. . . Great Sound??
Just cleaned all my signal contacts - I.C. plugs and sockets, speaker cable plugs and sockets - with Kontakt, and then when I ran out of that, Isopropl alcohol
After letting everything dry for 30 mins. or so, I have just fired the system up again and feel there is a slight improvement in clarity.
My question is - is this purely expectation bias, or is their some engineering or technical reason why cleaner contact surfaces might give the impression of cleaner sound??Be honest, I won't be embarrassed if in fact it is all in my head
... longevity
I have cleaned lots of (silver, copper, Nickel) contacts, switches, potmeters, connectors and above all battery contacts in the last 35 years.
It get's rid of intermittent behaviour, weird 'noises', and on RCA interconnects it can even lower common mode influences.
Most of all it prolongs life of the used equipment sometimes by decades.
Worst of them all are silver contacts, especially when living near the sea as the salty air makes them corrode (turn black) really fast.
Also contacts in general in the vicinity of (heavy) smokers have a tough life as does equipment in clubs, bars e.t.c.
Make sure those copper stripped speaker wires (and above all those silver(plated) ones) are cut a bit shorter now and then stripped bare again when your speaker/amp has those 'easy insert' contacts.
There can be a measurable decrease in contact resistance there and for LS (or low voltage power supplies/battery contacts) a low contact resistance is essential.
I never 'listened out' for sonic improvements though so honestly cannot say it will change anything but clean up your brain..
A clean(ed) contact doesn't change frequency range if it was working fine before nor will distortion or anything else get lower as the elements used are all linear, they cannot add or change anything.
Loose contacts or bad ones, however, can act as 'rectifiers' and DO act non-linear but will add noise or crackling sounds (if bad enough).
The phase between those 2 states (good and bad) MAY perhaps lead to some sound degradation, at least that stands to reason, but have never experienced it nor paid attention to it.
In any case... a clean(ed) contact is a good contact (yes, yes when there is enough 'pressure') so I am all for cleaning and tightening connectors.
Those silver contacts as well as battery contacts can be cleaned with a glass-fibre 'no-rust' pen.
Other contacts should be cleaned with contact cleaner or Isopropyl alcohol.
Make sure they are wiped clean afterwards don't let it dry-up when using alcohol and some cleaners.
Other cleaners should just dry up and leave a 'film' that protects the surface that does NOT make electrical contact so it doesn't get a chance to corrode and 'spread' towards the contact area.
For switches and potmeters it is best to disassemble IF possible for best (long lived results)
Just spraying contact cleaner in a hole in a switch or potmeter just might 'work' only for a short while but if you are lucky might last much longer.
Spray a tiny amount in there (no need to soak it) and move the switch potmeter lots of times all the way it can travel so it wipes the 'dirt' away.