Static electricity: Unique to Vinyl Systems?

Sounds like pickup of RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) to me. Try turning off all fluorescent lights, including compact fluorescents that fit in incandescent fixtures, as well as all dimmer switches which may be in the house, and anything else that could conceivably be generating significant RFI.

Regards,
-- Al

Yes, as Marakanetz indicated since the voltage levels provided by phono cartridges are vastly lower than those provided by digital sources, and are therefore amplified by vastly greater amounts, vinyl sources are much more susceptible to the effects of RFI, EMI, static, etc.

There have been more than a few threads here in the past in which people were even faced with the problem of hearing radio stations through their system when listening to phono sources.

Regards,
-- Al

If I have to shut off every light in the house and disconnect all digital sources every time I want to spin a record, then I'm done playing vinyl.

Hopefully it is only one of those things that is causing the problem. After turning everything off, if the problem disappears you would then incrementally turn things back on until you determine which of them is the cause.

The quickest way to do that is by means of what is referred to as a "binary search pattern." You would turn half of the lights and other things back on. If the problem returns you would know it is being caused by something in that group. If it doesn't return you would know it is being caused by something in the other group. Then you would turn on half of the things in the suspect group, which would allow you to isolate the cause to 1/4 of the number of things that were originally turned off. You would continue that process until you isolate the specific cause.

I have experienced some instances where compact fluorescent lights that were in marginal condition, toward the end of their useful life, emitted large amounts of RFI, while the same model bulbs in new condition did not.

Regards,
-- Al

Richard, am I correct in thinking that the phono stage is the Jolida JD9? And if so, to what values have you set the input resistance, input capacitance, and gain?

In particular, if you presently have input resistance set to a high setting, especially 47K, try changing it to the minimum possible value (100 ohms). If the problem is being caused by RFI, resulting from static or anything else, that may help. If it does, you could then increase the value one step at a time to determine a setting that is optimal sonically but does not result in the popping and clicking.

Also, I'm thinking that since the noises apparently occurred with the prior phono stage only while a record was playing (per your second post in the thread), that symptom and the new symptom of noises occurring while no record is playing may have two different causes. The original symptom perhaps being static-related, and perhaps requiring either just destaticizing your records, or experimenting further with turntable grounding. And the new problem perhaps resulting from the Jolida either somehow being more sensitive to RFI, or being defective and generating the noises itself.

Are you sure that the noises you presently hear when a record is not being played sound similar to what you heard during record playback with the previous equipment?

Hope that helps. Regards,
-- Al

There's probably no need to reinsert the old equipment. I think you are saying that the popping and clicking sounds you heard with that equipment while playing a record were very similar to what you hear now with the new equipment when no record is playing. Which answers my question.

But given that you've been using a 47K load impedance, and I assume you were also using that impedance with your prior cartridge which I take it was a moving magnet, I would definitely make the 100 ohm experiment the next order of business. There are multiple reasons why that might help.

Regards,
-- Al