I cant argue that. Certainly in some environments.
But in a controlled environment like we operate our equipment wouldn’t that take years and years? I have to admit, i never have inspected any terminations but i have had equipment with 10 to 20 years on them. Maybe I should of looked …!
The audience cables came with cleaner but I have yet to use them to clean the jacks. I probably should do it.
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About 9 months ago I found a bottle of deoxit gold I have lying around for years, so I applied them to all of my speaker blades… I couldn’t believe my ears afterwards…
However, haven’t reapplied the gold stuff since, too much fiddling is too much fiddling.
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You’d be surprised. Clean a pair of RCAs one time as you’ve nothing to lose. The corrosion is common oxidation that occurs in the best of environs.
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I use a Dremel tool with a felt wheel and Maas metal polish to clean my steel tube pins before installation the first time, especially if they’re NOS. Clean with alcohol after the polishing. No need to do that with gold pin tubes as they don’t show tarnish like steel pins, plus you’d buff the plating right off. You can’t get the insides of the pins with the Dremel but it gets the majority of the pins very clean and shiny.
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Never thought of doing that, I may give it a try on a used tube to see how it works. Thanks for the recommendation!
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But how often to clean fuses?
Makes sense to me that fuse end caps would need cleaning as much anything in the chain.
Nope…“Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”
-- George H. W. Bush, c/o Dana Carvey
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I forgot to mention that I usually clean the insides of the pins I can’t reach with the Dremel by cutting some 1200 or 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper into 1/4" x 3" strips and looping them. Just wiggle the looped sandpaper up and down the pins to clean the insides of the pins. There are also pin/socket cleaners purpose built for this sort of thing :
https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Male-Electrical-Cleaners-8043/dp/B0184DSZOC
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I liked when Dana Carvey was on the Tonight Show and he mentioned that people on the street would ask him to do his George H. W. Voice, and he would say “Not gonna do it” in his George H.W. voice
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A rubber (pencil eraser - American English speakers calm down 
) is good for cleaning.
I’ve used sandpaper (in the form of an emery board/nail file) but it is a bit harsh and likely to remove plating/tinning
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This is the best cleaning tool for XLR connectors, thanks!
Mmm, probably not. Most good XLRs have contacts plated with some kind of precious metal and the diamond dust abrasive will wear that away quickly. However, you could try wrapping a layer of paper towel around the tool and dampen that with a cleaning fluid. Then you can take advantage of the tool’s shape for cleaning without wearing away the plating. I do something similar now by wrapping tiny pieces of paper towel around the broad end of a toothpick and wetting that with cleaner to clean XLR pins and the inside of hard to clean Eichmann/ETI RCA connectors.
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Just eat your broccoli…
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Touché