demagnetizing a cartridge
jack d ii -- Sat, 08/15/2009 - 12:25
While sorting out the loss of one channel, Michael Yee of Nova Phenomena suggested I lcheck the leads from my Dynavector 17D3 cartridge. I touched both + and - leads at the same time on the missing channel and Voila!! music! I have no idea what happened or why. Then i got out an old (25 year +old) cartridge demagnetizer and did its thing. Good Grief!!! Amazing new clarity! I'd noticed misic seemed to be getting smeared. Instant cure. Great sound with the Nottingham 294 table and arm. I'm guessing the cartridge had +/- 500 hours use. The Dynavector distributor (a great guy and good to deal with) thought that Dynavector's fluxbuster obviated the need for demagnetizing. Not so with mine. How often should a cartridge be demagnetized?
this seems to be a controversial issue. ortofon and maybe others have recommended against cart demag. i bought a unit and used it on an ortofon mc200 after experiencing what sounded like mistracking on the james newton howard dtd. lazy as i am, i havent played that disc (that means i would have to FIND it).
i am currently using the orto (usually my fr1mkIII is in place). a friend demagged his oc9 with an aesthetix unit periodically with good results. he was a non believer in tweaks but found this to work.
my unit is the sumiko fluxbuster and because i have an mmt arm, i just remove the headshell and fluxbust right on the device itself. i think the demag should happen when you detect what you feel is a change in the sound of the cart like diminished dynamics or whatever you detect goion on.
obviously, i am NOT any kind of expert on this. i suggest going to audioasylum and posting the question in the vinyl asylum.
...regards...tr
...regards...tr
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