Vinyl static ionizers who's used them?

Can anyone explain how a brush might, theoretically, remove static? If the bristles were conductive and grounded I could see a mechanism, but not otherwise. That may be pure ignorance on my part!

@ossicle2brain adding static? That’s unfortunate. I attached the ground lead to my phono and it works great. Then again my platter is definitely not steel. I’ve got a Michell Gyrodec SE. My tonearm (SME M2 9R) is also grounded to phono.

Antins’ post above references an article by James Kogen that discusses sources of static — Pg 44 (of 124). The stylus does not appear to be a culprit.

@dogberry if you are referring to the Hudson Hifi anti static brush, it is indeed grounded. And there is a dark colored bristle that I suspect is conductive.

https://youtu.be/MKjfZrZ3gY8

@ossicle2brain the only other adjustment I can think to experiment with is the weight adjustment for the brush.

Thank you, that makes some sense of it for me.

I threw the Hudson anti stat brush across the room. That’s the second one. What a waste of time. Yes the carbon fibers in it are conductive and with a meter I checked continuity to ground through them.  It's a high resistance but there is a path.

I would love to see a video of them actually working with the toilet paper attraction test or meter test.. Mine added static. Vinyl attracts electrons. A grounded brush is like an infinite supply of them.

So back to just the Milty.

And the problem with the silicon roller is that it also adds static. So if you do it while the record is on the platter you then have to take it off again to blast with the Milty.

So it might be back to the carbon fiber anti stat brush after the album is de-statted and on the platter, or... I’m actually wondering about plain ’ol compressed air. Use the Milty with album in hand. Place on turntable....blow off fibers and the loose stuff with compressed air somehow. Maybe a small compressed air can that can be recharged easily. No need to touch the album after a cleaning. I don’t trust that brushes won’t move crud into the grooves from the flats, making things worse and no need to antistat after the Milty or similar.

Anybody order the Acaia? I did but won't be able to report for another few weeks.

I own the ION-001. There’s an issue with keeping it on during playback - it degrades the sound. It’s not a huge difference, but once you hear it, you cannot “unhear” it. Highs are rolled-off and the sound loses energy, sounding a bit “muddy”. It may not be discernible on all systems, but on my very high end system, it’s obvious. 

It’s therefore not a good idea in all cases, to keep an ionizer on during playback.

And I don’t see the need to have a deionizer blowing on the LP during play, because I’m convinced that friction between stylus and groove does not cause static charge, so just treat the LP before playing and be done with it.

I went from the dstat 3 to the ds audio ionizer and it’s a noticeable upgrade.   There’s more music.   

What about something like this from Desco:

Big Clive on YouTube has deconstructed many ionisers, some real and some fake. I don’t think they have to be very expensive or complicated to actually work.

I'd post a link to a serach of his videos on the subject, but each time I try Audiogon tells me I am blocked.

@dardemm I have that unit and the CSPort IME1. Both work great. The SPI is not as convenient to place, you’ll have to rig something up to reach platter. The base is odd too with it resting only on those two thin metal rails you see. Also prefer the thin DC cable of the CSPort compared to the thick somewhat unruly AC cable of the SPI.