After you've upgraded your wall outlet, and cleaned and Stabilanted all your signal connections, play a piece of favorite music (mine is "Easy to Love," from Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook), then run the "Full Glide Tone" (5 minutes). Especially if you use bare-wire speaker-cable terminations, you should snip and strip the cable ends and dunk the clean, bare wire ends in diluted Stabilant 22.Īyre Acoustics' Irrational, But Efficacious! System Enhancement DiscĪyre's Irrational, But Efficacious! System Enhancement Disc, Version 1.2, is available from Music Direct for $20, and it's backed by a money-back guarantee. I recommend using Stabilant 22 on all signal-level connections (it's not suitable for household voltages). You have to get 99%-pure alcohol from a local pharmacy, then dilute the Stabilant concentrate with alcohol in a ratio of 4 to 1. Due to shipping regulations, Stabilant 22 is shipped only in concentrated form.
Stabilant's US importer for the audio field, Jerry Bruck, of Posthorn Recordings (New York City), sells a Field Kit ($37.50) suitable for home-stereo use. Stabilant 22 was the active ingredient in the contact enhancer Tweak (no longer available). Test results have confirmed the substance's effectiveness. The theory is that Stabilant 22 fills in microscopic gaps between the conductors, making the electrical contact more complete while excluding the causes of corrosion and oxidation.
Stabilant 22 is a nonconductive, proprietary (and formerly patented) complex block-polymer liquid that, under the influence of electricity in a contact, becomes conductive. A plastic jar of 50 wipes costs about $30. When I use a Caig wipe on the outside of an RCA jack or on the pin of an RCA plug, I usually see a smudge of dark residue left on the wipe. I find the small wipes more convenient to use than sprays or liquids (which Caig also offers, along with pens, brushes, oilers, and needle dispensers).
DEOXIT GOLD HOME DEPOT PRO
Caig Laboratories makes small squares of slightly abrasive textile that have been impregnated with its DeoxIT Gold (formerly Pro Gold) contact cleaner. Over time, even a gold-plated audio connector will develop a thin film of corrosion, oxidation, dried condensation, or just plain nastiness. Never use any kind of silver paste on audio connections such as RCA plugs or jacks, or amplifier speaker terminalsthe silver might migrate and create an amp-killing short circuit. (Perhaps you can split the cost with a couple of audio buddies.) Remember, silver paste is only for wall-wiring connections. You need only a light smear of the pasteit's not a caulking compound. The paste is more than 80% silver, which explains its price of about $85/half ounce. The highest-quality silver paste I'm aware of is ELGR8501, from AI Technology. The best way to enhance wall-wiring connections while preventing oxidation is to use an electrically conductive silver paste on the mating surfaces. (The new wire ends will, of course, immediately start to oxidize.) If there's enough slack, snip and re-strip the ends to expose fresh, clean copper. If you do swap out these outlets yourself, an inexpensive outlet-polarity checker such as Klein Tools' RT-100 ( ca $5, available at Home Depot) will confirm, before you've touched any wires, that you've turned off the power to the correct outlet and, later, that you've properly reconnected the neutral and hot wires.ĭuring installation of a better outlet, at the very least scrape or sandpaper the exposed ends of the wall wiring in the outlet box until they're clean and bright. Unless you're an experienced home handyman, hiring a licensed electrician to do the changeover pays dividends in peace of mind. The high-quality outlet I'm most familiar with is Shunyata Research's SR-Z1, widely available for ca $95.
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