Vinyl Care

RB evidently persists in his conviction that the friction between stylus and groove is a cause (certainly even he would not say it is the only cause) of static electric charge on the vinyl surface. This despite the fact that months ago when this question came up, already for the Nth time, it was made known to RB that Shure Corporation studied this phenomenon in the context of their white paper on the subject of static charge, which is available on line, and Shure investigators failed to find evidence to support the thesis.  RB was dissatisfied with the Shure report, because they failed to provide much in the way of experimental detail.  Fair enough, but why would they make it up? Anyway, I and at least one other Forum member have done the experiment in a controlled fashion, using a static electric charge meter to measure charge on the vinyl surface before and after play.  We both, independently, find no evidence to support the "stylus/vinyl friction theory" for the genesis of static charge.  However, the idea is evidently so appealing to RB that he wants to bring it up again.

On how charge can be removed from the LP surface, the "ozone theory" (the notion that an ozone cloud over the LP neutralize static charge) is ridiculous, although it is true that some of the gear sold to remove or prevent static charge build up does in passing produce low amounts of ozone. If your gadget has an element that needs periodic replacement or cleaning, it is probably one of those that does produce ozone.  To the best of my ability to find out, other types of ion generators do not produce ozone.  The deal is that vinyl accumulates negative ions on its surface; that is the nature of the static charge. Flooding the surface with positive ions will neutralize the charge.  Static electricity is a fascinating subject, and much about it is still not well understood.

richardbrand,

Ben Franklin advises us to say all of the positive things we can, but none of the negative.  You seem determined to obfuscate the value of this discussion with unproveable conjecture.  The following is my response....

Please stop.

I mitigate static largely by how I handle LPs. I work in bare feet (as opposed to socks and/or shoes on a carpet). After the record has been cleaned, it does not exhibit a charge. Pulling a record from a tight paper sleeve can charge it, as can resleeving. I’ve found that those round bottom Japanese inners are some of the best for leaving little residue or particulate matter from the liner. 

Sure, I have had a Milty type gun forever, but rarely if ever use it. When I resleeve, I put the record in an outer jacket cover with some protection on the back side, rather than shoving it back in the jacket, which also mitigates friction and static in my experience. The rug in my listening room is a huge old Persian that is almost threadbare- we’ve had it for decades and it was very old when we bought it. It does not contribute to a charge the way a deeper pile plush rug would. 

On occasion, I’ll see dust flecks that come from the room-- though I use a pretty powerful Hepa air scrubber when the system isn’t powered up. Those I can remove through a combination of air puffer and Kinetronics Tiger Cloth that Neil @antinn turned me onto. I used to use silk for this purpose. The Tiger cloth works better and is cheap- you can find it at Amazon. 

The Miltys I’ve owned where not user friendly and not that effective. My Furutech Destat II is works great and gets a workout before and after each side.

@billstevenson 

As far as I know, Ben Franklin was the last US president to have been an experimental scientist?

He was interested in electrostatic forces, and was renowned for flying a kite into active thunderstorms.  A presidential precedence I would like to see continued today ...