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Demagnetizing? A good idea or snake oil?

M

Matonanjin3

Active Member
I'm sure I know the answer to this before posting. But I wanted to hear the thoughts of some experts here.

I have accumulated a few tape decks now. I'm going to clean them up, put new belts on, and try and get them playing as close to near to new as possible. I figured this probably should include "Demagnetizing".

How often should one do this? What is a good, recommended Demagnetizer? Any tips on when doing it?
 
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Yeah, this topic keeps being beaten to death. But here's my answer as a Technician. It is a good idea to de-magnetize ANY deck that's new to you. Reason: People with magnetized screwdrivers and an irresistible urge to turn head azimuth screws.
AFTER you de-magnetize a deck, you KNOW it's not going to damage tapes and should normally not be needed again. Tape records AC waveforms. Only DC or actual magnetism will magnetize heads.
But some people feel better doing it more often, and it won't hurt anything.
Anything that crosses my bench gets demagnetized, period. I'm not risking alignment tapes on a "unknown" deck.

As for de-mags.... look for a Han-D-Mag on ebay. They are the best.
 
Matonanjin3 said:
I'm sure I know the answer to this before posting. But I wanted to hear the thoughts of some experts here.

I have accumulated a few tape decks now. I'm going to clean them up, put new belts on, and try and get them playing as close to near to new as possible. I figured this probably should include "Demagnetizing".

How often should one do this? What is a good, recommended Demagnetizer? Any tips on when doing it?
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There is a topic on this here:

hi! demagnetizer how to use?
 
agree- good idea to demag a deck. frequency depends on use. The more a deck is used the more frequent the demag schedule should be.

as far as head demag units the nortronics with the protective tip always seemed to be quite good.
 
Any "new" deck that comes across my bench gets a demag first thing.

Reasons have already been stated: you never know when some jablony was in there with a magnetized tool and I prefer not to risk my test tapes on an un-degaussed machine.

Although, I have degaussed a machine once and it brought back some highs. I suspect that machine had been exposed to a magnetic field somehow without my knowing. But that was the only time that's ever happened and it was on an 8 track deck.

Magnetizing from just playing tapes? Extremely unlikely.....
 
I use the professional level "Annis Han-D-Mag" on my tape decks for every 20 hours or so of play. I do hear a difference every time. The cheap Chinese underpowered types available on Amazon and ebay are literally ineffective as are many of the older units from the 60's and 70's IMHO. You can usually find new Han-D-Mag demagnetizers on Amazon and ebay, as well. A bit pricey ($100+) but well worth the investment if you like playing pre-recorded tapes, in particular. The Han-D-Mag units are so powerful they have a warning for folks with pacemakers to stay away from one plugged in and being used!
 
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