New Tweak --- Its Fantastic


THE NEW TWEAK

Over the good part of this past year I’ve been beta testing a new tweak, the name of which is "Total Contact." Its a hi-bred graphene contact enhancer that is different from all other contact enhancers that have come and gone for one reason or another. I’m not new to these contact enhancers, having had quite a bit of experience with a product developed by the late Brian Kyle and his "Quick Silver" contact enhancer. The "Total Contact" is different ... a LOT different.

"Total Contact" is graphene based and is not a vibration control. It eliminates micro-arching between two contacts. Micro-arching, much like Micro-vibration smears the sound in our stereo systems. Its the type of distortion that we don’t know is there .... until we eliminate it. There is no break-in as we know it. The sound is improved right off the bat, but what you hear is only a smidgen of what’s to come.

I tested three generations of "TC," each of which was an improvement over the previous incarnation. The final mix was cryogenitically treated and made for a more effective, much smoother application. It comes in a large hypodermic needle type plunger containing 1.5 ml of product and includes a instructional DVD and an application brush.

The application should be applied with a very thin coat to all of your electrical connections .... from your cartridge pins to your power cords. I did my entire system, including the ends of my fuses.

Upon initial application, you will notice an improvement in clarity, correctness of tonal balance and a more overall organic sound. But ... that is just scratching the surface of what this magic paste does. As it cures, the improvements become more apparent. Much more!

There are two real break-through events that happen almost to the day with "Total Contact," one at four weeks and another at eight weeks . At four weeks, you’ll get a real jump in clarity and overall improvement. That’s only a taste though of what’s to come at eight weeks. At eight weeks your system’s focus will make a jump in SQ that is so real - its surreal.

After 40 years in the hobby, and a total tweak nut, I have never heard anything that does what this graphene paste does. The see-through clarity at eight weeks becomes simply amazing. The "paste" eventually cures into a kind of polymer plastic and it seems that the sound improves with each listening session. So, its important that you leave your contacts alone for the duration. If you’re the type of person that continually switches wires in and out, you’ll have to re paste until enough time has elapsed to get "the cure."

The only problem I had was with the first batch and that had to do with shorting out a tube pin in the line stage. Use the "TC" very sparingly on tube pins, if at all. I only had problems with the line stage tube pins. The Amp, CD Player and Phono Stage has had no tube pin problems at all.

Tim Mrock, one of our fellow A’goners, is the developer of the product. Its taken Tim 15 years and several patents to get it right. Tim has "pasted" every electrical contact he can find in his audio system, all of the switches in his circuit breaker box, every contact in his car ... and has used it in commercial applications such as hospital circuit breakers, surgical lights ... and other places where efficiency and long life of electrical components are deemed important.

This product is highly recommended to anyone who truly wants to get the most out of his/her audio systems. There’s enough product in each tube to do at least two audio systems as it just takes a very thin coat on each application to be effective. The last tube was enough to do my system twice and then a friend’s system this past weekend.


Frank

PS: There were a couple of other A’goner beta testers of this product as well. Hopefully, they will chime in here with their experiences for comparison. I "pasted" both of Steve Fleschler’s systems a few days ago, perhaps he will comment on his results too. We forgot to paste Steve’s power cords though, so there’s a lot more to be had from Steve’s two fantastic systems.

Frank
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Showing 4 responses by folkfreak

I've been following this thread with some interest and am in theory interested in using TC in the context of my system (although given it's complexity and number of connections applying TC is not something I'd relish short of a full breakdown if/when I move). 

Anyway I was struck by some of the varying experiences with this, and with other similar system level tweaks (e.g. fuses, footers, damping materials etc) and a possible expalantion of what might be going on

In a nutshell my hypothesis is that for tweaks of this nature (i.e. those that address spurious noise, interference, resonances, subtler room effects and all sorts of potential impediments to hearing what was originally in the recording) far from there being a law of diminishing returns there is in fact a system of increasing returns

What do I mean? I mean that as you reduce noise (I'll use this term to mean all potential sources of non original signal distortion) of all sorts the marginal benefit of removing each additional level of noise is larger i.e. as you can resolve more you gain a greater appreciation of removing each additional bit of interference

This effect should be independent of the absolute level of investment in active hardware (assuming a decent source and resolving speakers, plus enough room treatment that you can hear any type of change)

Certainly it's my experience that the more I address "problems" in reproduction the greater benefit I get from each small tweak (e.g. most recently careful application of foQ material). This also helps explain the "aha"/big change experience sometimes associated with what may seem minor tweaks -- in the context of such an optimized system the change may seem large while in another system no or little effect may be apparent

Of course the other approach to getting to this audio nirvana is to simplify the system to remove potential sources of interference (lets call this a Kaitian philosophy) -- unfortunately not the route I've chosen to go down 😉but if I was to start again it's quite appealing
I've been following the history of TC with some interest and after hanging back for a while purchased a set and applied it to my interconnects, super-tweeter connections, and select power cords. I've been leery to post my findings in large part put off by the toxic atmosphere this thread has generated.

Overall while I think TC in general has a positive impact it, at least to this user, in his system, is not a particularly impactful tweak. Think of it more as the difference between a good first pressing and a re-press then the equivalent of a major component upgrade.

The pressing comparison is well chosen because for me the impact of TC was to assist in making the system sound more organic, less hi-fi. So it tempers the common experience of frequency highlighting ("wow isn't that bass good", "love those cymbals") and instead helps you hear the holistic performance, putting more of the performers in the room together. I found exactly the same thing this morning comparing the Cooking Vinyl and original Tara pressings of Davy Spillanes "Atlantic Bridge" -- the former is all (very impressive) bass and bombast while the latter at first seems subdued but is in fact much better integrated.

To some extent this sort of impact is like that obtained from use of FoQ material - its not like a fuse change which is more black/white and direct in impact. Of course it doesn't help that for 24 hours after application the sound is awful, chesty and congested. This clears up quickly (and it's elapsed time not play time). I've personally not noticed big improvements with time but I do make all manner of changes in my system on an ongoing basis anyway.

I do find TC to be a pain to use however and I'm leery to try it on digital connections (of which I have a lot) given past experience with other tweaks really messing them up (the FoQ for example).

So overall for me its a B+ type product, worth having and for me and worth the $$ but by no means a must have. As it's tricky to use and hard to do A/B I'd only recommend it to those that are already happy with their systems, and also to those who are looking for a more yin oriented, holistic presentation than a yan/analytical.
Re Fremer -- please note that this was a repost of a column from 2002 -- clearly nothing that anyone is discussing in this entire interminable thread can be considered new news other than the specific contact enhancer concerned.

As Fremer's column so clearly makes out attention to detail in these sorts of matters, as with many others in our hobby, pays back. Ascribing all of these types of effects to one miracle tweak rather than taking care with many cumulative small adjustments is what really puts me off
@andera because it’s (pm) hidden on the “marketplace feedback” tab, go figure 😀