So Weird- No Stylus Contact Woofer Pumping with Hana ML and Elac PPA-2

How do you explain the periodicity? Wouldn’t the mat be uniformly charged? 

If I may quote myself:

That charge won’t universally distribute evenly across the record, as the vinyl itself is an insulator. Something you are doing is leaving a charge, and that charge is concentrated (possibly) at the last place you touched the record. That concentrated, persistent static charge is inducing a periodic, low-frequency signal via your cartridge.

Here's a video of a demonstration that clearly shows this concept in action.

@lewm If you look up VinylAttack on YT, you will see he has done a number of tests dealing with measuring static build up on vinyl using anti-static brushes and Zerostat guns. The videos may help to understand what is going on.

The idea that the ES charge is concentrated at one area on an LP or on the mat is contrary to data collected by Shure Corporation, when they studied ES charge in vinyl reproduction, albeit many years ago; they suggested that charge distributes evenly across an LP surface.  However, I could perceive that there might be some assymmetry to charge distribution due to fingerprints or other oily or watery deposits on the LP surface.  So perhaps the data you cite would contradict their earlier findings.  I will take a look. 

And we still have not had an answer as to whether the 18Hz high pass filter on the preamp was engaged during all of these investigations.  If it was engaged, then I would expect there to be little to no woofer pumping when the platter is spun at speeds below 18Hz.  Yet I thought the OP reported he can spin the platter by hand at speeds well below 33 rpm, and still visualize the phenomenon.

@lewm  - on the high pass filter, I asked the OP about that in an earlier post and he did say it was engaged in all his tests - the response was:

"The weird thing is that the hi pass filter works, I have some real nasty LP’s that rumble and the filter knocks it out. So your guess is as good as mine. Also the pumping was worse with the filter off- real audible bottoming out stuff."

Also, in the video you can see it is on - the PPA-2 shows that on the front panel (4th LED from the left).

I watched the video again in the beginning, and the woofer excursions are not uniform - two large excursions (I think), followed by a higher speed flutter of smaller excursions before a very brief rest and then it starts up again - the whole sequence at what appears to be once per revolution. However, this might not mean the static is unevenly distributed on the surface - it could be this is just how the PPA-2 or the 851A integrated reacts to what seems like input overload.

I still wonder if that with the XLR connections, and the PPA-2’s different grounding scheme separating tonearm and chassis ground, that the static has no where to go but through the signal path and get amplified. With the RCA connection, the static can get to chassis ground via the RCA shields (assuming those are connected to chassis ground - they usually are) and then can dissipate through the IEC outlet and not get amplification.