2. analog
  3. 1419579356

Does the MAPLESHADE STATIC DRAINING BRUSH work?

After hearing the DRAMATIC improvement in dynamics, clarity, and the blackest background ever from vinyl LPs while listening to my buddy's modest analog system I had to try the MAPLESHADE STATIC DRAINING BRUSH for myself. Yep. This plug in device really works. EVERY LP that I have played after brushing it with this device sounds dramatically better. Where I thought I was hearing ticks or surface noise in the vinyl (like between tracks and quiet passages in the music) I was mistaken. The noise was due to static OR magnetism because in EVERY instance where I had heard noise or ticks -- there was dead and I mean dead quiet silence.

Michael Fremer commented on an LP demagnetizer a couple of years ago saying that there are properties inherent to vinyl that can become magnetized. Problems in sound quality could vary but some issues are noisy vinyl, smearing, loss in dynamics, etc.

Well, Michael is right! After using the Mapleshade Static Draining brush every record has sounded much more alive, dynamic, and the noise floor is much blacker.

(We) spend hundreds or thousands of dollars buying cables and AC conditioners and cable elevators, etc. to avoid static but aside from using a Zerostat gun or antistatic brush (which actually adds static) it seems like a no-brainer to at at least give this device a try. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard the black and white difference for myself.

Has anyone else experienced similar results?
128x128dramapsycho

Showing 4 responses by lewm

lewm
12,459 posts
 
And after 7 years, the beat goes on.
lewm
12,459 posts
 
Doug, You're talking about magnetics and the benefits of de-magnetizing? I am an agnostic. I have never tried it. The reason I stay away from it is that improper use of a standard demagnetizer can easily result in an opposite effect; the object can be magnetized inadvertently. With that in mind, I would only use the Furutech, one device that seems rather fool-proof, and I take the word "fool" very seriously. I gather that the Furutech reduces or eliminates the possibility for human error. So far as I know, the Furutech costs $2500. There's the rub. Is there anything less expensive that works as well?
lewm
12,459 posts
 
What Geoff said. No one would doubt that LPs are prone to develop a static charge on their playing surface, and most good brushes are designed or make claims to avoid exacerbating the problem, but most brushes cannot eliminate the charge that may be induced by the simple act of pulling an LP out of its sleeve or your fingers touching it after you've walked across a wool carpet. For that we have devices like the Zerostat gun. The Mapleshade brush may or may not be able to drain off static charge via its ground wire. I've never tried it.

But none of this has anything whatever to do with magnetism or demagnetizing an LP, the need for which is still a controversial topic, at best.
lewm
12,459 posts
 
Doug, Although my dad WAS a surgeon, I am not now, nor have I ever been a surgeon (or a member of the Communist Party). However, I am guilty of being an MD who used his degree and post-graduate training as an Infectious Disease specialist to work as a scientist. Ergo, not rich.

The "beauty" of the Furutech is that you can just put your LP into it and shut off your brain; it does the job for you. If you use a free hand demagnetizer, you do have to be careful that you are actually achieving your desired goal. Do you have something you use as a "control", so you know for sure that DE-magnetization has occurred?
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