Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE:polishing

Posted by unclestu (D) on August 15, 2011 at 18:07:06

In Reply to: RE:suggestable! posted by nagual19 on August 12, 2011 at 09:53:21:

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

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

The Cable Cooker

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---