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From: whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore)
Newsgroups: rec.audio,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Speaker cables and TWEEK
Summary: Tweak is a liquid semiconductor
Keywords: contact enhancement, switches, connectors, Tweek
Message-ID: <1486@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 20 Jan 90 04:12:34 GMT
References: <7720003@hplred.HP.COM> <74162@philabs.Philips.Com>
Reply-To: whit@milton.acs.washington.edu (John Whitmore)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 40


In article <74162@philabs.Philips.Com> agc@briar.philips.com.UUCP (Aldo G. Cugnini) writes:
>In article <7720003@hplred.HP.COM> hintzman@hplred.HP.COM (Jeff Hintzman) writes:
>>.....  I'm curious to hear feedback 
>>from people who have used "Tweek", this little bottle of stuff that you're
>>supposed to put on your connectors.  
>
>Even though the sales hype says something about "lowers resistance", it
>must do so by possibly cleaning the contact surface or preventing
>(micro-?)corrosion.  I measured the conductivity of the liquid itself
>and it's nil.
>
	As I recall from an early report on the stuff (in Stereo Review,
of all places), the liquid is a semiconductor.  Like a surge protector,
it acts like an insulator UNTIL a surge hits it, then turns conductive
until a while after the surge passes.  In low-voltage connections, the
first break in the connection causes a voltage difference between two
hunks of metal with a thin layer of Tweek between them, which responds
to the voltage difference by... becoming a conductor.  Once it 
starts carrying current, conductivity will persist for a time
(if the manufacturers could manage it, they'd probably have aimed
for several seconds before the contact needed more electric
current to get it conducting again).
	The result is to make contacts much more reliable; it does
NOT abrade anything, nor even clean it, and can be wiped off if it
ever causes problems.  I've used some "contact enhancers" of similar
sort on old oscilloscopes' switches, and it works like magic.
	It is conceivable that a very bad connection could have such
a thick layer of the liquid between its parts that the "turn-on"
effect varied with the amplitude of the music, i.e. caused
distortion, but that's not been noted by anyone I know of who
used Tweak.  The fix for that, of course, is to tighten the
connections with one of the standard techniques (Vise Grips!).
	
	Tweak is, by all accounts, an excellent accessory to have
around.  Blue Stuff is a slightly messier aerosol product with
some similar capabilities.

I am known for my brilliance,                John Whitmore
 by those who do not know me well.