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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
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.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I think I just said Isopropyl alcohol is a solvent. Some people think its not. Dont take my word for it, go to: Http://solvdb.ncms.org/solv01.htm (National Center for Manufacturing Sciences) and see for yourself. Also see Romic Environmental Technologies Corp solvent recycling programs and one of the solvents listed is Isopropyl Alcohol. The link is http://www.romic.com/romprods.html and also www.mgchemicals.com/products/824.html and real about their Isopropyl Alcohol cleaning fluids.
jdwek
84 posts
 
tsquared, when you say you lubed the gears on your transport, is this someting you as weel as others ordinaily do? I have a Theta transport...should I learn how to do this? While we´re at it , what all does everyone else do to maintain your systems?
JD
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