Fluxdumper?

Posted by: Top Cat on 29 March 2001

Hi folks. I was following with interest the other thread about demagnetism CDs, and I followed the link and ended up coming across this beastie - sounds just too bizarre a claim to be anything but true, but still...

Can anyone shed any light on it?

John

URL is: Fluxdumper page

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Andrew Randle
John,

Looks like a ferrous brick that drains external electromagnetic flux coming from the transformer.

You know about electronic circuits, well there is such a thing as a magnetic circuit. The steel block represents a lower magnetic impedance than the air to the side of it. The magnetic field is therefore diverted through the flux buster and avoids the surrounding electronic circuits.

I don't know if it does the trick, having never heard it. You probably need to be careful if using a hi/super/flat-cap that you don't divert the EM field towards the pre-amp nearby.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Top Cat
Still sounds a bit 'snake-oil'ish to me wink

I wonder if I need one given all the angle-iron I have surrounding my kit - actually, maybe that can explain part of the extremely positive effect that my stands have on my kit...

John

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Jaybar
Hi John et al. You guys are behind the times. Read the Web page and this sounds like a licensing of the VPI magic brick.

Harry Weissfeld owner of VPI and designer of the VPI turntable and Tonearm, introduced the VPI magic brick in the mid 1980's. The effects are extremely variable as per your system. In my system, it has tended to "darken" the sound so I generally do not use it. I have Spectral amp and pre-amp. The "Brick" got rave reviews when it appeared.

It went out of production during the mid 1990's because of production cost. It became an extremely saught-after item on the used market. It was originally $35 and rose to ~$60 before being discontinued. It was re-introduced in ~ 1999 at $80 . This thing definately works. Whether you like the results. Well thats another story.

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Tony L
quote:
Looks like a ferrous brick that drains external electromagnetic flux coming from the transformer.

... Get your ferrous metal blocks here! All that stuff like radiators you're pulling out of the room is obviously making your system worse!

Tony.

Who is going to hide a fluxdumper under the sofa in the Audio Counsel next visit.

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Andrew L. Weekes
I would have thought that just adding that much mass to your electronics is likely to have an effect on sound quality wink

You could try an ordinary housebrick and compare.

Andy.

Andrew L. Weekes
alweekes@audiophile.com

Posted on: 29 March 2001 by Andrew Randle
John,

Snake oil? More like good physics smile

quote:
I wonder if I need one given all the angle-iron I have surrounding my kit - actually, maybe that can explain part of the extremely positive effect that my stands have on my kit...

If anything, it would be a negative effect (although the other positives of the stand may outway the negative). Lengths of iron like that tend to act as re-radiating antenna elements. In fact a metallic loop (around each shelf on a mana table) will act like a magnetic dipole antenna.

Welded joints are also a bugger, as discontinuous conductive surfaces generate something called the diode effect - producing 3rd order RF harmonics.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
2B || !2B;
4 ^ = ?;