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In Reply to: RE:suggestable! posted by unclestu on August 08, 2011 at 16:34:25
Thanks for your interesting comments about 'imperfect matings of the contact surfaces'. It really makes sense to me.. :)Could you please describe which procedure and materials you use to polish connector contact patches (particularly AC ones) ? (AC blades, IC RCAs...) thanks.
Edits: 08/12/11Follow Ups:
The easiest, although hard on my fingers, is to use a rag and something like Simichrome, chrome and aluminum polish, found at many motorcycle and bicycle shops. You get a mirror shine quite quickly, although I often use a q-tip to get at the edges.
For real fast polishing I also have a grinder with fiber wheels attached and then I use a rock polish like those used for polishing turquiose (I use a product called Zam). Since turquoise is a porous rock you don't want to use polishes like jeweler's rouge which is wax based and leaves a residue.
Zam leaves no residue although it it is quite dusty.
You can use a Dremel motor tool also as they have fiber wheels also. I like the fiber wheels over felt wheels because they can get into the corners and tight spots much more easily. This is particularly useful when polishing tube pins. Just be aware that it can cut very quickly..
I rarely polish precious metal contacts as it does remove the relatively thin platings a bit too easily. Most such platings have a copper base, however, and Enid Lumley claimed that removing the precious metal platings down to the copper yielded superior sound. Kinda hurts the resale value, however.....
If you're interested, Cardas makes the same ends in silver, gold and rhodium plating, so you can compare the sounds of the plating. Gold has the best bass, but is a bit rolled off on the highs. Silver has the sweetest sound quality: liquid, lush, midrangy. Rhodium has a harder sound with definitely more zip to the top end.
Stu
Have you ever tried, used Tarn-X? I use it on precious silver. No rubbing or buffing required. Too much rubbing slowly removes, abrades silver. Simichrome is great on Aluminum, I've been using it on bicycles for almost four decades.
Tried it a long time ago, but am sticking to more generalized polishes these days. In general the precious metal plating surfaces rarely need polishing, the ones that do need polishing are the the brass, and steel interfaces (like tube pins. Simichrome, and another brand called Autosol (the best I've ever tried) work well on those metals. Using a fiber wheel, steel tube pins can be buffed to a mirror shine in a few seconds.
The polished steel tube pins gives noticeable top end extension to the frequency response and better fine detail. Apparently the tube pins of most tubes are oxidized at the factory in order to improve adherence to the class envelope. The metal surface needs to be slightly porous for the glass to make an effective seal. I guess gold is slightly porous as I've seen plated pins going right through the glass.
Stu
The center pins on some of my test cables (BNC types) are silver, silver plated. The silver tarnishes easily. Dipping in Tarn-X takes care of it quickly.
Yeah a Dremel with felt wheels and Simichrome polish does a quick job polishing aluminum. Aluminum top plate in picture was polished with Simichrome.
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