Hello Wisnon, The deoxit works great on the male end of the power cable. First I use a fine grade of steel wool to " buff out" the 3 prongs as thoroughly as I can ( all by hand and as thoroughly around all 3 ' blades)' then apply the deoxit ( give a few minutes to dry). These particular cables hadn't been cleaned up in awhile and were visibly somewhat tarnished looking when I began. Once installed and amps powered up I actually saw brighter tube intensity / glow! The cables really must have needed it....!
As for the 242's they are very impressive tubes... when I first heard my system with Ked's visiting pair I was duly impressed and when I first installed my new ones I was again. The detail retrieval, open vivid dynamic wall of sound was stupendous and the bass impact and extension was on par with the best SS I've ever heard... and I mean that. In fact, a friend had recently brought over his new Pass XA60.8 monos to try in my system and we had a lot of fun. Very very nice amps and I can hear right away what their appeal is. Smooth, defined, well extended at the extremes, most especially the bass grip... lots to admire and when you factor in the lack of maintenance and long term trouble free operation they are indeed serious audio establishment.. especially if preceeded by upstream tubes.
With the dynamics and stunning bass grip I was getting from the 242's I jokingly referred to them as my " solid state tubes". They were that 'BIG'.. want to conduct some Mahler? ( as Ked asserted) or crank up the latest Led Zepplin reissues? Who needs SS when you have the 242's? And Lord knows I still love both types of classics played at appropriate volumes but... for all they do so well I couldn't agree to the few trade-offs I found in my particular system.
I have planar speakers ( Apogees) for an important reason: one of my main "Holy Grails" I've been chasing in my systems' development for years is the '3D depth/ spatial thing' I love it. It's a huge part of why I'm so immersed in an essentially all tube based system and it's part of the appeal and ' wonder factor' I love about it
but it was also the most noticeable factor I felt was lost with the 242s.. Stage depth was noticeably less and the more upfront perspective threw me off. For me my Big 7 went from Sophia 300B Carbons ( known for their midrange magic)...to the SS character just described with the 242s. I hardly consider my bass 'soft' or edpecially flimsy in anyway, in fact the Apogee woofers and my amps have a great relationship but an argument might be made for a 'middleman' tube that features the best of both tubes...?! But for now I am tremendously happy yet always keeping my eyes, and ears open.
Happy Lissn'n