DeoxIT ® GOLD Featured in Audio Magazine Product Review
by J D Stein
CAIG DeoxIT ® GOLD (formerly ProGold) - Advanced Contact Conditioner
I am an engineer at a sound-recording studio in Southern California. We also install high-end car audio, home audio, and home automation equipment. I am responsible for maintaining all audio/video and communication equipment, and I find that many customers, as well as engineers, frequently seem confused about just what to do with high-performance connectors.
As technology has improved over the years, more demand has been placed on all interconnecting cables and connectors.
With cables costing as much as $300, it is extremely important to keep connectors clean and protected from the atmosphere.
Most high-end equipment and cable connectors are gold plated. One of the reasons for gold-plating is to provide the best signal transmission and to help prevent oxidation and contamination buildup on the surfaces. As some people know, even gold-plated connectors are subject to wear, abrasion, and atmospheric contamination. What many people don't know, however, is that once the gold-plated surface is broken, the base metal (usually copper) is immediately subject to oxidation.
Many companies manufacture contact cleaners, lubricants, enhancers, protectors, etc. Having tried virtually all of them, I can recommend only two options. One is to clean every connection every few weeks with a solvent such as trichlorethane or petroleum naphtha. (Freon TF was once the best solvent, but it is very costly due to tight manufacturing restrictions, and these days one must consider its destructive effects on the ozone layer).
The second option is to use a product called DeoxIT ® GOLD, by CAIG Laboratories, the people who have supplied us with R-5 and R100L for many years. According to the manufacturer, ProGold ® is one of their next-generation products. They state that it not only cleans, protects, and conditions the connector's outer surface (gold-plated, nickel, or silver) but also molecularly bonds and seals the base metals that cause most of the problems.
I have noticed that after a period of time even gold-plated surfaces get dull or tarnish and that when the surface is scratched or worn the base metals become exposed. Also, since gold is very porous, the base metals can actually whisker through the gold and then oxidize.
In my own experiments with DeoxIT ® GOLD, I found that even after six months the surfaces were still clean. Evidently CAIG has done their homework. Two major problems with the other enhancers and lubricants is that they don't perform well on different metals or don't reduce (or prevent) r.f. interference due to different metals coming together in a connection. DeoxIT ® GOLD seems to take care of both issues.
Anyone spending money on audio, video, and other high-performance equipment should definitely try DeoxIT ® GOLD. In my view, the added insurance is well worth a few dollars.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Reprinted with permission from Audio, (c) 1993 Hachette Filipacchi, Inc."
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