AC1
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2001
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Ok, I'm sure some people have read the Stereophile article on flitz metal polish. So I decided to give polishing the spades of power cords a try... The idea is to get as smooth a surface as possible.
Instead of using flitz, I used a Meguires metal polish, which is not a very abbrasive compound. I also used some 2000 grade sand paper along with the polish to help with some of the more contaminated spades. Using sand paper is not ideal since it leaves minute scratches on the surface. Personally I found that the surfaces of most spades pretty bumpy and using sand paper would be the only way to smooth it out rather than simply trying to polish which would have been almost impossible to make much of a difference. So I sanded a bit then tried to polish out as much as I can. Then after all this I cleaned the spades with alcohol and then de-oxit to get rid of the residue left from the polish and finally pro-gold.
Well the result was much cleaner spades than just using de-oxit, since I was able to remove the contamination on the older spades (on my line noise filter) that de-oxit just didn't do much for.
The sonic results were very impressive for me... It's kind of like a higher form of pro-gold which is the best way to describe it. The sound opened up being more dynamic, better defined, more "snap" to everything and sounding faster than it did before. These changes were not subtle, I have to lower the volume since everything is just louder as well.
I had some very contaminted spades on my power/line condtioners and probably the reason for why I heard such a big change, so YMMV. But it is worth trying. Sandpaper is not ususally suggested since it is abbrasive... But I am wondering if there is a good way to polish out even more of scratches? Any Ideas? Others have said to use polishing clothes, but I find it hard to believe that just hand polishing with cloth could get rid of bumps in the surface of most spades (maybe if the spades were already very smooth)?
Instead of using flitz, I used a Meguires metal polish, which is not a very abbrasive compound. I also used some 2000 grade sand paper along with the polish to help with some of the more contaminated spades. Using sand paper is not ideal since it leaves minute scratches on the surface. Personally I found that the surfaces of most spades pretty bumpy and using sand paper would be the only way to smooth it out rather than simply trying to polish which would have been almost impossible to make much of a difference. So I sanded a bit then tried to polish out as much as I can. Then after all this I cleaned the spades with alcohol and then de-oxit to get rid of the residue left from the polish and finally pro-gold.
Well the result was much cleaner spades than just using de-oxit, since I was able to remove the contamination on the older spades (on my line noise filter) that de-oxit just didn't do much for.
The sonic results were very impressive for me... It's kind of like a higher form of pro-gold which is the best way to describe it. The sound opened up being more dynamic, better defined, more "snap" to everything and sounding faster than it did before. These changes were not subtle, I have to lower the volume since everything is just louder as well.
I had some very contaminted spades on my power/line condtioners and probably the reason for why I heard such a big change, so YMMV. But it is worth trying. Sandpaper is not ususally suggested since it is abbrasive... But I am wondering if there is a good way to polish out even more of scratches? Any Ideas? Others have said to use polishing clothes, but I find it hard to believe that just hand polishing with cloth could get rid of bumps in the surface of most spades (maybe if the spades were already very smooth)?