Which Caig?

I have a New Years Day ritual of cleaning my system. I take everything
apart, clean each contact with the Signet tool mentioned and also use the
Caig brushes. But I either use the Cardas cleaning fluid or the Audioquest
ultraconnect Cleaner. Years ago I started using Tweek but I haven't seen
that in years and feel the Cardas and AQ products are doing a good job.
But the Caig products are highly recommended by some as well. In truth I
think even alcohol would probably do the job. Probably just making the
connections fresh by unplugging and re-plugging are half the cure.

Theo, you do all this work with a hangover?

I use Deoxit D100 Contact Cleaner recommended to me by Rogue Audio.

Deoxit #D100L-25c. This is the 25mL squeeze bottle with a long needle that gets inside connectors and deposits a controlled drop or two. Clean male XLR pins with a pointed Q-tip from the beauty section of the pharmacy. For female XLR and tube sockets you'll need a kit of round brushes.

Thanks guys. What is the difference between the regular and ProGold Deoxit?
Can you point to a cleaning tool for the XLR connections - especially female XLR.

I believe the ProGold products are intended for gold connectors, but I don't know if they are truly different or just marketing. Probably no harm in using them on different connector types. For cleaning XLRs I use pipe cleaners, not sure how hard they are to find now, I bought a bunch about 10-15 years ago at a tobacco shop. Presume they still sell them. I don't like using Q-tips since they leave lint behind.

I think ProGold is their 'sealant' formula that protects for a few years (unless you're unplugging and replugging a lot) which is very conductive and remains so...can be used on any metallurgy. I use that and Deoxit D5 first to clean. The D5 is the best cleaner I've ever tried. Their both-in-one cleaner/sealant formulas don't seem to clean nearly as well. A little #0000 steel wool on contact surfaces first can work well, too...a bit of a pain, but it does seem to help with the sound a bit sometimes.

Thanks again folks. I am ordering the CAIG Audio Survival kit. Looks like it comes with the required tools.

That's a good choice, I have the Survival Kit as well. But you'll still want the large squeeze bottle, as the amount of DeOxit supplied in the kit is only a small tube and a small aerosol that tends to over-spray.

Thanks Dgarretson. I will order the bigger bottle as and when needed. This would be my first time trying to clean the terminals.