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My overlooked cheap tweak

I was lubricating the gears on my transport last night, and after reassembling it, decided to clean the digital cable and the jacks. There was a lot of junk on the Q-tips I used. After the cleaning, there was a really big improvement in sound. It wasn't the transport lube that did it, as it was just the gears that open and close the drawer, not the CD playing mechanism.
I used to do this regularly, but hadn't done it in +/- five mos. I don't know about the rest of you, but I could do my system maintenance a bit more often. Of course I've bought a new PC or two in the last 5 mos at a few hundred a pop. This two Q-tip tweak was right up there with the new PC's. It was the best 10 cent tweak I've had in a long while. Hope this reminds someone out there.

If you haven't cleaned your IC's and jacks before, and don't want to invest too much, you can use isoprpyl alcohol and Q-tips with most of the cotton pulled off. Rub in and outside the RCA jacks and the IC's. Wait until they dry before plugging them back in.
tsquared
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I do agree with Bob though that denatured alcohol is better,
especially for things like VCR and Tape deck heads.
sean
6,231 posts
 
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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megasam's avatar
megasam
798 posts
 
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.
garfish
1,840 posts
 
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".
c1cov's avatar
c1cov
1 posts
 
It is best to use a cleaner designed for cleaning contacts and connections. Many people believe alcohol is a solvent and cleaner, it is not. In the printing industry alcohol is widely used in the water to make it wetter and to produce a cleaner print. If you put ink in a cup of alcohol and in a cup of water, the ink in the cup of water will break down while the ink in the cup of alcohol will be untouched. Ink is an oil based product more like grease and alcohol has no effect on it. So using it on your connections you are not getting them as clean as they should be.
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