[GentleBender]

Sometimes a more revealing system ends up revealing unwanted details, maybe.  You could try carefully cleaning one of the worst offenders to test the theory.

[Escott1377]

Sometimes a more revealing system ends up revealing unwanted details, maybe.  You could try carefully cleaning one of the worst offenders to test the theory.

Agreed.  I will give it a shot this afternoon.

If anyone has any suggestions, please throw them my way.

Thanks!!

[sunnydaze]

Since the crackling / static sound is intermittent, I had a coupla other thoughts.....

Does it happen on the same exact passage every single time, and is predictable?  If so, it's pretty safe to conclude that there is something on the record surface.  Either a bad pressing or dirty.  If it is not repeatable and seems to happen randomly, it's maybe something in your environment?  A light, a fridge compressor switching on, etc.

I really don't believe it's a static issue.  Many of my records are really old dating back to the 70's......have survived raucous college parties and crappy / worn mid-fi needles.....and I rarely wet clean them.....just a quick pre-play pass of anti static brush ........and I don't hear static while playing.  Quite the opposite, the surfaces are eerily dead quiet for the most part.  And I live in the Northeast where winters are very dry.  Sure, I experience tons of static in my listening room -- shocks when I touch things, and I can hear / feel the static when I lift the record off platter -- but I don't hear it on playback.  Never.

My rig is fairly revealing, so I don't buy that  OP is hearing static while I am not,  d/t his greater resolution.

Additionally, I have two tables w/ 3 arms permanently setup, with 2 other arms I rotate in, and a collection of 6 cartridges, and I don't ever hear any static during playback with any of it.

[bacobits1]

Maybe a cartridge clip? I know, the whole arm wand has to come off to do it.
I don't care for uni pivot arms myself, if not experienced WATCH IT!

[Escott1377]

Quick wet clean on some of the suspect records and we appear to be good to go.

Back up a few rounds of cleaning and I was not using distilled water, so my guess is some of that grime is still left on some records.

I'll catch it the next time I do a full clean of the collection.

Thanks to all who offered assistance.

[GentleBender]

Awesome! Glad it was something easy. I thought about the many bad reviews I have read about some of the RCMs that left contaminates behind when cleaning the records and thought it may be a solution. Easy to test and not much cost to try.

So now instead of Defcon 1 you can relax.