… and it seemed as if I had traded my old cables for much better ones!
I unplugged the two RCA cables between the Rossini and the SPEC amplifier, and cleaned them with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Some precautions: inhaling it is not fun, so wearing a mask is advised. Also, it is highly flammable, so it should be handled with care.
But it is a great cleaning fluid and it evaporates immediately leaving no residue at all.
After a few minutes I plugged the cable back in and it was unbelievable. The improvement in depth, temporal alignment, detail, articulation, modulation, was so big that I could have easily paid a few (!) bucks for that.
Tomorrow I will clean the loudspeaker cables spades, but I learned a lesson: clean the contacts at least once a month.
Of course now I am trying to figure how this simple operation produced such a huge improvement. What happens when some dust, maybe some grease, some pollutant, gets stuck between the contacts? Why does it smear the sound and reduce the dynamics?
I am at a loss, maybe someone more experienced than me can help.
Andrea