Can i clean the headphone jack on electrical equipment?

I've just got a new v-studio 20 which allows me to record guitar on my laptop but when i have the headphones in there is a constant crackle. The Headphones have a connector which allows the 3.5 jack to go into the v-studio which has a 1/4 inch hole. The headphones don't crackle when not using the connector and the headphones and connector are brand new. Any ideas how i can stop the crackling?