Demagnatizing Phono Cartridges

OK, I'm going to really stick my neck out on this one and disagree with the group that believes that de-magnetizing cartridges is beneficial. Based on what I have been told by several serious audiophiles I have known for years, both of whom are electrical engineers (and one of whom has designed industrial magnetic systems), de-magnetizing the cartridge is essentially a pointless exercise.

All phono cartridges use a coil and magnet transducer system to generate electrical signals -- some have the coil as the moving part, others use a moving magnet. But, the end result is still to produce an electrical current/signal. It stands to reason that you wouldn't want to demagnetize the magnet itself, or you would get no electrical current/signal generated. Hence, the only thing you might reasonably want to demagnetize is the cartridge housing/body, or the cantilever. Most audiophile cartridges today use a non-magnetic body (wood, aluminum, etc.), so that's almost never an issue. The cantilever, therefore, is the only part that might get magnetized, but most cantilevers are constructed of non-ferrous materials (such as boron) that do not become magnetized either. If there are any parts in the cartridge that can become magnetized, they MIGHT (and this is very debatable) benefit from being de-magnetized, but they will become re-magnetized in a very short time after the cartridge is used again.

So, my read on this is that demagnetizing cartridges is largely a waste of time, unlike demagnetizing tape recorder heads (where the head has a magnet structure to produce a signal that can be recorded on magnetic tape). I state this not as a personal opinion, but rather based on the information I've gotten from people who have some real expertise in the electrical engineering field.

I'm sure there will be some dissenting opinions, and it would be interesting to hear them (really).

Hi, Abstract: With due respect, I fully understand that one is not trying to demagnetize the magnet (which, I think, is what I said in my post). The rest of my post tried to make the point that, in almost all cases, the generator assembly, the cartridge housing, and the cantilever would NOT need de-magnetizing. Therefore, by elimination, the only parts left that might be subjected to magnetization would be the coil wire, and maybe the connecting pins. The coil wires themselves would become re-magnetized in a farily short time, perhaps within minutes, due to their proximity to the magnet. The two men that shared their comments with me are both VERY qualified to talk on this subject, and one of them has about 15 years of experience in designing electromagnetic systems. I make no claim of personal expertise in this area. After reading your post, I called my friend who has the background in electromagnetic systems, and his remark was (speaking as an electrical engineer) that there is essentially no merit in demagnetizing the coil wires in either a MM or MC cartridge. However, speaking as an audiophile, he said he fully understands the importance of the analog ritual, and never underestimates the power of expectation (his words, not mine). I'm not trying to start a heated debate here. My own experience with demag'ing a MC cartridge I once owned satisfied me that the procedure, at best, does no harm. My first post wasn't to tell folks "don't de-mag" -- rather, to point out that the procedure is, from an objective standpoint, of dubious value. (All that said, we're still friends, aren't we? We analog enthusiasts have to stick together...)