As has been discussed in other threads, I hear no negatives to always having the Westek or CSPort on. The effective range of the Westek is 12” according to their docs and my cartridge is beyond that. Probably depends a lot on where you live. It is brutally cold and dry where I am. Even with a central whole house humidifier and geothermal heat it’s not possible to keep the humidity at a reasonable level in the winter. It sure helps keep the records clean when there is no static charge on them. I use no brushes or anything else to wipe the surface.
DS Audio Ionizer
- Thread starter Kcin
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The 94000 deionizer that I ordered from Digikey came last week. I have it set up on a pillar so that it shoots out over the left edge of the platter and set back so that the cartridge is always 12" away from the source of the ions. It seems to be very effective. With it on it is easy to blow off any dust that might have fallen on the record. It doesn't appear to be a source of any sort of noise or sonic degradation. Just how effective it really is will have to wait for winter when the humidity levels drop to 20% and static is a big problem. Because I seem to generate static just getting out of my chair I have gotten into the habit of grounding myself before I touch the tonearm and I have noticed that with the 94000 there is almost no static discharge anymore when I do that. My only complaint is there are two blinking lights and a power on light that are a bit distracting. Also the power on button is in the rear of the unit and I could see that being a problem for some installations. All in all I am quite happy assuming leaving it on doesn't cause some sort of degradation to the drive belts.
You can buy an electrostatic tester to test whether the record surface has had any static build up adequately reduced.
I use the FMX-003 Electrostatic Fieldmeter that I bought off Amazon UK a few years back. Invaluable tool for me with checking static charges on record (and any other) surfaces. !
According to the October issue of Stereophile, ionizers are known to degrade rubber. They even raised the concern that an ion bath could affect the elastic rubber damper of a cartridge.
Interesting. It seems to be caused by ozone. DS Audio claims the ION-001 produces very low levels of ozone:
Low ppm Specification:
The device is designed to maintain an ozone concentration of 0.01 ppm or less, which is a remarkably low level.
That makes perfect sense, because that’s exactly how I would use it. I believe I mentioned it earlier in this thread.
Sorry Mtemur, I missed that. I don't always go back to where I left off. I remember reading this thread a long time ago and thinking the DS unit was way out of price range. I even looked for a commercial ionizer. I had not considered ions would eat rubber. But I could see how they would if the rubber were constantly impacted by them.
Thank you for the advice
As long as you keep them in their protective package you’re good to go.
Luckily, the CS Port TAT1M2 uses a thread drive made of aramid fiber, which is stronger than steel (so they say). We have sold over 25 IME-1 units with no complaints, and last week had a visit by one of the owners of CS Port, Yususke Matsuoka, who says they have sold just shy of 500 units worldwide.
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Unless the unit automatically shuts off during playback, it’s no better than the DS ionizer. The DS also seems to use better parts and construction. And “no complaints” doesn’t prove anything—nobody is critically comparing, listening, or testing. They already believe their setup sounds better with it before they buy. Exactly the same herd mentality you see with Seismion.
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