Are contact treatments worth the money?

I just got some used speakers and was listening to them for the past 2 weeks. Just yesterday I thought about the dirty speaker terminals and cleaned them using Caig Deoxit and Progold Enhancer. Man I was just shocked to see the amount of dirt on the binding posts and knobs as the cotton buds I used to clean them all turned black as charcoal. I used about 16 swabs for the speaker terminals alone. Since I'm at work, I cleaned the binding posts behind the amp and speaker cable spades as well and the same thing happens, all the swabs turned black.

Even before firing up the system and listening to the sound improvements, psychologically I was forced to accept that there would be improvements. Soon after I started listening, I noticed a more focused, cleaner and open sound. Do yourself a favour and clean the speaker terminals of your speakers once a year or so. After you notice the amount of dirt on them you will acknowledge the importance of cleaning them with contact treatments.

I didn't clean the connections of the source to preamp to amp as all my interconnects are balanced.

I recently bought some Walker SST, based on reviews here on Audiogon and elsewhere. I paid about $100 total, including shipping. Last night I put the SST on a few select connections (speaker cable banana plugs, RCA interconnects between preamp and amp). Didn't notice much, but I suppose it sounded better. I read in the brochure that it needed 8 hours to break in.

Imagine my surprise when I turned my system on this morning! WOW! Not a night and day difference, but a definite change. There is an added clarity, kind of like I just cleaned my eyeglasses. I now understand what all those reviewers wrote about. Definitely the best $100 tweak I've ever had. (Aurios roller bearings were a "better" tweak, but they only add value in certain places in my system. I think the Walker SST can add value anywhere it is used.)

Time will tell if this tweak lasts for the long term, but for now I am quite impressed. Now I am trying to figure out how to clean and prep all the contacts in my system!

BTW, I have a pretty simple system.

Olive Musica music server
Arcam CD72 (modified) CD player
Dared SL-2000-A tube pre-amp
Onix SP3 tube amp
Gallo Ref 3.1 speakers

Designdude, good for you to go out and try this! Glad to hear you've had some results that please you. To clean and prep other contacts in your system, unless you see some obvious corrosion, isopropyl alchohol and a Q-tip will work quite well. That's what we use here. If you decide to use a contact cleaner like Caig DeoxIT, wipe it down well with isopropyl alchohol afterwards. Many that I've tried still leave behind a sonic signature that the alcohol does not.

As you discovered, expect all of your treated connections to require some amount of break-in time. The sound initially will vacillate between bright and edgy and somewhat muffled before it settles into what you described you heard on day 2. What I find are the following time frames: AC connections - 1-2 hours; high level audio connections - 5-7 hours; phono level connections - 20 hours. Playing complex music is the best method of breaking in the SST.
.

The Walker treatment is organic; yahoo. (Cynical, yes.)

Reminded me to re-read Norman Koren's page: http://www.normankoren.com/Audio/
and his description, "Loose screws? Sometime in the late 1980's I visited an audiophile in San Diego. When he opened the door he exclaimed, "Norm! I've made the most incredible discovery! A simple modification that really improves the sound— opens it up, sharpens the imaging, and deepens the soundstage. I've loosened the screws on all my chassis. You gotta hear it!" He learned this tweak from a friend of his who had made a small fortune with a "CD enhancer" spray called Finyl. At the time, the ads for Finyl claimed it would increase the number of bits of resolution. His system sounded terrible.

I'd heard rumors that some audiophiles had their screws loose, but I never took them literally until that evening. Gordie Freedman evidently had similar experiences.
Maybe the problem was his cable lifters, which were made of plastic and only lifted his cables 4 inches. Here's what Mapleshade says: "Odd as it may seem, laying audio cables on an artificial fiber carpet will immediately dull the sound of your stereo. And that’s true for all cables, not just our Clearview wires. Unfortunately, the carpet is a huge mass of low quality insulation (dielectric). It absorbs and smears energy from the field around the wire. The effect is pretty grim, making music sound both dulled and harsh. A simple ear-tested solution is to raise the cables off the carpet by at least 8 inches. That’s exactly what our maple Triad does." You're apparently out of luck if your decor is oak or walnut. I gotta quit. You won't find any more of this stuff on my site. I promise.""

Sound familiar?

Xtreme AV's Quicksilver and Quicksilver Gold did it for me. In my system and experience, it betters the SST by a mile and appears to be much finer crystals w/ less residue. It was night and day difference on video application--fuse, fuse holder and AC blades in particular.

YMMV,

Kenobi