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Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96229]

Tue, 13 December 2022 22:08

positron
Messages: 113
Registered: May 2020

Viscount

I am thinking this could help some newbies in keeping the musical
quality up to new standards, or at least close.

How often do you clean all your connections?

What "cleaner" do you use?

Any other advice?

Cheers

pos

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Re: Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96230 is a reply to message #96229]

Tue, 13 December 2022 23:06

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18788
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

For me, it depends on the connector. I almost never clean gold connectors. Silver connectors are also pretty trouble-free; they definitely oxidize but silver oxide is conductive. It's very hard too, as an aside. But I'd probably clean my silver connectors every so often if I weren't moving the gear around that has silver conductors anyway. That makes the cleaning process somewhat automatic.

The really troublesome stuff is the gear with the old tin contacts. I don't have any hifi gear with tin contacts, except for one thing, the tube sockets. And I have a ton of vintage gear with tin contacts. I tend to "reseat" tubes pretty frequently - at least every few months - which is a sort of an abrasive form of cleaning.

Same thing with potentiometers. I sometimes hit those with tuner cleaner or flux remover but even more often - in between "real cleanings" - I run the wiper back and forth from stop to stop several times to brush the dust out.

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Re: Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96231 is a reply to message #96229]

Wed, 14 December 2022 16:35

johnnycamp5
Messages: 354
Registered: June 2015
Location: NJ

Grand Master

I use deoxit for the tube pins.
Any harm spraying it in the tube sockets as well?

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Re: Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96233 is a reply to message #96231]

Thu, 15 December 2022 19:53

gofar99
Messages: 1949
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona

Illuminati (5th Degree)

Hi, I have used deoxit that way as well. It works fine...just don't get it on any painted surfaces as it can damage them. In older RCA jacks you can spray it on a Q tip and swab the holes. It usually works. As a general rule don't use WD40 on anything audio. It tends to leave a residue that will build up over time and cause a problem worse than the one you wanted to cure.

Good Listening
Bruce

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Re: Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96280 is a reply to message #96233]

Tue, 17 January 2023 13:32

positron
Messages: 113
Registered: May 2020

Viscount

I have been using spray cleaner that leaves no residue. My tube sockets
are gold plated, which seem to work nicely over the years.

I tried an experiment, some year or more ago, of fastening the speaker
wires to the speaker jacks as an anchor, but soldering a wire directly
from the speaker wires to the crossover, eliminating one physical pressure connection.

It is working fine as I found the bass was more consistent. Maybe my fingers are weak from age, but I found that tightening with a wrench improved the bass tautness, by increasing contact area due to surface irregularities, and is gas tight. (Of course I did not strip the threads.)
Might be something worth trying.

Cheers

pos

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Re: Cleaning Connections on Equipment [message #96281 is a reply to message #96280]

Tue, 17 January 2023 14:18

Wayne Parham
Messages: 18788
Registered: January 2001

Illuminati (33rd Degree)

One of the more interesting developments I have witnessed in connector technology has been the progression of crimp connections. Not so long ago, I always preferred soldered connections to those that were crimped. As an example, crimped connectors were popularly used in cars, but they really sucked. They were only marginally better than twisting wires together and covering them with tape. So I tended to always solder wire splices and protect with heat-shrink tubing. I still do.

What made matters even worse were the early digital controls in cars, which were even more sensitive to poor connections than analog stuff. Not only did cars serviced at repair shops and modified by "weekend warriors" suffer from poor connections - those added during repairs or aftermarket add-ons - but even the factory stuff failed as it oxidized. Many of the production approaches used in 1980s cars weren't suitable and were unreliable.

Not related, but I saw EPROM chips in early computers sent from the factory, which surprised me because American car manufacturers produced enough to make a regular ROM chip feasible. EPROM chips are erased with ultraviolet light, so a cover is placed over their erasure window. But even if covered, an EPROM doesn't last forever, and will eventually become deprogrammed. ROMs last much longer. So that was another reason that electronics in early 1980s cars really sucked.

But auto manufacturers learned from those problems, and by the year 2000, the digital electronics they put in cars were very reliable. A lot of this was due to advancements in connector technology. Removable connectors used sealed gaskets and crimps were gas-tight. Their gas-tight crimps are better than soldering, offer lower resistance and no chance of failing from heat-cycling that can cause a solder connection to fail just like a cold solder joint.

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