The Aesthetix ABCD-1 is an Essential Accessory!  Attention MC Cartridge Owners: Does your cartridge sound a little flat? Help breathe new life into it with the Aesthetix ABCD-1 MC Cartridge Demagnetizer! Every week or two plug the RCA connectors from your tonearm cable into this battery operated device and it will gently demagnetize the coils inside your cartridge. Simply put, the Aesthetix neutralizes the unwanted magnetic charge inside the moving coil generating system, restoring full performance in a matter of minutes. Demagnetizing your moving coil cartridge with the Aesthetix will prolong the life of your phono cartridge while recovering the dynamics, nuance and emotion of your favorite LPs. Highly recommended!
 
NOTE: DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE ON MM Cartridges.

To better understand how the Aesthetix works, remember that a moving coil phono cartridge is basically a coil of wire wound around a piece of iron (or ferrous material) suspended within a magnetic field. This electrical generator is activated by the phono stylus in the record groove, moving the wire coil and thus generating a signal to be amplified and reproduced by your loudspeakers. Think back to a simple science experiment placing a pin against a strong magnet for a few minutes. Afterwards, the pin, which is made of ferrous material, becomes magnetized enough to attract another pin.
 
Today's best moving coil phono cartridges use very strong magnets such as neodymium and samarium cobalt. When the moving coil absorbs some of the magnet's charge, the sound becomes murky and less defined. This is because the magnetized coil does not generate as great a variation as it moves within the magnetic field of the phono cartridge. The Aesthetix neutralizes the unwanted magnetic charge of the moving coil, restoring full performance in a matter of minutes.

“I used the Aesthetix [ABCD-1] MC Demagnetizer throughout the listening session. Like other well-designed cartridge demagnetizing devices, it ramps up, holds, and then ramps down a low-distortion, high-energy sinewave. It's very reasonably priced and works as well as more expensive models!”
- Michael Fremer, Stereophile, Vol. 25 No. 7