Cartridge "demagging"


I currently own a Sumiko Fluxbuster Cartidge Demagnifier and a Shelter 90X moving coil cartridge. I have heard some arguments against using an active system such as the Fluxbuster in that it can eventually harm the cartridge. It does make things sound better but I am concerned I am doing damage. Any thoughts?
bikeman
No more confused than we are David. Both Paul and I clearly heard the improvements, yet you (and Joe) heard nothing. You've got way more experience than we do and I'm pretty sure you're not deaf, but you'd have to be deaf not to hear what we did. Presumably there are system-specific events going on.

It's by no means clear that de-magnification is what actually took place. I wonder if some other process didn't occur. Paul probably understands copper-based alloys at the molecular level as well as all but a handful of people in the country, but he has no theory for why playing that disk would necessarily de-magnify any trace elements in a copper coil.

It's not even clear that the improvements we heard were due to any change in our cartridge. The signal from the LP passes through another set of coils, in our speakers, not to mention all the components in between. Any one or more of them could have been affected.

I'm stickin' with juju, at least it was good juju.
Hi Bikeman: I own the 90X and the Sumiko fluxbuster. First than all: why do you want to use the fluxbuster with the 90X? Is there something wrong with it quality sound reproduction ?. How many hours of use has the 90 X?. Please let me know about all these issues.
Now, in the time, I use the fluxbuster in severals cartridges an as a fact I only hear a difference in the sound ( high frecuency ) with a Koetsu Onyx Gold. I can't hear any differences in no other cartridge and I can tell you that if this fluxbuster don't help it not do any harm at all.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Raul,
Just for your data points, our Shelter 901 had about 500-600 hours on it when we played the Cardas LP. It had started sounding a bit muffled, lifeless, lacking in dynamics. You know how the bass on the 901 sounds in cold weather if VTF is a bit too low? This was similar but all frequencies.

The Cardas LP's de-mag sweep woke everything up like a slap of after-shave on a sleepy face. We didn't change anything else, so it was either that record or magic beans! ;)

I've never tried it on another cartridge. Do you think it would do anything for a 20 year old ADC XLM?!
Dear Doug: I can remember that I try the Fluxbuster on my
Astrion and I don't hear any changes.
You can try in your XLM and " see " what happen. I have no experience with the Cardas record and I don't know if it is for MC and MM cartridges. I tell you this because in the Fluxbuster when you use it with and MM/MI cartridges you have to do it with out the cantilever/stylus mechanism.
Regards and always enjoy the music.
Raul.
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