Please help diagnose sudden turntable problem

Hi everyone,

I just encountered a very sudden problem with my turntable. I have a fairly new Marantz TT15s1 that was sounding great until yesterday afternoon. I noticed an unusual amount of static, but I chalked that up to the dry air from running the A/C for a couple of days. I used a zero stat gun, and that seemed to help a bit.

Today, however, the problem got significantly worse within the span of a couple of albums. Now, I have significant static and distortion, sometimes completely obscuring the music. It sounds like an amp being overdriven. I have tried two different phono amps and two different preamps, but in every case I get the same sound.

The Marantz has a captive tonearm cable, so I can even swap that out. It's a Clearaudio Virtuoso cartridge that looks to be in excellent shape. The stylus is not bent or damaged. All the leads are plugged in securely. I'm at a loss.

Any ideas would be welcomed. Thanks!
Scott