[Wayner]

Here in Minnesota, the winters are long and cold. In the spring, we are usually rained on lots. This time of year always seems to raise hell with the interconnects and pushbutton switches. Today I had another episode with one of the interconnects from preamp to poweramp. It just went dead in one channel.

Usually, (with everyting turned off) a couple of re-insertions fixes the problem, but I think I'm going to get into the habit of spraying connectors with a bit of Caig.

It's funny that all of the connectors are gold plated, but still may cause a problem. I think that thru the winter with the temperature changes and the humidity changes, this time of year is especially prone to such issues. Doing a little preventative maintenance keeps the little gremlins away.

Also, hitting the buttons a few times on the preamps helps to clean the contacts.

What you say? Ever have some of those kinds of problems?

Wayner 

[charmerci]

Gee, I thought they stopped manufacturing AMC Gremlins a long time ago. There still must be a few around I guess.

Wait - you wrote AUDIO gremlins... my bad.

[*Scotty*]

I have been able to dodge that bullet for about the last ten or fifteen years. I think the problem went away about the time I started making my own ICs. The plugs I chose happened to
to work well with the stock RCA jacks in my equipment as well as the matching after-market jacks that I used in my custom gear. About 6 years ago I switched to ICs with Vampire #800/CB and started using the matching jacks #CM2F/CB in my equipment and I have had zero problems. The damn audio jewelry does have a real world advantage over the cheap junk so often used in budget ICs.
Scotty

[Brett Buck]

Here in Minnesota, the winters are long and cold. In the spring, we are usually rained on lots. This time of year always seems to raise hell with the interconnects and pushbutton switches. Today I had another episode with one of the interconnects from preamp to poweramp. It just went dead in one channel.

Usually, (with everyting turned off) a couple of re-insertions fixes the problem, but I think I'm going to get into the habit of spraying connectors with a bit of Caig.

It's funny that all of the connectors are gold plated, but still may cause a problem. I think that thru the winter with the temperature changes and the humidity changes, this time of year is especially prone to such issues. Doing a little preventative maintenance keeps the little gremlins away.

Also, hitting the buttons a few times on the preamps helps to clean the contacts.

What you say? Ever have some of those kinds of problems?

   Never. I don't think I have ever seen one of my interconnects go bad in any way. That's mostly in California, where it rains for 3 months and is dead dry the rest of the time.  

    My fathers PAS-3, on the other hand, ended up with severely corroded jacks. By corroded, I mean actual, flaking, rust, not just a little surface oxidation. That was mostly in Kentucky but some in Arkansas, Kansas, and New Jersey. Everything inside was in a similar shape. It still worked for the most part, in daily use for decades. The zinc knobs were also corroded brown.  I started a while back to fix it up, but finally gave up and bought a Super Pas 2 from Frank. I may still fix it someday, but I have enough audio stuff.  His ST70 was a lot better in most ways with minor surface corrosion on the outside. The real problem was underneath, which was burned black. I figure the incessant cigarette smoke combined with the heat did that, it was absolutely disgusting to clean up. I don't even want to think about what his lungs look like.

     Brett

[Wayner]

I think it's the Minnesota temperature extremes that do it. We had damn near -30 below this winter and you can bet it will hit 100 degrees this summer, along with humidity that goes from 20% to 100%. This doesn't happen often, but I'm not going to say I have bad interconnect RCAs. Most of mine are from BlueJeans Cable. That RCA plug is a very kind and gentle plug. This problem goes back 40 years for me. Not like it's a big deal, but usually one cable somewhere decides to lose a good connection.

Like I said, I think the problem is the result of the extreme temperature and humidity. I'm sure I won't have a problem till next spring.

Wayner

[oneinthepipe]

I had a problem with my Omega 50 last year, although I don't remember if the problem occurred during spring or summer, but both seasons tend to be very humid here.  One channel kept cutting out, and I contacted Frank by email to let him know that I intended to send the component to him for repair.  Frank told me to move the selector switch twenty times in both directions, which fixed the problem.  If that hadn't worked, he wanted me to use Deoxit, but he told me that the switches were "self-cleaning," and Deoxit would not likely be necessary.  Nonetheless, I bought a can of Deoxit, which I keep around in case of an "emergency."  I have never had a problem with interconnects.

[BobM]

Wayne, you have to move to Long Island, where the humidity is rarely below 70% and the temperature swings are more temperate. Besides, then I could meet you at the next NY Rave (love to have 'ya).

Bob

[*Scotty*]

Wayner,this is starting to sound suspiciously like some kind of Karmic audio problem. I suspect it may be related to the center pin diameter and how well it mates with the jack and the thickness of the gold plating on the pin and the nickel or gold plating on the hot connection point in the female jack. All it would take is thin plating on one or more points and wearing it through to the base metal which subsequently corrodes resulting in a loss of signal. I am guessing from your initial post that you only loose signal and that you have not had a hum problem due to a loss of ground continuity on the ICs.
Scotty

[Wayner]

I have measured the pin diameter and it's on the nat's ass of .125". The inside of the outer sleeve is also a good number, but hard to measure but it looks like .325". Frank has always talked about oversize or out of tolerance plugs, because they can damage RCA jacks. I really still feels it's from the temperature swings here in Minnesota. I have "electrical problems" with other things like even the VOM, and it seems like just a little movement and good contact is made. No one smokes here, but we let the furnace swing in temperature from night to day. This may also have an effect on expansion/contraction of connector/plug.

Wayner 

[Listens2tubes]

It's actually a good practice to clean your connections, it's Spring Cleaning for your audio system. I think I'll clean my stereo's plugs and sockets this coming weekend. Thanks for bringing this up.