Are contact treatments worth the money?

I use the AV Extreme and have found it to work as advertised. I only use it on my RCA's between my pre and amps and it really brings the music to another level. I would not put it on my RCA pins again as it caused problems in my amps that manifested in a series of blown fuses and tubes. I'm also leery about using it on tube pins. I just put it on the outside of the female RCA connector.

The big drawback with this stuff is you have to wait three weeks for it to cook. I have heard the Walker paste works right away so I may give that a try.

I agree with Rodman's observation. It's really more about keeping the signal flow constant than it is about super conductivity. The paste does that by filling in the micro gaps to reduce signal transfer vibration.

Hard to beat Markphd's original response. Nothing wrong with also doing a little wiping with fine emery & cleaning if desired. Away from the audiophile world you are not likely to find high cost fairy goop in critical signal paths (I think the reason for this is that testing and calibration instruments are greatly lacking in imagination). You will find some relatively low dollar goop used to help prevent a hot joint where fairly high currents are involved.

Hmmmm...sounds like many of you like Walker Fairy Goop. I am going to rent an electron microscope and see what happens at the intersection of current, metal and goop.

This may come as a shock(no pun intended), BUT- Electron Microscopes were NOT so named because they can actually observe electrons. =8^)

Viiu- The key to avoiding the problems you've encountered in your use of a conductive product is the term, "sparingly". Many have applied much more than needed, with the same results as you. KUDOS on not throwing out the baby with the bath water. You could still gain much more by applying the product to your RCA positive, and tube pins(sparingly and avoiding any bridging between conductors). Happy listening!