Vinyl foibles

@audio-b-dog 

Let's face it, static gets on to a record, whether from rubbing paper sleeves or something else (scientific basis the triboelectric effect with vinyl being one of the worst materials).

Static of itself won't be audible unless it discharges through your cartridge.  Very unlikely. 

But it will attract microscopic, charged particles of dust (whether diamond or air borne).  These will stick with an electromagnetic force that defies gravity - 10 to the power of 36 times bigger (scientific basis The Standard Model of particle physics). 

Will your passing stylus collide with them?  Yes.  Will you hear an anomaly?  Probably, the magnitude depends on whether your platter / tone arm mechanically exaggerates the disturbance. Ivor Tiefenbrun marketed Linn as minimising the disturbance by extremely tight tolerances in bearings, etc..

Will the stylus knock the dust out of the groove?  Probably not.  So you are stuck with it until you discharge the static with, for example, an ultrasonic cleaner.

Even they can't fix mechanical damage like scratches. The second law of thermodynamics kicks in - on average, chaos increases.

Records can be noisy. It’s just the nature of the beast. Are you sure nothing is wrong with your system? Is your stylus really clean? Maybe you need to look for a quieter cartridge.  

I don't think I hear static on records. Most of my records sound absolutely clean. My VPI Prime Signature 21 with the Fatboy arm is a solid system. VPI has been making solid turntables for many years. When I pull a record off my table and it has static, I do not hear that static while playing the record.

I think in my part of the world, the San Fernando Valley, which is basically a desert, the weather has a lot to do with static. It's not really a huge concern for me except when it drags my cork mat off the metal platter. VPI has a lot of metal in its turntables, including the 20+ pound platter, and I think that spinning metal platter develops static. Not much I can do about that.

Everything depends. Like this time of year humidity will create more static. If you are not using nice inner sleeves then you can create more static. 

For me nothing beats static like water. If you just spray and wipe a static record it will not longer have static. 

All my records, get a hand wash with Groovewasher products, then go into the UC, after a brand new quality sleeve. 

If they happen to get any static when playing, I'll just give them a spray with Groovewasher fluid, brush them clean. No more static. Never really been an issue for me. Have some records that were cleaned years ago, played a few time, and still have no static. I'm sure if I lived in the desert it would be different over the wet PNW.

"It's not really a huge concern for me except when it drags my cork mat off the metal platter."

GASP!  Mat on a VPI-sacrosanct!

No mat VPI user.  Random days of static discharge here, at the beach.