Unplugging everything and starting over - worth the effort

[margetti]

I spent 6 hours yesterday unplugging everything, hoovering up 15 months of dust, and reconnecting everything and what a transformation! Also moved a few things around in terms of mains supply (most significantly moving the av amp off the mains conditioner and balancing the sources over two Tacimas), and added a new mains cable for the bdp.

AV amp is definitely better off, but everything else has improved too (and so good to get rid of the ground loop on the TT that I spent hours trying to resolve last year without success). So, whether it was the changes made, or the cleaning of contacts through unplugging/plugging everything, or just my imagination on the back of 6 hours hard work (truly hard work - was shattered by the end of it), definitely worth the effort if you've nothing better to do for 6 hours!

 

[jimdonnelly]

Glad you found an improvement. I suspect it is down to bit of both clean terminals etc and imagination. The important thing is that you are happier. I regularly unplug and replug the connections, it makes me feel good knowing that everything is clean, tidy and being looked after.

Enjoy the improvements.

 

[Tonya]

Good tip Margetti!

Just as a safety aspect, it's wise (as long as you know what you are doing!) to open up every device you have once a year, such as amps, PCs, Sky boxes, projectors, etc (TVs if you're careful) and clean the dust away with a soft paintbrush in combination with a vacuum cleaner.
A tin of compressed air is also handy to have.
You'd be surprised at the amount of dust and dirt that accumulates in these items and at best can cause overheating and at worst create a fire hazard.
Even equipment in the cleanest home or studio enviroments can get caked in dust especially if they are fan cooled.
I've seen some awful examples of Sky tuners and PC innards literally caked in "yukk".

I make a point of going through everything, including the fire alarms (battery replacement and blowing out dust) during the first week of January each year.

It has an almost theraputic effect after all that alcohol and turkey, plus peace of mind as I know there's little or no fire risk from my AV equipment for the next twelve months.
Remember to wait until you can focus your eyes properly and wait until the room stops spinning before you embark on such a cleaning spree

Do I have to mention to unplug everything first, TV sets can retain high voltages even when unplugged so don't touch any components with bare hands and don't open anything unless you're competent?

 

[idc]

I helped a mate a while back sort and clean his homw cinema/hifi setup. It has been in place for about 6 years untouched and the subject to various tweeks. The sound was clearer after a good clean and huge improvement in the cable management.

 

[Craig M.]

Tonya:
Good tip Margetti!

Just as a safety aspect, it's wise (as long as you know what you are doing!) to open up every device you have once a year, such as amps, PCs, Sky boxes, projectors, etc (TVs if you're careful) and clean the dust away with a soft paintbrush in combination with a vacuum cleaner.
A tin of compressed air is also handy to have.
You'd be surprised at the amount of dust and dirt that accumulates in these items and at best can cause overheating and at worst create a fire hazard.
Even equipment in the cleanest home or studio enviroments can get caked in dust especially if they are fan cooled.
I've seen some awful examples of Sky tuners and PC innards literally caked in "yukk".

I make a point of going through everything, including the fire alarms (battery replacement and blowing out dust) during the first week of January each year.

It has an almost theraputic effect after all that alcohol and turkey, plus peace of mind as I know there's little or no fire risk from my AV equipment for the next twelve months.
Remember to wait until you can focus your eyes properly and wait until the room stops spinning before you embark on such a cleaning spree

Do I have to mention to unplug everything first, TV sets can retain high voltages even when unplugged so don't touch any components with bare hands and don't open anything unless you're competent?



it was probably something like this that set vanman on his course of action