[Wayner]

My May issue of Stereophile suggests giving the good old cartridge a blast from the Milty Zerostat (a Music Hall product), as suggested by Leland Leard of Music Hall.

I was amused by this, so I gave it a shot or two from about a foot away. I can't suggest that you do it, but if you do, keep the gun at a distance as a direct contact blow may do damage to the coils.

The article on page 49 suggests that this helps neutralize the coils and demags the stylus, preventing dust accumulation......

We shall see......

Wayner

[Devil Doc]

I was curious about this, myself. Better you than me. Let us know how it works out.

Doc

[S Clark]

I can't see how it would de-mag anything.  Zerostats create a piezo electric burst which ionized the air, allowing neutralization of static charges (and they work), but any magnetic field created would only increase magnetism in nearby ferrous materials.  I may be off and someone more adept at electro-magnetic physics might correct me.   

[Wayner]

A squeeze of the trigger creates a positive magnetic charge, release creates a negative magnetic charge. Hopefully, this neutralizes any static fields.

Wayner

[S Clark]

Hmmmmm.  Maybe. Where are the physicist when you need one?

[Wayner]

That is what the instructions say......

Wayner

[Æ]

A squeeze of the trigger creates a positive magnetic charge, release creates a negative magnetic charge. Hopefully, this neutralizes any static fields.

Wayner

I'm pretty sure that the Zerostat is an electrostatic and not a magnetic generator.
If it's residual magnetism you are dealing with, use a degausser.

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/photo/zerostat.shtml

[WGH]

There are enough strange tweaks in the May Stereophile issue to keep Enid Lumley smiling from beyond the grave.

In the Schmearing Aid article by Art Dudley did you catch that Peter and May Belt will send a free sample of the Rainbow Electret Foil and Cream Electret free to anyone who writes to them at foil@pwbelectronics.co.uk [pg 45].

[*Scotty*]

For a cheap thrill one should do this to the phono cartridge from one or two inches away so that the spark jumps to the cartridge body. If you do this with the gain knob on the preamp set on 11, then you will degauss or destroy the entire stereo system. And even better you only have to once and then it will never have to be done again.
 On a more serious note it will be possible to blow up some SS phone stages if you introduce a high voltage static discharge into the input or ground of the preamp.
I speak from first hand experience, I killed my phono-stage this winter when we had 20% relative humidity in the house with a static discharge from my hand when I failed to ground myself before touching the tonearm. What a PITA!
I am thinking Leland sells phono-stages.
Stupid is as Stupid does.
Scotty

 

[neobop]

Another milestone in Stereophile ineptitude. They've been doing this crap ever since they started. Back in the '80s they had people buying digital clocks at Radio Shack. If you plugged one into the same circuit as your stereo, it made everything sound better. The power of wishful thinking. Please tell me these morons are joking.

Too bad Audio magazine is gone.

[*Scotty*]

Actually there are good reasons why people heard a change to the sound of their systems when they plugged in the RatShack clock in their listening rooms. The thing crapped out RF noise into the AC powerline and into the air.
 This RFI causes downward intermodulation distortion of the audio signal and depending on the system and the listener the masking added to the signal may be interpreted as the music having more body and or a smoother sound.
 Now days most people do not view AC power contaminated with RFI as a good thing. They do not think the muddy sound and masking of information is a positive thing.
Scotty

[Wayner]

Another milestone in Stereophile ineptitude. They've been doing this crap ever since they started. Back in the '80s they had people buying digital clocks at Radio Shack. If you plugged one into the same circuit as your stereo, it made everything sound better. The power of wishful thinking. Please tell me these morons are joking.

Too bad Audio magazine is gone.

Stereophile did not dream this stuff up, Music Hall did. Stereophile only delivered the message. If you want to complain to some one, start with Music Hall and better yet, the owner, Roy Hall.

Anyone that would do this procedure with the phono preamp on, or the stereo on, must also clean off their stylus with the volume up, or move interconnect wires with the system on............

[dangerbird]

Well,, I must admit it,,I zerostated my phono cart many moons ago just out of curiosity 

[neobop]

Actually, the Zerostat probably puts out nowhere near the voltage of a static discharge. Minimum voltage for a discharge is around 300V. If you can feel the shock it's more like 3000V. A painful jolt is closer to 10,000V.
http://electrostaticsolutions.blogspot.com/2005/01/minimum-voltage-for-electrostatic.html

As far as the digital clock, back in the day there was all kinds of conjecture as to why it supposedly worked. RFI in the power line is a good one. I actually had one of these clocks that I used as an alarm clock. When I moved it to the same power line as my stereo, it didn't do anything, but I didn't have RF problems. That's a shame. If I had RFI, I could have degraded the sound further with my alarm clock. 
neo

[BaMorin]

Squeezing one fast will produce upwards of 14K voltage with a little more amperage than static discharge.
I've started small motors with one by charging the cyl with propane and then zapping the plug.

[Ericus Rex]

Well,, I must admit it,,I zerostated my phono cart many moons ago just out of curiosity 

Did it make any difference one way or the other?

[*Scotty*]

If your phono cartridge has a metal body you will find that one of the ground pins has a connection to the body which provides a path to ground for any possible static charge that might tend to accumulate on the body.
 If your cartridge has a wood body the moisture content of the wood makes it difficult for a charge to accumulate on it. If is a metal cartridge with a wood shell the above case holds.
 You might be able to get a small charge to accumulate on a plastic cartridge body but I doubt if it will be enough to be concerned about.
 This can be tested by tearing a piece of tissue paper into very small pieces. If these small pieces of paper are attracted and held to the head shell or cartridge body you might have a problem with a static charge. Like wise if these small pieces of paper want to adhere to your platter or turntable plinth you might want to consider taking steps to reduce the static charge.
Scotty

[hifitommy]

it never occurred to me to do this.  and i am still dubious of any benefit from it.  i have a zstat and a cart demag device and use each for their intended purpose. 

i AM curious about demagging LPs as some respectable reviewers have stated a positive difference.  i was denigrated for stating that the greening of CDs works but that matters little.  it works but i dont intend to go to the great effort of greening all my silver discs for the improvement.
i am also not motivated to spend a lot of money on a demag unit for vinyl. 

[Æ]

it never occurred to me to do this.  and i am still dubious of any benefit from it.  i have a zstat and a cart demag device and use each for their intended purpose. 

i AM curious about demagging LPs as some respectable reviewers have stated a positive difference.  i was denigrated for stating that the greening of CDs works but that matters little.  it works but i dont intend to go to the great effort of greening all my silver discs for the improvement.
i am also not motivated to spend a lot of money on a demag unit for vinyl.

I'm amazed at how many people don't seem to realize, understand the difference between electrostatics and magnetism.

Yes, use a green ink pen to mark the outside edges of all your vinyl, the sound will improve remarkably. 

[hifitommy]

prevents digital signals from being extracted for computer downloading.