What’s your favorite cleaning method for connections

@kevemaher 

It is not recommended to clean silver (Ag) surfaces with a scouring pad. A scouring pad will increase the surface roughness of the Ag. Roughing a Ag surface disrupts the ordered Ag crystal lattice, creating surface defects. Atoms at these defect sites have fewer nearest neighbors (lower coordination number) compared to a smooth surface or in the bulk, where atoms are fully coordinated. These uncoordinated atoms are more chemically reactive because they have dangling bonds that are not tied to neighboring atoms. Ag reacts very rapidly with organic sulfur compounds in the atmosphere to form silver sulfide (Ag2S), which is a semiconductor with a band gap of about 1.1eV. This reaction primarily occurs at uncoordinated Ag sites. Because the roughened surface has more uncoordinated Ag sites, it is now more reactive and more prone to corrosion.

Nobody has said if you can tell the difference (before and after).  

For interconnects contacts 99% alcohol is fine. For moving contacts like Potentiometers specified contact cleaners with lubricant. 

@ljgerens 

Thanks for your post.

Please provide references both for what you've described in your post and how quantitatively it affects sound.

I've been cleaning my few silver connectors as I've stated for decades. No ill effects have been observed.

@kevemaher 

I can't comment on how Ag interconnects affect the sound after repeated cleaning with a scouring pad because I never used Ag interconnects. I would guess that it would have a negative effect on the sound quality. I never considered Ag interconnects because they corrode so rapidly. I only use Au interconnects because Au is chemically inert at ambient conditions in the atmosphere. 

As far as references, it is widely known in the scientific literature that Ag reacts readily with organic sulphur containing gases in the atmosphere and the presence of uncoordinated Ag atoms at the surface increases the reaction rate. It is one of the reasons Ag stepped surfaces and Ag nanoparticles are widely used as catalysts. The stepped surfaces and nanoparticles have a large degree of uncoordinated Ag atoms at the surface. I studied the chemisorption of numerous gases (including H2S and SO2) on stepped  [3(111) x (100] Ag surfaces and Ag nanoparticles compared to low-index (111) silver surfaces which are extremely smooth. The reaction rates on the stepped Ag surfaces were about a factor of 2 times greater than the low-index Ag surface. The reaction rates on the Ag nanoparticles were about 4 to 5 times greater than the low-index Ag surface.