Conditioning & Degaussing

[freesteve]

Do the conditioning & degaussing cd's work to any benefit with computer based audio systems? Thank you.

[wakibaki]

No.

[Jabs1542]

Anyone else? What about the degaussing button on my PS Audio P5 Power Plant?

[wgscott]

I had a degaussing button on my SGI. We would sometimes push it for amusement, but it never seemed to do anything other than transiently distort the image on the CRT.

[Jabs1542]

I've actually seen degaussing work on a TV, my dad had a TV shop and degaussing was an issue with the old CRTs. If you pulled up the test grid (a big grid that covers the entire screen, usually squares about 1/2") it should be white, this is the perfect blend of RGB. Usually around the edges, particularly the corners, you would start to see some color bleed out of the grid line. This is where the RGB is separating out because the magnetic field that controls the color guns has gotten off balance. A strong degaussing will reset the entire magnetic field thus allowing the field to control the guns better. I have witnessed this, it was pretty cool - way back in the day

 

As I understand the concept of degaussing I have a hard time applying it to audio electronics. I guess there are magnetic fields that can develop hysteresis or other out-of-balance symptoms but I have no idea what that is. Supposedly when I hit the degaus button on the PS Power Plant is it degaussing the power side of all the source components I have plugged into the unit.

 

There are so many people on CA that are way smarter than me I was hoping someone could explain, scientifically, what's going on - that is if anything is going on. And perhaps someone could explain the sonic degaussing that the CD freesteve is referring to (if this actually works then I will learn a lot because I am skeptical at the moment).

[wgscott]

There is always the very remote possibility that, unlike almost every other audiophile ritual, it isn't entirely based upon a very solid and well-reasoned theoretical underpinning with respect to the laws of physics.

[wakibaki]

A CD is not a CRT. It never gets gaussed so it doesn't need degaussed.

[Jabs1542]

I think the point was that the CD would play some kind of supignal that would "degauss" / clean up the signal.

 

BTW - I checked out your site (wakibaki), pretty cool stuff - we have some common interests.

[wgscott]

A CD is not a CRT. It never gets gaussed so it doesn't need degaussed.