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In Reply to: RE: My Favorite Tweak (so far) posted by MannyE on October 11, 2014 at 21:47:56
There is a brand name commercial product that is specifically this!!!
(If I was'nt getting ready to "hit the sack" I'd go find it right now:I
got some from Mapleshade)
Follow Ups:
You mean SST. Yes. This is the product I used the first time. However, I found that regular silver conductive paste also produced amazing results at much less cost.
I have never seen anyone review different conductive pastes side by side to see if one was better than the other.
I've got a tub of that from 10 years ago or so. Pierre talked me into buying some when he first introduced it. Used it for a while on my ARC Classic 150's 6550C tube pins and all my AC connections, as well as ICs and speaker cables.
At the time, it was the best stuff going. Now there's lots of competition in that area, lots to choose from.
To be honest, I never use it anymore. Too much effort carefully cleaning off all the tube pins, AC connections, ICs, etc., and then reapplying it periodically.
But it can work well, just be careful where you put it, that's all. Unexpectedly causing electrical shorts can be absolutely devastating to equipment (or even possibly fatal to you!)
Have fun! Be safe.
Happy listening.
Cheers,
WS
I used SST but then switched to regular silver conductive paste. I can't hear a difference between the two. Maybe someone else can.
You are right about having to be careful but what's also true that you need only a miniscule amount to get the results. And the results are amazing.
It actually makes SST not such a bad deal since one little jar will last years.
.... and the less you can use, the better the result. Which makes total sense, of course. Technically speaking, if you can see anything other than the faintest dull shimmer, you've put too much on.
SST is not a Mapleshade product, Silclear is. (The reference to Mapleshade threw me off.) The BIG problem I have found with SST (when it first came out) was it caked up. A manufacturer used it on a product I own, and it was a bitch to remove from the eight fuse holders in two amps I bought. Most folks I know who used and enjoyed SST tried to never take it off. But most listeners found it sonically superior to Mapleshade's Silclear, or at least, that's what they reported here and elsewhere.
I never made a direct comparison myself, though. YMMV, and all that.
But SST or Silclear or whatever floats your boat conductive paste-wise, is fun and relatively cheap, so have have a ball!
Cheers,
WS
Yes, sorry for the confusion. I can't speak for the OP,but it was
"Silclear" that I was speaking of.
If I can come across it today I think I'll try it on the "connector pins"
of my DHC headphone cable for my Hifiman HE-6 (It honestly does'nt "need"
any help,but I'll try it anyway...Audiophiles are required to tweak everything to the point of adding another tweak to fix the 1st one)
I don't know about Silclear, but I now use Chemtronics Silver Conductive Grease. It's about 35 bucks and it comes in a handy little syringe. I did find that the SST was difficult to remove, but a little elbow grease got it right off. Not really a big deal.
I really didn't notice a difference between SST and the regular industrial stuff, but I can say that both make an astonishing difference.
YMMV and FWIW, of course.
According to the manufacturer, CircuitWorks® Silver Conductive Grease remains stable in a wide temperature range: -70 to 485°F (-57 to 252°C).
I use SST, and I like the effect, on any connectors that do not get very hot during use. However, many have reported problems with SST and other similar products when applied to the pins of output tubes in an amplifier, which get very hot. I am not sure what the problems have been, but I have duly avoided using the grease on output tube pins.
As one might expect, IMO, the most profound positive effect of SST is to be had by applying it to connectors in the phono chain, starting with the cartridge pins. However, less is more, as someone else said. A small jar from Walker Audio lasts nearly forever (now that Walker supplies some oil to re-suspend the sludge periodically), so hang the cost.
I put the stuff on EVERYTHING. Very carefully and less is more. Never had an issue. And my 2A3 output tubes got pretty hot.
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