Dealing with Static on LP palyback

@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?^

I am bowing out of this discussion, as my views and experience have already been stated.  However, Richard, I gotta say that your notion that an "electron" can be trapped in a dust particle (or whatever you want to call it) along with a positively charged ion and yet still exert a deleterious effect due to its negative charge, even though neutralized by the nearby positively charged ion and thereby evading detection by an ES charge meter, is untenable.  ES charge is measured in Volts.  If there are no volts measured, there is no net negative charge (negative in this case, at least) and there is therefore no effect of ES charge in the neighborhood. You insinuated that I detected no charge after playing an LP, because my meter is "cheap".  But it does detect thousands of volts of charge when I yank an LP from its paper sleeve, with predictable regularity.  And it does detect the dissipation of that charge when I subsequently treat that LP with my Zerostat (following the classical directions of how to use a Zerostat), so what does it matter if it’s cheap?  And how do you define cheap?  If I told you I used a $200 ruler to measure the diameter of an LP, you might say that was a very expensive ruler.  Many others use a comb and a piece of toilet paper to detect ES charge. Now THAT is cheap. As you noted, and I do agree, there is much that we do not yet understand about ES force. It's quite a fascinating subject, actually. So is the question of what is an electron, really?

@lewm 

I think you characterised your charge meter as cheap, whether you meant to or not:

I bought an ES charge meter off eBay.  You can buy a nice one for under $200

I have never said an electron is trapped in a dust particle - quite the opposite.  The dust particle has to carry a positive charge - many do.  Then that dust particle is strongly attracted to a dislodged electron stuck to the surface of the vinyl.

Your own initial measurement showed an increase in negative charge on the vinyl after playing with a diamond stylus, but the subsequent readings were ambiguous.  Look at the laboratory apparatus used to measure charge transfer in the papers referenced by @antinn and you will see why your meter is good for measuring kiloVolts but not much else.

You obviously made your mind up that there is little to no triboelectric effect with the vinyl / diamond pairing, and deduced without evidence that diamond and vinyl must be almost identical from a triboelectric perspective.  Lack of data on pure diamond probably flows from the difficulty and cost of getting a decent size lump of the natural stuff. 

The reality is the exact opposite according, to ChatGPT

Evidence for Diamond's Triboelectric Behavior

Scientific evidence for diamond's unique role in triboelectrics is found in its surface chemistry and electron emission properties:

• Negative Electron Affinity (NEA): Hydrogen-terminated diamond surfaces exhibit negative electron affinity, meaning electrons can be emitted into a vacuum or transferred to another material with virtually no energy barrier. This makes it one of the most effective electron donors (positive-charging materials) in existence.
• Surface Modification Impact: Research shows that the polarity of diamond can be "tuned" by its surface termination. For example, oxygen-terminated surfaces may show positive electron affinity, while hydrogen-terminated surfaces consistently show negative affinity, maximizing the triboelectric effect.
• High Performance in Nanogenerators: Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is used in Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs) because of its high durability and efficient charge transfer. DLC-based TENGs have demonstrated significant electrical output (e.g., peak currents of 3.5µA) when paired with negative materials like PTFE.
• Audio Applications: In the context of record players, a diamond stylus moving across a vinyl record creates a classic triboelectric pair. Because they are at opposite ends of the series, substantial static charge is naturally generated during playback. 

For the record (no pun intended) the exact question I posed was

how does diamond compare with vinyl from a triboelectric perspective. what specific evidence is there for diamond

:

Zerostat works well if you use it correctly. I bet a large % of people don’t know the correct way to use one and gave up thinking it was not working. Lesson: point at the item, squeeze the trigger, keep holding the trigger and point away from item, then release.

Admittedly this will read as snarky but its not meant to be. Having been frustrated with the expense and tedium of vinyl myself, my advice is to cut your losses on vinyl and go back to streaming, no one will convince me vinyl’s a better all around experience. It's nostalgic - for a while- then the realities of its drawback and limitations set in.