Tube and Tube Socket Cleaning


I have a pair of RT 12AU7's of which one of them is noisy when powered up. I have switched it from side to side in my pre-amp (CJ PV10A) and the noise follows. I sprayed a great deal of compressed air into the tube socket and around the prongs of the problem tube and this has diminished the noise greatly, but not completely. I spoke with the dealer and he advised me to take a fingernail file and gently file the prongs on the problem tube. Any thoughts on this???
He also mentioned that there were tube socket cleaning kits available. Has anyone had any experience with these or can anyone recommend one?

Thanks!!!

Brad Day
Atlanta, GA

PS My searches on Audiogon for this information did not turn up any matches.
bday0000
The type of noise was static-like.

I'll try the Kontak and see how it goes.

Thanks, y'all!!!!

Brad
I also use Kontak on a regular basis to clean all connections. Kontak can be ordered from http://www.gcaudio.com/ Perhaps the tubes need replaced? When you switched them, did the static change sides?
bday: DON'T use nail-files, Crocus or extremely light sandpaper will do. You can use thin pipe cleaner for the sockets! "Detergents"-wise Kontak or Cramolin have worked for me...
Lak wrote: Perhaps the tubes need replaced? When you switched them, did the static change sides?

Yes, it did change sides. However, I thought that maybe this one tube was exposing a problem my pre-amp was experiencing on both sides. The pre-amp (CJ PV10A)is about 10 years old so it (really, really) needs to be cleaned up anyway. The tubes I installed are new.

Thanks, all!!!!

Brad
most-likely caps become to be statically noisy and need to be replaced especially ones in ground isolation circuitry.
measuring capacitors for the face value +-tolerance isn't an easy task and require havin an osciloscope to measure the discharge time so without any checking and suffering setting up an oscilloscope for the right scale just change them all by face value and with better quality.
checking low-wattage bias resistors is much easier task for the rated value.
fuses within such period of time even if functional can create an extra noise.
whenever you change the caps you should run your preamp(approx 1 hr) on no-signal operation meaning that you will have an input connected with muted or unpowered source.