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

Showing 1 response by sgroves5ad7

During my last trip to Skywalker Sound, I saw one of the guys cleaning their connectors to a patch bay, using a fluid that the guys from Record Research made for cleaning contacts. They said it wasn't available yet, and that Record Research gave it to them for their evaluation, the bottle was near empty. Has anyone heard whether or not this stuff is on the market? I like their record cleaner.