cleaning interconnect/speaker cables

eclecticmonkey

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looking for something to clean the plugs on my interconnects/speaker cable. looked at a couple of spray cans of contact cleaner/switch cleaner but don't need much and not keen on products which emit lots of fumes etc. i do have some alcoholic swabs which i use for cleaning my earplugs, wonder if they will suffice? or alternatively i still have some cassette deck head cleaner? any other suggestions welcome?
 

CnoEvil

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Your cassette deck head cleaner is most likely isopropyl alcohol, which is fine....make sure plugs are clean and dry before re-connecting.

Also clean the fuse contact area, and polish / clean the pins on the plug.
 

eclecticmonkey

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thx, what woud you recommend to apply the fluid? I used to use cotton buds to clean the heads on the cassette deck but not sure that will work as well on banana plugs/rca interconnect plugs? do chemists sell isopropyl alcohol in small bottles for this purpose btw?
 

CnoEvil

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I use cotton buds.

It depends on the chemist.....but your cleaning fluid should be fine.

Plugging and unplugging (as Chebby said) also works.
 

davedotco

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CnoEvil said:
Your cassette deck head cleaner is most likely isopropyl alcohol, which is fine....make sure plugs are clean and dry before re-connecting.

Also clean the fuse contact area, and polish / clean the pins on the plug.

When you put the plug back together, dont forget to align the screw heads correctly.
 

CnoEvil

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davedotco said:
CnoEvil said:
Your cassette deck head cleaner is most likely isopropyl alcohol, which is fine....make sure plugs are clean and dry before re-connecting.

Also clean the fuse contact area, and polish / clean the pins on the plug.

When you put the plug back together, dont forget to align the screw heads correctly.

:p
 

davedotco

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CnoEvil said:
davedotco said:
CnoEvil said:
Your cassette deck head cleaner is most likely isopropyl alcohol, which is fine....make sure plugs are clean and dry before re-connecting.

Also clean the fuse contact area, and polish / clean the pins on the plug.

When you put the plug back together, dont forget to align the screw heads correctly.

:p

I have never found cleaning connectors with any kind of fluid to be worth the effort, two things that have made a difference though are circumsising and re-terminatiing your speaker cables/plugs and supporting the cables several inches off the floor.
 

CnoEvil

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davedotco said:
I have never found cleaning connectors with any kind of fluid to be worth the effort, two things that have made a difference though are circumsising and re-terminatiing your speaker cables/plugs and supporting the cables several inches off the floor.

I have heard this....can you elaborate a bit more (if it's not a wind-up).
 

davedotco

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CnoEvil said:
davedotco said:
I have never found cleaning connectors with any kind of fluid to be worth the effort, two things that have made a difference though are circumsising and re-terminatiing your speaker cables/plugs and supporting the cables several inches off the floor.

I have heard this....can you elaborate a bit more (if it's not a wind-up).

This is a fairly well known effect discovered by Enid Lumley, writing in The Absolute Sound back in the late seventies. She researched the subject quite deeply, optimising the height of the supports, the distance between them and of course the materials used in the supports. Modern devices are of optimum height and usually manufactured in solid hardwood or ceramic.

There are several theories as to why this technique is so important, simple microphony is one explanation, vibration is transmitted more effectively though solid material than the air, so keep the cables clear of solid material like the floor.

The other popular theory is that a significant part of the characteristic of a particular cable is caused by the surrounding dielectric material. As we know, any signal passing through a cable will modulate the electric and magnetic fields surrounding the cable (causing interference in the case of mains cables for example) so again it makes good sense to keep the cables clear of solid material with unknown dielectric properties.
 

CnoEvil

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davedotco said:
This is a fairly well known effect discovered by Enid Lumley, writing in The Absolute Sound back in the late seventies. She researched the subject quite deeply, optimising the height of the supports, the distance between them and of course the materials used in the supports. Modern devices are of optimum height and usually manufactured in solid hardwood or ceramic.

There are several theories as to why this technique is so important, simple microphony is one explanation, vibration is transmitted more effectively though solid material than the air, so keep the cables clear of solid material like the floor.

The other popular theory is that a significant part of the characteristic of a particular cable is caused by the surrounding dielectric material. As we know, any signal passing through a cable will modulate the electric and magnetic fields surrounding the cable (causing interference in the case of mains cables for example) so again it makes good sense to keep the cables clear of solid material with unknown dielectric properties.

Does the material of the lifter make a difference. I've seen Myrtle blocks, Perspex and what looked like white Porcelain.....what about up-turned egg boxes?

:cheers:
 

altruistic.lemon

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davedotco said:
This is a fairly well known effect discovered by Enid Lumley, writing in The Absolute Sound back in the late seventies. She researched the subject quite deeply, optimising the height of the supports, the distance between them and of course the materials used in the supports. Modern devices are of optimum height and usually manufactured in solid hardwood or ceramic.

There are several theories as to why this technique is so important, simple microphony is one explanation, vibration is transmitted more effectively though solid material than the air, so keep the cables clear of solid material like the floor.

The other popular theory is that a significant part of the characteristic of a particular cable is caused by the surrounding dielectric material. As we know, any signal passing through a cable will modulate the electric and magnetic fields surrounding the cable (causing interference in the case of mains cables for example) so again it makes good sense to keep the cables clear of solid material with unknown dielectric properties.
No, it's complete rubbish. Enid Lumley had some weird theories, including defeating all grounds - great for equipment safety!
 

davedotco

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altruistic.lemon said:
davedotco said:
This is a fairly well known effect discovered by Enid Lumley, writing in The Absolute Sound back in the late seventies. She researched the subject quite deeply, optimising the height of the supports, the distance between them and of course the materials used in the supports. Modern devices are of optimum height and usually manufactured in solid hardwood or ceramic.

There are several theories as to why this technique is so important, simple microphony is one explanation, vibration is transmitted more effectively though solid material than the air, so keep the cables clear of solid material like the floor.

The other popular theory is that a significant part of the characteristic of a particular cable is caused by the surrounding dielectric material. As we know, any signal passing through a cable will modulate the electric and magnetic fields surrounding the cable (causing interference in the case of mains cables for example) so again it makes good sense to keep the cables clear of solid material with unknown dielectric properties.
No, it's complete rubbish. Enid Lumley had some weird theories, including defeating all grounds - great for equipment safety!

Enid developed a quite robust methodology for demonstrating the effect, she was able to do so to her journalistic colleagues on numerous occasions, quite successfully.

The idea of a floating ground is technically correct too, one less signal path for the designer to worry about. Ideally such a system would have a power supply that was properly isolated from the system using a substantial transformer, ungrounded of course.
 

CnoEvil

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chebby said:
Cno, I think you are going to love this site...

http://www.machinadynamica.com/

... holy water, magic knots, flying saucers, pens for colouring in your CDs, 'clever' clocks etc.

Holy Water......easy, as I've a Chapel next door. :cheer:

Magic Knots........these come almost magically from Mrs. Cno, when I'm looking to spend...."you're knot allowed!". :(

Flying Saucers.....I get these when I ignore the above. :O

No need for pens, as don't use CD....though they might work on a hard drive. :?

Clever Clocks.......that's what I get called when trying to be too smart for my own good. :doh:
 

davedotco

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woodster said:
Simple methylated spirits from chemist, dip or wipe plugs with cloth/cotton bud, allow to evaporate and thats it

Not ideal, meths contain various additives including dye and something to make it taste awful. These are left behind when the alcohol evaporates and coat the contact area.

You want 'pure' alcohol, a chemist will usually be prepared to supply iso propyl alcohol in small quantities.
 

gregvet

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CnoEvil said:
chebby said:
Cno, I think you are going to love this site...

http://www.machinadynamica.com/

... holy water, magic knots, flying saucers, pens for colouring in your CDs, 'clever' clocks etc.

Holy Water......easy, as I've a Chapel next door. :cheer:

Magic Knots........these come almost magically from Mrs. Cno, when I'm looking to spend...."you're knot allowed!". :(

Flying Saucers.....I get these when I ignore the above. :O

No need for pens, as don't use CD....though they might work on a hard drive. :?

Clever Clocks.......that's what I get called when trying to be too smart for my own good. :doh:

I love you Cno lol
 

CnoEvil

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gregvet said:
CnoEvil said:
chebby said:
Cno, I think you are going to love this site...

http://www.machinadynamica.com/

... holy water, magic knots, flying saucers, pens for colouring in your CDs, 'clever' clocks etc.

Holy Water......easy, as I've a Chapel next door. :cheer:

Magic Knots........these come almost magically from Mrs. Cno, when I'm looking to spend...."you're knot allowed!". :(

Flying Saucers.....I get these when I ignore the above. :O

No need for pens, as don't use CD....though they might work on a hard drive. :?

Clever Clocks.......that's what I get called when trying to be too smart for my own good. :doh:

I love you Cno lol

I was being serious! ;)
 

davedotco

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CnoEvil said:
gregvet said:
CnoEvil said:
chebby said:
Cno, I think you are going to love this site...

http://www.machinadynamica.com/

... holy water, magic knots, flying saucers, pens for colouring in your CDs, 'clever' clocks etc.

Holy Water......easy, as I've a Chapel next door. :cheer:

Magic Knots........these come almost magically from Mrs. Cno, when I'm looking to spend...."you're knot allowed!". :(

Flying Saucers.....I get these when I ignore the above. :O

No need for pens, as don't use CD....though they might work on a hard drive. :?

Clever Clocks.......that's what I get called when trying to be too smart for my own good. :doh:

I love you Cno lol

I was being serious! ;)

Of course you were, the reef knot has a long and proud history as a tweek for improving the soundstaging abilities of your system.

Ref...... http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/get-knotted
 

eclecticmonkey

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Just as an aside but on the same subject, I have an RCA interconnect on which 2 of the plugs are very tight and won't go onto the socket, any recommendations as to how to loosen them so they fit better and I can get them on without worrying about breaking the sockets?
 

RobinKidderminster

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Oxidation has to be a bad thing. I uswd vascelene when connecting banana plugs to fresh cable. Far more bass on my Grease CD but unsure of any other benefits. Just seemed a logical thing to do. I would add that with mains plugs on freezer, washing machine etc, they sometimes become loose in the screw terminals. Check yours! So a cable connection check occasionally seems in order. Back to the lawnmowing now .....
 

GSB

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eclecticmonkey said:
Just as an aside but on the same subject, I have an RCA interconnect on which 2 of the plugs are very tight and won't go onto the socket, any recommendations as to how to loosen them so they fit better and I can get them on without worrying about breaking the sockets?

I dont have a problem getting them on...getting them off is a different matter :roll:
 

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