What do you use to CLEAN audio equipment CASES?

I use regular drug-store Rubbing Alcohol. It won't harm painted metal surfaces and will remove those nasty tobacco stains. But always test anything you use any solvent on in an inconspicuous area first to make sure. As far as black cases (like Yamaha) you can use a Sharpie (with apologies to Terrell Owens) to cover up the scratches - I did that on my Yamaha M-4 amp - works fairly well, but not perfectly.

warm water first, then alcohol, sometimes strip and spray paint over in auto shop to make it brand new.

Simple Green.
It removes oils and leaves a smooth clean finish, especially good on black components. You can get it in a one gallon concentrate or already watered down in a spray bottle at Home Depot.
The stuff cleans just about everything else in your house as well.

simple green is a good cleaner & marker's work ok to cover up the very small nick's but for the bad one's i just repaint the case,it's easy & will make the gear look like new.

if the scratches are real deep lightly sand first & wipe the case down with a damp rag,preheat your oven(yes oven)to 200 degrees & put the case in the hot oven for 10 minutes,remove the hot case & spray on as many coat's as will dry before your eye's changing direction with each coat,i get about 4 coat's on while it's still hot,let the case sit for about 2 hour's then your ready to put it back together

rustoluem makes a fantastic paint for doing this,it's called 'hammered finish' & it comes in a few different shades ranging from dark grey to coal black,the hammered finish will make it look like a pro painted it & by having the case hot when you paint it you wont get any run's or drip's plus the finish is baked on & hard as a rock & will not scratch easy or wear off with regular household cleaners.

try to figure out how to hang the case beforehand & have everything ready before you heat the case,i use a coat hanger & have it hung in advance in the garage then i put the hanger thru a screw hole,i also have a few extra can's of paint on hand incase the tip plug's on the one im spraying with.

Bigjoe
That was a great tip,thanks.I wonder if it works on aluminum as well?
George

Endust for Electronics: cleaner + antistatic spray in a can. Apply with blue lint-free paper towel cut into smaller pieces. Applied to faceplates and covers it yields sparkling-clean fingerprint-free surfaces. Applied to the label-side of CD's it actually improves the sound in some cases. Applied to transport drawers or to cable jackets can result in improved sound in some cases, similar to Nordost ECO-3 antistatic but significantly less expensive. It also cleans CRT surfaces, leaving an antistat coating which repels the attacted dust. Endust is commonly available in retail housewares sections.

My less complicated method is 'glass plus' --- Lightly spray a clean white cotton cloth, not the component. Then turn the cloth to dry--- Gets rid of finger prints and light grease.

hi george,it work's just fine on aluminum :)

Also a Sharpie Metallic (silver color) hides scratches on silver cased components. Just today got a Parasound tuner that had some bad scratches on top - the Metallic Sharpie covered them up a lot better than I expected.

Many thanks to everybody! This was all great information - just what I needed.

I've been using Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner diluted at a 1:10 ratio with water sprayed onto a microfibre to clean the case of a very dirty/dusty 2nd hand CD player that i recently purchased, by taking my time applying very little pressure in a circular motion alternating between the short pile and long pile sides of the microfibre towel and repeating the process several times it has broufht the unit back up to like new ...this technique i borrowed from times i spent detailing cars as the Megs APC is deemed safe on all surfaces in cars from fabric & leather to plastic, metal and wood  

1/2 distilled water, 1/2 91% isopropyl alcohol in a sprayer. This is also the absolute best car window cleaner. Dries fast, streak free.