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Dialectric grease any thoughts

Hello everyone, I recently purchased new interconnects(1 meter pair XLR balanced) and the company who makes them recomends "the use of contact enhancement fluid or dialectric grease on all electrical contact serfaces, including audio signal connectors and a-c power plugs and sockets." I am skeptical to use dialectric grease on the XLR plugs and outlets, if I don't like it- it may prove to be difficult to remove if not impossible. I've heard of others who have had good results with it on Power cords, but was told not to do it to the signal cables, and now this company is telling me to use it- so confusing! shed some light on my situation. ~Tim
tireguy

Showing 2 responses by albertporter

albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Unsound, yes they did, and I still have some. In the case of fiber optics, this was a light conductive substance designed to improve the light transmission of the connection.

Idea being similar at first glance, but electrically very different.
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
At the time I was only interested in making my Theta, Wadia combo sound better and didn't think about potential problems. There were no symptoms of cable or connector deterioration during the year or so that I owned it. However, that is probably too short a test to be definitive.

As for cleaning, the connector did sound better with the goop on than off, so once we removed it the second round of testing it remained on the connection until sold.

I have since come to the conclusion that hard wire is the way to go. There are so many good digital links now, I would not worry about this old technology.
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