Flipping record causing series of loud pops

jefgerard, would you please let us know what you discover?

I use a mute switch now because it is a big honking toggle switch right where my right hand is. The reason is I hate taking the volume up and down and I have a very powerful subwoofer system and the thump when the needle hits the record is enough to knock the squirrels out of the trees. 

roadwhore, at my age an AR-15 is easier to carry.

@chakster, the Zerostat reminds me of those cheap plastic toy guns we used as children. Cap guns were better and they had this great smell. Now they want to make boys play with dolls and flowers. American males need to get their testicles back. Defend your families, don't buy a Zerostat. Get an AR-15!

Interesting. Never heard this one before. It sounds like the record is discharging to the plater when you lift it up. So first off you have a static problem. Get a conductive brush for cleaning the record and short it to ground with a wire. Discharge the record before you pick it up and see if the popping stops. If it does disconnect the ground wire from the phono stage, play another record and without using the brush pick up the record. If the popping is gone and the system does not have a hum you are all set. If the popping is gone but you have a hum I would say the design of that phono stage is bad or it is defective in some way. The choice of what to do is yours. Either way you have to create a system to defeat static. Using the brush before and after play is fine. I use a conductive sweep arm that cleans and discharges the record during play.