Dealing with Static on LP palyback

@antinn 

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't know what a reflex clamp is?  Is it one that uses a lever to grip on the spindle to exert downforce on the record?

My only gripe about the Holbo, and it is a very minor one, is that the spindle is too short especially if you want to use a platter mat.  The supplied puck is recessed underneath by about 2-mm so when a thick record plus 5-mm mat plus 2-mm recess are added, the centering hole in the puck just misses the top of the spindle.  I will get a 3-mm Achromat to try!  If that doesn't work I'll be filling in a bit of the recess ...

@richardbrand, 

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't know what a reflex clamp is?  Is it one that uses a lever to grip on the spindle to exert downforce on the record?

Yes, such as the SOTA clamp - Reflex Clamp – Sota Turntables.  VPI tables have a threaded spindle, and they have a screw-down clamps.  A washer about 25-mm wide and 1-mm think is used to lift the record a little, and then the reflex/screw-down clamp slightly bows the record near the outer edge of the label to clamp it to the mat.  They are very good for records with dish warps.  But, like all things, some people like them and others do not.

@antinn 

Thanks for that.  As (bad) luck would have it, one of my records has just developed a warp, and I also bought a second-hand RCA Living Presence which is my first noticeably off-centre record.  I have not worked out a theory of how eccentric records interact with a tangential tonearm but intuitively pitch should rise and fall with each revolution.

Some have suggested that the Holbo platter is slightly dished, but if so, it is not obvious to me.  However, its puck is massive enough to completely flatten my newly warped disk.

One thing I think we could agree on is that a metal platter will donate electrons to a vinyl record if there is sliding friction between them.  The micro-surfaces are important, especially the high points, as that is where electrons concentrate.  This is the principle behind electro-polishing which preferentially dissolves the high points of a metal surface.

@richardbrand 

"Does anybody here really believe that?"

Apparently not.

@antinn 

"These are the most salient remarks of any passage posted in this thread since I’ve been following it."

Did you completely ignore this?^