Is cartridge Demagnetizing Necessary?

The Sumiko fluxbuster is doing the exact same thing as the XLO and other CD demagnetizing tracks, only difference being the fluxbuster does this at millivolt level to avoid damaging the hair thin MC coils. Its all the same thing, and you can accomplish exactly the same thing by doing just like I said, playing the CD with variable output turned way down low. Zero difference. Save yourself a pile of money. 

I’m curious whether anyone here has been using the devices that deliberately expose the audio signal to a powerful magnetic field;

Yes, and you must have missed it lewm because its exactly what I said in my post above:

The other method I use regularly is the Radio Shack Bulk Tape Eraser. Essentially just a really big powerful demagnetizer. Same as demagnetizing tape heads, you bring it close then take it slowly away. Use this on all the cables right up to the tone arm.  

Another one:

I do not believe that copper or silver wires become magnetized, but coils (as found in cartridges and transformers, etc) do, to a tiny degree. I could be wrong and would be happy to be corrected.

Pure copper and silver are not magnetic and do not become magnetized. Nothing however is absolutely pure. Any metallic impurities in the wire can become magnetized, and that is what we are targeting. There also seems to be something else going on. There is for example nothing to magnetize or demagnetize in a CD or LP, yet running a demagnetizer over them just before playing does indeed make a difference. No idea why. Just does. 

The magnetic fields guide the electrons through the conductor in a more efficient manner than with standard electrical conduction, creating less distortion and interference. This new magnetic type of conduction yada yada blah blah blah

There's nothing new about it. Synergistic Research Active Shielding wasn't new either. Don't know the whole history but apparently the idea was around a very long time before Ted got around to using it. 

For some reason or other electricity is mysterious.   

Electrons carry a charge and its this charge that is the signal not the physical electrons. The charge is an electromagnetic field. Its called electromagnetic because you can't have one without the other. Run a current through a wire and it generates a magnetic field around the wire. Run a wire through a magnetic field and it generates a current in the wire. Always. Everywhere. Step up transformers, step down transformers, electric motors, electric generators, MC and MM cartridges, starter solenoid on your car, junkyard electromagnet that erases laptops on Breaking Bad. We talk like these are all different things when they are all just the same. 

I can see Krissy nodding her head, "So eloquent" she is thinking.   

I wish. If only.   ;) 

If the signal was only in the wire then it wouldn't matter what we put around the wire. But it does. A lot. Teflon, air, what have you. Totally matters. But, why? People who don't know much say its "outside the signal path" so it can't matter. Right? That's what they say, right? Well they are wrong. Because remember, the signal is the field. The signal does not travel in the wire. The signal suffuses the wire, and a lot of the space around the wire too. Because its an electromagnetic field. It extends off into infinity. Its so strong in the wire we are able to pretend that's it. But it's not. 

Synergistic Research took a wire mesh tube and put a very small 30V DC current on it. This generates an electromagnetic field that surrounds the cable. Works great. Its "outside the signal path" yet changes even to things as small as the diode in the power supply can easily be heard. So much for "outside the signal path"!  

What is going on? How does this work?

The magnetic fields guide the electrons through the conductor in a more efficient manner than with standard electrical conduction, creating less distortion and interference. This new magnetic type of conduction yada yada blah blah blah

Good a story as any.

Uh oh.   

On the one hand yes, using a demagnetizer on a cartridge is a bad idea because there's magnets in there and we do not want to mess with those. We only want to demagnetize the wire. Not the magnets. Just the wire.  

The wire itself we demagnetize by running a signal through it. That is what the demagnetizing tracks on the XLO and other CDs do. The theory of how it works and the fact that it does indeed work has already been explained quite clearly above and will not be repeated here. Anyone genuinely interested in trying to understand, simply scroll up and read the posts.  

Only thing worth adding is the Cardas Test Record works the same way, sweep/fade type signal, with the advantage it would do not only the cartridge but the phono leads and phono stage as well. Just haven't tried it myself to know how good it works.

What happened with me, came to realize the improvement is definitely there. Not real huge or obvious but there. Then it gets worse, but very gradually and so slowly its hard to notice. There is for example a bigger difference between just turned on cold and hour later warmed up. Only instead of an hour its a week to a month getting magnetized.

Well this being the case it stands to reason if you only demag once in a while then you are going to be listening almost all the time to a dirty grungy system. So what I do, burn a disc with just the demag tracks and they repeat over and over again about a dozen times. This way, turn the amp on, hit play, go off do something else for half an hour by which time the system is nice and warm and demagnetized and ready to go.

You’re not fooling anyone by the way. Your system sounds so incredible because of the gate and mats and gray goo slathered all over the place. Which I know because, same here. Heh.

None of this is necessary. The question is does it make enough difference to be worth it? 

Demagnetizing definitely works. Do it regularly. One, play the demagnetizing tracks on the XLO Test CD. One sweep tone, one low frequency fade out. Totally makes a difference. Lots of others out there, probably a lot of them equivalent. Just get one and use it. 

This method does everything from the CD to the speakers. Why? What's it do? The idea is that even really high quality conductors will have some particles or regions in them that can over time become magnetized. Makes total sense if you know how things get magnetized in the first place. Slowly over time the amount of these regions increases and these fixed magnetic fields degrade signal purity. Okay. Whatever. Bottom line you play the tracks the system sounds better. 

The other method I use regularly is the Radio Shack Bulk Tape Eraser. Essentially just a really big powerful demagnetizer. Same as demagnetizing tape heads, you bring it close then take it slowly away. Use this on all the cables right up to the tone arm.  

This just leaves the cartridge. What about the cartridge? Good question. If you do what I just did there is only the last foot of phono lead and the fraction of an inch of moving coil left. How we gonna do that? 

Only by running a demagnetizing signal through it just like the XLO ones. Only one problem: its going through some very fine wires designed for only some fractions of a millivolt, not several millivolts. So if you have variable outs you can connect the phono leads to your CDP out and demagnetize that way.  

If you do, let me know. There's an awful lot of stuff I do all the time just to eke out that last little bit of sound- but crawling around plugging and unplugging just to get the last few inches of wire is where I draw the line. At least until someone comes along and tells me I'm missing out I tend to say.... not worth it.  

And sorry, but the shorting trick is nonsense.