From my practical experience I’d say static issues in vinyl playback are unavoidable. Vacuum cleaning is mandatory for 'previously owned’ records, but will add some new static build up in the process. The choice of mat can make some difference, but no matter if you use rubber, cork, leather, copper, acrylic or whatever, it will never completely go away. Carbon fiber brushes are standard procedure and should drain some of the charge. Zerostat is supposed to be more effective, but I’ve never had much success with it.
One aspect that hasn’t been mentioned is the contribution of the vinyl disc itself. For some reason that I can’t explain, heavy static charges are most common with vinyl records from the mid ’70’s and onwards. Could this be caused by their ’floppy’ nature (less vinyl = easier static build up)? It even seems to vary from one manufacturer to the next. German pressing on Deutsche Gramophone and Dutch Philips pressings come to mind for being particularly ’sticky’. Some Japanese pressings are also highly sensitive. But many new ’heavy vinyl’ pressings also suffer from it, which suggests that the vinyl formula may be as much an issue as light weight pressings.
In contrast, most vintage pressings from the fifties and sixties are almost immune to static. For instance, I’ve never encountered an original 50’s or early 60’s blue note pressing with even a trace of static build up. How can this be?
