Snake oil thread

It's a wonder that society managed to progress this far in the areas of video and computing without all of these tweaks. I guess electrons are just especially picky when it comes to audio.

 

But does Stabilant improve your LAN speeds?

 

That's what they want you to believe. Of course, it is what many audiophools want you to believe too.

Take a look at their warranty conditions on the front page. This is not snake oil, it is shark oil!

But... Ken Ishiguru? Didn't he used to do real audio stuff? Or is it just that I used to be more easily fooled?

Put it in one of those aromatherapy burners, and you'll see your wifi speeds double!

(Please don't blame me if it screws your lungs up, though. I must check to see if it is mentioned in the product safety data)

 

they have oil filled capacitors. Could you make them with real snake oil?

 

Not to defend snake-oil, but contact cleaners and electrical contact enhancers do actually have their place, particularly in areas where the metal contact area is very small such as push pin or chip pad connections. A small amount of dirt/corrosion/oxidation in these cases can lead to intermittent contact or change the contact resistance enough to cause errors to develop. Whether that makes a difference in the world of analog interconnects where the surfaces are huge... meh.

cleaners: eats away oxides and corrosion (to a limited degree), blow away dust and other dirt, might require some manual scrubbing, some variants apply lubricant for easier insertion (hehehe), some variants apply a thin barrier coating (to prevent air from touching and thus oxidizing the surface). Obviously has it's uses in warm humid areas where your connectors suffer from oxidation

contact enhancers: most are simply a conductive slurry (typically an oil with some type of conductive nano/micro particle mixed in); the literature isn't lying when it says it increases contact surface by filling in the gaps; care must be taken to not accidentally short adjacent pins

electrically activated contact enhancer (like Stabilant 22): unlike the above, this is a liquid that is non-conductive until it senses an electric field, at which point it becomes conductive; better than the slurry stuff, but is more of a "set and forget" because it can dry and get crusty/buildup

 

Absolutely agreed. I'm serious when I say that I love DeOxit!

Since I moved to India, I started getting through one mouse (the computer sort! I'm not exactly like my avatar) every six months and then the first thing that happens in phantom double clicks. Not a huge expenditure, but irritating. So I bought a more expensive (than logitech-bog-standard) and it lasted a year. So I learnt how to take them apart and clean the contacts in those small switches. Other gadgets have been literally resurrected.

As I might have written not long ago, it is perfectly possible that a cheaper product would have worked, but even my DeOxit has paid for itself with only a tiny amount used yet. I'm using the cleaner: I want to add the Shield to my armoury. And I wouldn't mind having a more aggressive cleaner.

But going through every contact on every audio box, and reporting the DeOxit changes? No, that will never be me.

Never mind audio, I could happily fill shelves with all this stuff! Stuff that comes with a chance of actually working, as per your examples, for instance, not stuff that comes with pseudo-science bullshit.

Within restricted budget, if a tool or workshop accessory is needed even once, I'll consider it worthwhile. My wife used to disagree with this, but even she likes it when she asks, "can you repair this?" And I say yes!

(I bought some silicone grease last week. Now searching for more O-rings to lubricate!)

 

Sure, and on occasion it makes sense, like cleaning RAM contacts if a memory stress test fails; a cleaning can (sometimes) fix. Connection problems are real enough. Just personally I don't obsess over it (e.g., unplug everything monthly and apply contact cleaner just cause). Then again, I just use 99% isopropyl alcohol. Few bucks for a bottle that lasts years.

 

DeOxit has been my cure for noisy/buzzing tubes about 75% of the time, it's not snake oil. No fluff; It's a great tube pins or cable interconnect cleaner. It doesn't make everything sound magically better but will remove oxidation off metal.

 

That's the key. A real, audible problem plus a fix that worked. That's what even I call a night-and-day difference

Preventative maintenance is valid too, although unlikely to be immediately audible.

 

All patents can be examined by anyone openly. This means that the ones mentioned should be available. Has anyone found them and has anyone looked at them to see what this is and how it works?

Also, pending means literally that. It may be rejected after examination. Anyone can file for a patent. The application automatically becomes pending.

This does not mean that it will be accepted. Rejection may be due to false claims, the technology does not work, or that someone else has already made the technology public in, for example, the open scientific literature or in other patents. This pending statement therefore adds no credibility to the technology but it does not take credibility away either. Failure to get a patent granted is certainly an option.

If a patent has been issued successfully, then this is a different matter. That means that it is no longer pending and that something new has been created and protection is in place.

My point is patent pending is basically meaningless relative to credibility.

 

Yes, I work a fair bit in the IP space. There are a number of 'qualified' statuses..provisional, pending etc that don't amount to much. You might also want to look at WHERE that patent applies.

 

Whilst I accept all that you say, when it comes to snake oil, one has to consider how the P word (pending or granted) is used. Waving the P flag as if it increases credibility is, to me, a big credibility negative.

Also, a lot of crap gets patented.

 

I agree completely.

 

Years ago as a much younger audiophool I bought some sort of "connector enhancer" that you applied to all your cables, rca plugs, even speaker connectors. I only used it on my speaker plugs. Then I realized in was some sort of silver suspension. Yup. The silver reacted with the oxygen in the air and a nice tarnish developed. Can't remember but I think I used some silverware cleaner to remove it. Talk about snake oil. And the price! So glad I didn't slather the stuff all over everything. Probably had a "not liable for any damage caused by this product" in the fine print. Buyer beware. Also freeze your credit!

DeOxit is legit for old tube pins or just general maintenance.

 

The phantom double click on logitech mice is also due to the spring wearing out on the button. It's a tiny flat-ish piece of metal that looks vaguely like a girl's hair opened snap barrette Google. If you can open the button casing (not too hard), remove the spring (easy), give the bendy part a slightly better bend (somewhat easy with the right tools) without it jumping out of your hands and losing it (moderate) and get it back into place (difficult), then your mouse will be good as new.

DeOxit and MrClean Magic Eraser is fantastic for lightly oxidized tube pins.

Silver tarnish is actually somewhat conductive. It's not a good conductor by any means, but compared to copper tarnish (usually a sulfide) or iron oxide/rust which are insulative, it is infinitely better. Well, not mathematically infinitely better, but practically so.

 

That's where I get inside, and have found that cleaning the contact points is enough to do the trick. I apply deoxit and then, after a while, pull a small slip of paper under slight pressure between the contact points. My theory: paper is going to absorb excess fluid, and is very slightly abrasive.

Very slightly? Haha... early lesson learnt in jewellery hobby: don't wipe the stuff with tissue!

 

Heh, instead of paper I've done it with a worn out sheet of 600 grit sandpaper before. At the time I figured the mouse was near the scrapping point anyways, so I was a little more aggressive with my cleaning methods.

Oh hey, here's a button repair pictorial...
http://www.instructables.com/id/Repair-mouse-with-double-click-problem/

 

I used to make jewellery as a hobby. Had a paper called "crocus" that was very, very fine. It probably equates to a grit number, but I never got used to those. Anyway, I still have round, half-round, etc pliers and can manage that stuff, but so far, I have avoided removing that spring. Currently have a Roccat mouse... but the switches seem identical.

recently I disassembled one of those little square tactile-switch buttons. There's a small copper dome inside. removed the crud and slightly increased the doming.

That link is a very useful reference for if and when I have to tweak the spring strength, and there is a very good diagram in the comments about how to replace it, which is the scary bit. Thanks.

 

This has been the biggest criticism of Tekton Design speakers. The listeners love them but anyone looking at their design and questioning the patent's validity, it doesn't make a lick of sense and has completely turned them off of even considering them.

Despite that, I'm still considering a pair just to investigate the hype haha.

 

I've been using deOxit Red & Blue & Gold and Stabilant and silver goo and now nano oil, starting a few decades back.

I've used the Red and Blue in marine and commercial/industrial equipment to good effect.
I've fixed many an intermittent computer hiccup by cleaning the simms/dimms with DeOxit Gold (Pro Gold).
Not to mention cleaning all audio connections with Gold.
It's amazing the amount of crud that comes off on the cleaning pads.

And Stabilant was the miracle cure for auto electrical problems due to water contamination issues for a long time.
I used it on my BMW M/C FI system inputs and outputs and noticed a slight improvement in smoothness and performance.

My latest experiments deal with using the Furutech Nano Fluid and thus far it does seem to make a slight, but noticeable improvement, in focus and inner detail retrieval.
But I've only used it on 2 connector pairs so it's a bit to early to make a final determination.
But if the results are cumulative, and my past experience tells me this is the case, them lettle nanos are helping.
I stopped using the silver goo/paste when I changed the metallurgy in many of my connectors as the silver wasn't very compatible and tended to muddy the SQ.

And I can categorically deny any assertion that this Nano Fluid is snake oil.
Absolutely NO snakes were milked or deprived of their precious and prized audiophool oil.
They used Shark oil, instead,
because it's better… ;-)

hahahahahahahahaha

JJ