Wind River
Can we talk?
Quite some time ago, we published photos of a well-maintained stylus, and followed up with a post describing various stylus cleaning methods.
It's time to have a serious conversation about our connectors ...
Audio Hygiene
Maintaining a high-performing audio system requires a minimal amount of work, and one chore involves periodically cleaning and re-treating our contacts.
Some cable manufacturers maintain that the act of plugging and unplugging your cables requires a complete, new break-in, due to the sensitive nature of the dielectrics and their construction.
Their names have been withheld to protect the guilty.
Galibier cables (with their cotton construction) have near-zero dielectrics in their construction, so they require minimal break in time and are unaffected by careful handling and movement.
We get it. Tending to a tangle of wires in difficult to reach places isn't a pretty task.
It's difficult to get excited about this, but I think it's important to pay the same level of attention to this housekeeping task as we do when acquiring a new component.
When we're auditioning components or prototyping changes, we clean our contacts with religious fervor. It pays to hold this variable constant.
The tools and solutions we outline below are by no means absolute, but we've found them to be both practical and cost-effective.
Tools and Solutions
The following list is taken from the Tools section of the Appendix in the delivery reports we issue with every turntable we install. To download a copy, subscribe to our mailing list.
With the exception of the Caig Pro Gold G5, all products can be sourced on Amazon.
Isopropyl Alcohol
Pick it up from the drug store, but if you lose sleep over this, then purchase lab grade isopropyl from MG Chemicals - product #824.
We know of one pro-sound guy who was faced with scratchy pots on-site on a Saturday night.
A trip to a local liquor store for some Everclear bailed him out.
Isopropyl
Caig Deoxit Gold G5S
Caig makes a host of contact cleaners and enhancers. G5 is the treatment product for gold connectors. Rumor has it that this was the formulation for Cramolin.
Don’t confuse G5 with Deoxit G4. G4 is more of a cleaner than an enhancer - designed for cleaning heavily oxidized parts.
Think in terms of a sound board that spent decades in a smoke filled blues bar.
Caig Pro Gold G5
Some amplifier companies will refuse to service amplifiers in this condition due to concerns of worker safety (nicotine & tar).
G5S comes in various containers, and the spray can is the most economical if you transfer it into a nail polish bottle (see below).
Painting it on with a brush, saves both product as well as eliminating what can be a troublesome mess to clean up.
You can read more about the Caig products on their website, but in general:
Cotton Tipped Applicators
Plain old Q-tips will likely suffice, but we source these wooden shaft applicators. The cotton tip is woven more tightly, and with a bit of "squeezing" they'll fit into the banana section of a binding post.
We clean the positive pin of RCA plugs and the outer ground collar of female RCAs (on a component chassis) with these.
Cotton Tipped Applicators
Dills Soft Pipe Cleaners
Source the ones with a soft cotton texture. You'll find a stiff, brush-like scratchy variety and this is to be avoided.
Dills makes one which is soft to the touch. There are others.
We clean the inside of female (chassis-mounted) RCAs with this.
We cut them into 2" lengths to extend the life of t he product.
Dills Pipe Cleaners
Empty Nail Polish Bottles
One quick spray of Caig Pro Gold is enough to treat 10's of contacts, and if you spray it on directly, you'll be cleaning up a big mess.
We source these empty bottles and spray the Pro Gold into it, applying the product with the brush.
Nail Polish Bottles
