20080517

electronic contact cleaner

funny how some audio products made with supposedly premium connectors are much more problematic cleaning-wise than stuff with the cheapo connectors. my first such experience was paying a comparative buttload of cash in high school for a heavy duty guitar cable with "superior" brass connectors. the cable and connectors were great mechanically, but the brass sucked, and i was regularly rubbing it with fine steel wool to get rid of the audio scratchies.

since i tend to use my bitchin' iPod earphones only when in noisy environments, the metal on the connector doesn't get exercised, and sometimes the signal reliability sucks; i was constantly spinning it around in the headphone jack, trying to rub off whatever the hell collects on the surface with that awesome frustrating power to entirely cut off a signal despite a definite mechanical mating. the weird part is that it doesn't happen with any other earbud set, no matter how cheap; all other sets (and i've gone through plenty) were reliable in that regard, even with long gaps between uses.

from my recording studio days i still have a treasured can of cramolin R-5 with the original formula (now banned), though i'm starting to think the little bit remaining may have lost its power through age. got off my ass and applied that vigorously with a Q-tip last week, but it didn't completely solve the problem, even with that squeaky clean friction feel vibrating back through the Q-tip.

so at the gym yesterday i got pissed and just used soap and water and my fingers, then dried the plug very well. fixed it completely in 15 seconds. couldn't believe it. sure, soap and water aren't practical for much audio gear, but next time i have a plug with the usual oxidized bullshit or whatever, i'll head to the sink.

okay, i'm done with this post. could easily write 1,000 words about the double-edged sword of contact cleaners. always been a pain in the ass.

Labels:

posted by saltypig @ 05:31