Change of sound with Deoxit G100

@fuzztone  et all. Mad Scientist Graphene Contact enhancer is inexpensive and fantastic. When I applied it I did each component by themselves listened then the next... AMAZING, even better after ~24 hours

I used a magnifying glass to read the ingredients in Deoxit years ago. It's a large % of denatured alcohol with a couple of inactive ingredients.Not exactly snake oil but obscenely over priced for something one can pick up at a hardware store for a few bucks.

I'm new on Audiogon, I shared my experience with Deoxit Gold G100L (100% solution) in an other post. It was not a good experience; after using a small quantity on gold plated connectors the sound became cold, mechanic. I waited some days, but the bad signature remained. So I cleaned with IPA 99% two times and the old sound came back. It's a dielectric; if You have gold plated connectors in good condition, please don't use. Whatever Caig write about 'quantum tunnelling' is not real. Quantum tunnelling is contrary to increase conductivity.

@mulveling I went through those few minutes: "crap... is that how my electronics actually sound?" then I remembered how sensitive my system is to the most minute changes and to settling down and burn-in phenomenons (I mean those are so easy to hear on my system, it's scary sometimes) and I more or less expected that it would "settle down", remembering what I had read here and there.

and indeed, yesterday the bass frequencies were back, the sound was much less "bleached" and sterile, and the treble was much smoother (almost to a fault). Depth and relief are coming back as well.

Now I just hope life and "plankton" will come back too, as the sound still feels a little bit too "hi-fi-ish" and smooth, but I have good hopes.

On the subject of silver plated connectors: I've just ordered the same cable I use throughout my system, but with silver plating instead of rhodium. I will see how different it sounds.

@fuzztone I might try some more expensive contact enhancer at some point.

Put a liile graphene in that gold for even better results.

Maybe that's how your cables actually sound, after the tarnish & oxidation & crap is removed. Perfecting system synergy & component matching is certainly a bear. So you DON'T want to have everything voiced around filthy connections with compromised conductivity. 

I had an old favorite dealer who would harp on the point that all connections in an audio system should be thoroughly cleaned at least once every year. You don't want to wait so long that you get a big sonic jolt after a cleaning.

Incidentally, I've heard that silver connectors don't need to worry about oxidation because "silver oxide is conductive" (e.g. Audioquest often touted this fact). But surely it can't be as conductive as clean pure silver, and is that black stuff really silver oxide or silver tarnish (or both) - I don't believe tarnish has agreeable conductive properties.

I've never had a single problem with the stuff. It just gives me a bit cleaner, more balanced, better imaged sound.

In the future you might consider using this product (see link) by MG Chemicals (it replaced Kontak cleaner for my usage).

99%+ alcohol  is not recommended for gold plated tube pins (not certain about gold plated connectors).

I stopped using 99%+ due to it most likely containing carcinogens created by the manufacturing process (used to be a part of my DIY record cleaning solution).

For really crusty vintage connections I use Flitz polish, clean with 93% alcohol and then re-clean with the MG Chem.

DeKay 

I have the whole Deoxit kit, and I have to say that I hate the way my system sounds after the treatment, but yes, it does get better. If I didn’t believe in keeping contacts clean, I would probably never use it. I only do it twice a year.

More info on MG Chemicals 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol

@rolox @jdub39 These days I only use DeoxIT for pots (potentiometers), and only when *absolutely* necessary, because I do feel that even though applying it will fix the scratchy sound of a pot, it can (and most times will) also have a degrading muffling audible audio effect too (like who put a sock over my tweeter). Yes, after a while, the sound will probably come back to what you had been used to hearing, but why even go through that wait time? And what's really going on there for that to happen in the first place?! I've never thoroughly researched it, but I recommend *only* cleaning contacts with 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol. I do side with jdub39, but if contacts are not that oxidized to begin with, pass on the DeoxIT process, and go straight for the 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol. You may not be able to find this pure of a mix at your local store, but go the extra mile, and seek it out. You'll be glad you did, and you won't believe your ears once you start cleaning a few contacts. Night and day difference. Really unbelievable, for those that have never tried the 99.9% route yet.  

MG Chemicals 99.9% Isopropyl Alcohol    

Well known phenomenon, it will settle down within a day or two. I've tried various contact pastes over the years, big mess, now stick with Caig products, do the job.

It will settle down, but I'd expect to have to do some tweaking to your system (levels, perhaps adjusting the sub output a bit, a dash of tone adjustment, that sort of thing).

If you think about it, it's not really surprising.

You cleaned off oxidation/corrosion/dirt/etc....off of the connections down to the microscopic level.

You put G100 on there, which will fill in those "blank spots", but it will take some time for it to seep in there.

Yes it will come back , one thing I always do after detoxit and or gold is to do an alcohol wipe when done to remove any excess.