All of which helps explain my excitement when Andante-Largo showed me their Super TMD contact enhancer kit – a kit that includes not just a specially developed, low-voltage contact enhancer but a small number of miniature cotton buds, tightly wound and ideally sized for cleaning both RCA and XLR sockets as well as the slots in IEC plugs. Somewhat bemused by my obvious interest, Andante-Largo’s Suzuki-san reached into his box of tricks and produced a small drum filled with 200 of the mini Q-tips, an over the counter purchase – in Japan! But, armed with the product identity and access to the internet, I was quickly able to source the item from a mail-order provider, Japan With Love:
A pot of 200 Cotton Zoo Flamingo cotton buds set me back €6.95 plus postage. Admittedly, that’s pretty steep for cotton buds but, given that I was paying postage anyway, I ordered three pots, which even rotating equipment and cables a soften as I do, should keep me going for quite a while.
Obviously, simply rubbing contact surfaces with a dry cotton bud is next to useless in terms of cleaning. Which raises the question of what contact cleaner to use. I’ve relied for years on Caig DeoxIT DN5 or Pro Gold G5, not least because they’re readily available. Spray the cleaner on your cotton bud and rub vigorously on the target area. Job done. At least it was until now…
As mentioned above, Andante-Largo offer their own contact enhancer, a formulation developed specifically to improve consistency and reliability in critical, ultra-low voltage manufacturing processes – which should suit it ideally to audio applications. Given that this is the same company that sourced those mini cotton buds, I figured it was safe to assume that they knew a thing or two about contact cleaning and contact quality, so their Super TMD contact enhancer should be worth a try. It comes in three sizes: a 1.5ml ‘tester’; a 3ml kit with sufficient fluid to treat most systems and a large 10ml bottle for ‘industrial’ or heavy users.
I had the medium-sized TMD kit. As well as a 3ml bottle of Super TMD solution and the aforementioned mini cotton buds, it also contains some fibrous ‘wipes’ for wrapping round pins (like those on a Schuko mains plug) or using on flat surfaces like spades, a pipette for dispensing small amounts of the fluid and a small brush for applying it to the likes of RCA or XLR contact pins. Look closely and you’ll notice some intriguing, ribbed cotton buds too. Better than the standard shaped ones? Who knows, but I haven’t been able to source them separately so it’s a bit of a moot point.
