Decreasing performance

For months, my system sounded boring..uninteresting, with a steady deline in its communicating music. After listening to my earphones (which sounded wonderful using a seperate headphone amp), I declared my Ayre amp to be broken. After discussing it with Ayre (who said it didn't sound like an Ayre problem), I then E-mailed Richard Vandersteen to see if he had any suggestions. He actually called me on the phone and we discussed possible problems with my 5A's. I did the various checks as instructed, but it really didn't seem that the drivers et al were the problem. Much to my surprise, Richard contacted John Rutan of Audio Connection in New Jersey (Richard told me that John is a master of setup) who got to me with some things that would help. John was absolutely correct. I unhooked the speakers wires, removed the attachment screws, and found that the threads of these screws were completely blackend. John suggest to wire bruse these, which brought them back to their pristine self. I put the speaker wire back on and the difference was enormous...not a tweak, but a whole different system. John also advised me to play the Ayre break-in disc which brought the system to its excellent sound. I'm writing this with thanks to John Rutan, and to Richard Vandersteen who went out of their way to ensure my high end happiness....and to suggest to those reading this post, that you should clean your systems as well. This decrease in performance is very slow, but insidious, and we might know it even exists until the system is revived to its pristine state. Happy listening.