My overlooked cheap tweak

Isopropyl alcohol does not contain lanolin. "Rubbing Alcohol" used by doctors and hospitals has lanolin. It is not the same thing. I have a bottle of Isopropyl in front of me. It has only two ingredients 75% alcohol, 25% distilled water. Full strength Isopropyl alcohol is commonly used in industry as a solvent, so it will certainly take the junk off of your cables without leaving any impurities, etc.

I do agree with Bob though that denatured alcohol is better,
especially for things like VCR and Tape deck heads.

This is a good subject and thread. Most people never thnk of doing this and might be amazed at what they find coming off of the contacts and connection points if they did clean them.

I recently pulled apart my HT system and am still working on getting it dialed in again. While i had it all apart, i took the time to clean all of the rca jacks on both the equipment and the cables. I used Caig Pro Gold liquid that comes in a little bottle along with some Q tips. For the record, they also make little "wipes" that are small squares and are already treated with the chemical. The wipes are woven cloth and as such, would have a slight abrasive action to them. I have some of these also and you might not believe the "gunk" that comes off of what looked like a "clean" connection.

The problem with using alcohol is that, while it does clean the surface, it does nothing to treat the metal. As such, the fresh and porous metal surface is now open for oxidation and pitting. Using a good cleaner with a mild metal and electical lubricant prevents this from happening and prolongs the need to do it again. This can even cut down on distortion that has been measured and verified under labratory test conditions. Jim Johnson ( JJ over on the Asylum ) has verified this and stated that ANY connection that has been terminated for over 30 days without some type of initial treatment WILL show measurable distortion as compared to a "clean" connection. He also stated that just pulling the connection apart and reseating it can drastically reduce this. Sean
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Kontak provides best improvement, as Bob said. I have tried Caig pro gold and some others, Kontak clearly provided greatest improvement in sound.

I just use whenever changing cables, dries almost instantly,
pipe cleaners (tobacco dept) are better than Q-tips, don't leave behind fiber strands. I do use the little Caig brushes
for cleaning certain items, but apply Kontak to them.

Tsquared; a good reminder thanks. I use the contact cleaner supplied by Sonic Frontiers and it seems to work great. Following cleaning of all wire and terminal contacts, music is just so much more "there".