Static electricity Killin me.

Remove anything containing wool..buy a humidifier. Place plants in the room for extra moisture.

Most people will suggest a humidifier for the room, but I would try an anti-static mat. We used these on the floor in the audio or video studios to prevent a static charge from going thru the equipment and onto the recording.

I found this...
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ecatalog/N-1z0drz2
but why not google to see more.

This brown one is typical for in home/studio.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/NOTRAX-Anti-Static-Mat-3UM43?Pid=search

Have you tried taking your shoes off and just wearing socks.It is amazing how much static charge can be built up into the soles of your shoes and transfered to equipment when touched.I would suggest some nice Mukluks with a soft leather sole to neutralize a charge that can be built up by walking on carpets with certain type of shoes.Or you may in fact have some mild form of telekinesis,in that case,levitate yourself off the floor and then touch the equipment to avoid transfering a static charge.

Use a remote control.

See this thread, in which the solution turned out to be rubbing one's hands on a dryer sheet.

Best regards,
-- Al

B_limo, I'm assuming you have carpet or a rug between your listening position and your equipment. If so, you can control static by mixing fabric softener with water in a spray bottle and spray the part you walk on. One article I saw suggested 1 tablespoon per half gallon of water but I'm sure there are other ratios as well. Dick

Thanks guys! I'll try the fabric softener mixed with water.

To answer the others, it is carpet, I always take my shoes off inside and I wish I did have a remote for everything, but I don't. That was pretty funny though, ZD!

Ditto to everyone targeting shoes as the culprit. If you are wearing shoes when this static occurs then you need to take them off. One particular pair of shoes I wore was causing painful pops to my hand every time I touched my gear. I don't wear those shoes any more. Now if your problem keeps occuring after you take off your shoes, you may have a problem in your system.

I have this same issue, to a lesser degree, only in winter.
I just touch my rack before touching any gear.
Try it.

It is most likely the material your carpet is made of and your clothes creating the static build up. This can actually damage your equipment. Try using Static Guard or buy an area rug of different material than your carpet. You can also try touching something else before touching your equipment.

Bounce dryer sheets. Place one atop your equipment and touch it first. This really does work WELL!

-RW-

Spray the room with Static Guard once a week. It can really make a difference. Lightly spray cables while playing music. I hold the can at arms length way above the cables so they just barely get touched. Usually you can hear the SQ improve as static goes away.

I touch a corner of drywall to ground me out. The drywall has metal corner bead and will ground it out. Its right next to the system so I dont have to move and create more static.
It was bad for a while, when I touched my Krell KRC2 it would send it into mute mode.
-John

"Usually you can hear the SQ improve as static goes away."

Of course you can.

It's not the equipment causing static electricity it's the path on the way to the equipment.

I had lots of static as well and was afraid to touch any metal part of my equipment. I have lots of carpet and it didn't matter if I had shoes on or off. I sprayed areas with static guard which helped for a little while but then the static would be back in a couple of days. Once I started raising my cables off the carpet the static started to diminish but was not completely gone. I think what killed it completely for me was when I eliminated one dedicated line which I felt had a questionable ground. I just turned that breaker off and ran the audio through the other dedicated circuit. Eventually I will check the ground on the one breaker. I had a subwoofer plugged into that circuit which caused a hum. Now it is pretty rare if I get a static shock and if I do it is minimal. I also think static may attenuate the high frequencies and raising the cables off the carpet did help.

One other solution is to run a exposed ground wire to your cabinet and affix it where you can easily touch it each time your approach your system. That will eliminate any popping or ticking that may be heard through your speakers.
That is of course if the humidifier doesn't solve it. But I had that same issue years ago and just had a small copper wire at each front corner and just touched it before
I touched any button, knob, etc.

Wow, lots of responses! I've just started grounding myself on a heater vent next to my equipment. The culprit is the dry winter air here in colorado. It's pretty dry here. When I was young, my friend and I used to walk around in our socks, shuffling our feet on the carpet to build up electricity so that we could unexpectantly shock one another, usually on the nose or ear. Hurt like hell!

Sgr, thanks for the tip! I'll have to try that with my cables! I was never a believer in raising my cables off the floor but maybe it would be wise to look into that also!

I actually killed my wall thermostat w/static elec once and had this problem w/my stereo in cold, dry Virginia. I solved it by grabbing one leg of my metal rack before touching a component.

B_limo First the fact you are getting shocked means you have a well grounded system. But most people don't realize that when you feel a shock it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20K volts. Good zaps have been measured to 70k. It's all voltage with no current. That being said it over time will cause some damage. Keep touching that heater vent first and if you don't like the feel of the shock hold a coin and touch it to the heater vent.

"over time will cause some damage.

Static electricity damaged the input chip in my Levinson tranport.

I found that using a humidifier and not using rubber soled slippers/shoes worked for me.

I did what Theo recommends...ran a length of lamp cord from ground connection on back of surge protector to side of wood equipment table. Just touch the bare wire end before touching the equipment.

There was an old post on A'gon a while back where the ground wire was connected to a brass door knob mounted on a small wood panel. Dressed things up a bit. The writer included instructions on putting a resistor in the circuit, as I recall. This reduced/eliminated the "pain" of the shock when you grounded yourself to the knob.

B-limo, get some blank cd cases or paper cups to put under the cables. See if this stops the big arcing going on.

Open the cd case so it can support itself and then run the cable over the top. They only need to be spread out about every 3'.

The paper cup needs to be cut and slotted on the bottom. This is a really cheap way to see if raising the cables off the carpet helps. Do this and see if you still get shocked without doing anything else.

It's pretty cold and dry here in Reno too!

Using a humidifier makes the most sense since low humidity is the cause of the problem.

I tired my bedroom humidifier in the living room and it did the trick. Out here in the San Fernando Valley it's gotten really cold (for us) and extremely dry so I was arcing really good when touching my integrated.

Not finding another humidifier I wanted at the local stores, I tired a simple, small bowl of water near the window and it did the trick. There appears to be just enough evaporation going on to offset the static electricity.

I wish all things worked this well and cheaply.

All the best,
Nonoise