Static crackle

[6and8]

It's only started happening recently, I'm getting a wave of static crackle through the speakers when I take an album from its sleeve or lift it from the platter after it has finished playing. I can be standing 3 feet away from the turntable taking an album from its sleeve and it still happens. The turntable will be turned off, the amp on and the tonearm at rest in its cradle. It has never happened before. (Or I've never noticed it before.) Any thoughts?

 

[daytona600]

Anti static brush + Anti static inners sleeves or get a RCM

 

[Al ears]

I don't understand how static is going to sound through your speakers if the turntable is off.
Odd. Static should not be audible via the speakers.
Suggest you check all connections then try taking the record out of sleeve before you even turn the amplifier on and get a carbon fibre anti static brush, as suggest above, and give record a good going over before turning on amp.
Either that or buy a Zerostat device

 

[6and8]

Thanks. My question wasn't really about how do I prevent static. I usually give records a wash on my Project RCM and then pop them into a polymer lined sleeve. But my collection's quite large and I haven't got around to cleaning every one of my albums yet. But I'm curious, presumably it's the cartridge picking up static? And how does it do that when I'm removing a record from its sleeve several feet away? But it must be static - I've stood 3 or 4 feet from my hifi kit, taken an album from a paper sleeve, waved it about and heard a crackling sound coming from the speakers. I've never noticed it before, only recently.

 

[Earsome]

Any static charge is trying to get to earth and if this has recently started it may just indicate a change in your earthing. This really can be anything from the earthing on your equipment to the ring main or the building - SERIOUSLY - I have been there - connections can be affected by serious weather, subsidence, vandalism, developers. Having said that, I never have a problem with static and I wonder why your records are getting such a charge. Is there any new synthetic materials near where you keep them? Something to realise is that the sound on your speakers may be induced by radio frequency from the sparks - being picked up either by the amp or cables or the cartridge - the sparks do not need to actually hit any equipment. However this ought to be filtered by circuitry in the amp. Odd problem.

 

[Al ears]

As I said try taking LPs out before turning anything on, still hear it?

 

[6and8]

Thanks guys. I will try as you suggest, Al. Earsome, you mention earthing. I was having problems with earth hum a while back. I have a Funk Firm FXR tonearm - modified Rega. And a Graham Slee phono stage. I did have the earth wire from my turntable connected to the earth post on the phono stage. It was suggested that as the arm was already earthed I didn't need to connect the earth wire to the rear of the phono stage. So I disconnected it. Which seems to have cured the earth hum. But could doing that have created a different problem - ie static?

 

[Al ears]

Probably not because, as you say, the arm is still earthed.
An earth loop and static are completely different.

 

[Earsome]

Thought I'd come back - as the fact that you disconnected earth from arm to phono stage might be something to do with it. The loop hum in the first place that this action solved tells me you have earth issues. ie You shouldn't have needed to do that. But earth is also shield - the wires in the tone arm, maybe, become exposed to RF interference. Earth hums are caused by current differential at earth. Are your amp, phono stage and turntable all supplied by the same mains outlet?

 

[6and8]

"Are your amp, phono stage and turntable all supplied by the same mains outlet?"

Yes they are, they're all plugged into the same 6 way mains board.

 

[myrrhman]

Have you done anything to change the routing of your wiring from your equipment? I was recently on a multi-person Teams call for work, getting exasperated with a poor WiFi connection I unplugged the ethernet cable from my satellite receiver in one corner of my room and plugged it into my laptop in another. This necessitated moving a few intervening cables, including my phono stage power supply. Next time I switched my turntable on I got a nasty pulsed signal through the nearest speaker (not a ground loop hum) which I could only correct by physically moving the phono stage further away from the nearest speaker. I'd clearly done something to create interference by bringing power lead / speaker cable / interconnects (not sure what!) into contact with each other. Unlike me, you may well have a neat and tidy array of cables behind your equipment rack, in which case this advice isn't going to help - but if not, paying attention to separation of cables might cure the problem.

 

[Earsome]

Any joy? A thing to note is Arcam FMJ does not have an earth pin - mine doesn't. This has to be radio frequency interference due to lack of shielding. The mains hum is a different problem that needs a different solution. Get an electrician to see if there is a voltage on your earth.

 

[6and8]

Thanks for asking but haven't had time to sort this yet. The electrician may have to wait until we get the 'all clear'...