Are contact treatments worth the money?

Use Deoxit process. Couldn't discern any audible difference over the few weeks following. But it did make sense to clean and protect the Cu connection at my spade. That was sense enough to me.

It is agreed that cleaning connections is a good idea and then perhaps using some type of silver conductive grease may offer sonic improvements YMMV.

That MG 8463-7G costs about $16.00 plus shipping from an industrial supply house. I wonder what that have at the auto supply store??

I just got some used speakers and was listening to them for the past 2 weeks. Just yesterday I thought about the dirty speaker terminals and cleaned them using Caig Deoxit and Progold Enhancer. Man I was just shocked to see the amount of dirt on the binding posts and knobs as the cotton buds I used to clean them all turned black as charcoal. I used about 16 swabs for the speaker terminals alone. Since I'm at work, I cleaned the binding posts behind the amp and speaker cable spades as well and the same thing happens, all the swabs turned black.

Even before firing up the system and listening to the sound improvements, psychologically I was forced to accept that there would be improvements. Soon after I started listening, I noticed a more focused, cleaner and open sound. Do yourself a favour and clean the speaker terminals of your speakers once a year or so. After you notice the amount of dirt on them you will acknowledge the importance of cleaning them with contact treatments.

I didn't clean the connections of the source to preamp to amp as all my interconnects are balanced.

I recently bought some Walker SST, based on reviews here on Audiogon and elsewhere. I paid about $100 total, including shipping. Last night I put the SST on a few select connections (speaker cable banana plugs, RCA interconnects between preamp and amp). Didn't notice much, but I suppose it sounded better. I read in the brochure that it needed 8 hours to break in.

Imagine my surprise when I turned my system on this morning! WOW! Not a night and day difference, but a definite change. There is an added clarity, kind of like I just cleaned my eyeglasses. I now understand what all those reviewers wrote about. Definitely the best $100 tweak I've ever had. (Aurios roller bearings were a "better" tweak, but they only add value in certain places in my system. I think the Walker SST can add value anywhere it is used.)

Time will tell if this tweak lasts for the long term, but for now I am quite impressed. Now I am trying to figure out how to clean and prep all the contacts in my system!

BTW, I have a pretty simple system.

Olive Musica music server
Arcam CD72 (modified) CD player
Dared SL-2000-A tube pre-amp
Onix SP3 tube amp
Gallo Ref 3.1 speakers

Designdude, good for you to go out and try this! Glad to hear you've had some results that please you. To clean and prep other contacts in your system, unless you see some obvious corrosion, isopropyl alchohol and a Q-tip will work quite well. That's what we use here. If you decide to use a contact cleaner like Caig DeoxIT, wipe it down well with isopropyl alchohol afterwards. Many that I've tried still leave behind a sonic signature that the alcohol does not.

As you discovered, expect all of your treated connections to require some amount of break-in time. The sound initially will vacillate between bright and edgy and somewhat muffled before it settles into what you described you heard on day 2. What I find are the following time frames: AC connections - 1-2 hours; high level audio connections - 5-7 hours; phono level connections - 20 hours. Playing complex music is the best method of breaking in the SST.
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