Help me solve static electricity problem

I got a nice Parasound A23 amp and P3 preamp pair from this site. As soon as last winter arrived, one modest static touch blew out the pre, to the tune of a $300 repair. I tried to be careful afterwards to discharge before I touched it. But, alas, first cold day this winter I transmitted a static charge so small I could barely feel it, and poof! flashing lights, preamp dead again. I've had it now, and rather than repair, I would like to replace the preamp with a different brand/type that isn't so susceptible to static electricity damage. All advice welcome.

Anyone with knowledge of Capacitors? What would happen if the chassis of each component were connected in starfish pattern through capacitors to one central ground point and then on through another capacitor to a common ground? Would the capacitors act to absorb the static discharge and then slowly release them to ground? I'm not 100% sure how caps work but they seem to behave like water hammer arrestors sometimes.

Use your remotes.

I keep a can of static guard on my arc and spray carpet (and my sox or slippers) regularly. Works great.

12-12-10: Heyraz
Anyone with knowledge of Capacitors? What would happen if the chassis of each component were connected in starfish pattern through capacitors to one central ground point and then on through another capacitor to a common ground? Would the capacitors act to absorb the static discharge and then slowly release them to ground? I'm not 100% sure how caps work but they seem to behave like water hammer arrestors sometimes.

That's an imaginative thought, but I don't think it would help. Basically a capacitor acts like an impedance whose value decreases as frequency increases. So it would shunt high frequency energy to ground, within the constraints presented by the inductance of the associated wiring. But the safety ground wiring that is already present will do the same thing, except better since it will conduct low frequencies in addition to high frequencies.

A device called a Transorb is commonly used for dealing with brief but large voltage spikes, but determining how to best apply one within a particular piece of equipment would be problematical.

One approach that I think might work in many cases is a variation of Kijanki's earlier suggestion, about lowering the impedance of the path between each chassis and a common ground point (such as the screw on a wallplate, or the chassis of a power conditioner). But my suggestion would be to do that with braided rf ground straps, rather than heavy gauge wiring, connected in a star pattern as Kijanki suggested. That would present a path for the extraneous currents that is truly low impedance at high frequencies. Industrial distributors such as Digikey carry ground strap material, but typically in large quantities. It is offered in smaller quantities by a number of eBay sellers -- search under "ground strap."

Regards,
-- Al