setting all the armchair theorizing aside it has been my experience that there is a solution for the static on records problem and it works quite effectively when used as directed.  Furutech Destat III.  I wish I could loan you mine.  If you buy it from Amazon and you don't like it you can always send it back.  If I had the problem you describe, I would not let my financial advisor stand in the way.  YRMV. 

I haven't learned how to use my static gun. I have an anti-static brush I used when I put a record on, It also sweeps off dust. I don't know if I really hear static coming through my speakers. I don't really know what to listen for.

I haven't found that static is audible, generally.  The main problem with it is that it attracts dust to a record.  I use Zerostat guns and have always found them quite effective, but the humidity in my home is about 50%; maybe they don't work as well in lower-humidity rooms.  It is necessary to zap the record before and after play, even when flipping to the other side.  I suspect the friction from the stylus induces static on the record.  I have also reduced static by cutting inner sleeves on two sides so they open like a book, reducing the sliding of the record, which generates static.  LAST record preservative also seems to reduce static some, especially the older formulations; I'm not so sure about the current formulation.

I second others' advice to clean records before playing, even new ones.  They have mold-releasing compound on them which can supposedly reduce sound quality, and which can be cleaned off with certain cleaning products.  I don't know if an US machine does that; I use a vacuum RCM.