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 31 responses by jafreeman

Perhaps this observation has been made; connectors are shafts and blades that fit snugly into tubes and sheaths and also are spades clamped down onto surfaces, all being metal that has been either drawn through dies, cast or machined and then surfaced with gold, rhodium, etc.  Just how perfectly round is the shaft or the tube that receives it? How smooth are the surfaces?  Under electron microscopy, you may just see there is little contact made along these mated surfaces relative to their total area, and that there are large peaks and valleys along the way. A contact enhancer that has some conductive property and the ability to conform to the irregularities mentioned would make up much of the area not contacted by the imperfectly made materials. Is this product so unbelievable as many would claim?  Not if you think about what it may achieve.....I imagine it acts something like solder in a different form.........     
@perfectpathtech, 

You're quite welcome, and thank you for the mention.  I look forward to using your contact enhancer on all my connections--I believe the results will be very enjoyable.  

Best wishes on your success, 

Joseph Freeman 
I used Furutech's NanoTech, the squalene-gold solution years ago when I built some power cords. It's a good anti-oxidant for bare copper in a crimped connection.  
Finally placed my order for a Total Contact kit.  I am stoked for another jump in performance!  
  A great day--my TC kit arrived Friday noon, only 48 hours since ordered, so I went right to work. I painted each end of six power cords' connections, my one pair of interconnects, four banana plugs to REL subs, speaker cable spade lugs to amps, twenty-four Maggie pins, and nine SR Blue fuses.  I used 0.5 ml of the 1.5 ml supply and placed the syringe in the freezer.  
  First listen is very impressive:  Even more information is emerging from a deeper, quieter center. Instruments are more layered, more dimensional--the whole is more seamless, sweeter, clearer.  
  And all of this will get even better over eight weeks?  Then this stuff has got to be about the best audio bargain I have heard and will continue to hear as a constant upgrade over many weeks.  I highly recommend Total Contact to the most knowledgeable, the most skeptical, the most cynical--to all who are looking for an upgrade without spending for one.   
    
Listening to Lee Ritenour's "World of Brazil" on CD, and the percussion is popping out and hanging in the room with a dimensionality not present before Total Contact. Floor toms, kick bass, congas--all with a crisper attack and a fully extended, sweet dwell.  Every instrument is more fully defined in its own space on a more dramatic soundscape.  
  If you enjoy developing your system with easy tweaks, this contact enhancer is for you.  If you've done the heavy lifting, the big investment, found the right combinations, then Total Contact is a further step to tie all the pieces together in a more seamless whole--more hardwired, if that were possible, and it nearly is in the way it all sounds.     
Frank---Yes, the whole is now greater than the sum of the parts.  The better connections are creating a more seamless energy pathway throughout all components.  According to claim, the TC solves the problem of oxidation and continues to improve the connection over eight weeks as it hardens.  This is very appealing to anyone who is putting together power cords with clamped connections from the excellent DIY materials now offered and should also appeal to anyone who has put together a component system at all---highly recommended.  
Frank, thanks for starting your threads on all of the sound improvements I and others have been making through being informed of these products right here.  
Frank, can you get your system on a better circuit than the one with a wall switch?  One dedicated 20 amp would go a lot farther in power supply.  Two would be better if expanding your system in the future. 
It's all good here, Frank.  Redbook CD is surprising me all over again.  There is no doubt from my listening comparisons that TC will benefit anyone who has connected up a component system via power cords, interconnects and speaker cables.  That would be everyone. 
Right on, Grannyring.  If not interested in the topic of this thread, move on to something you like.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.  

I am enjoying the music even more at week four of Total Contact, an audio bargain.  
I am very happy with the results of TC at week four. There is an evolving refinement in clarity and retrieval.  Again, anyone who has put together a component system using interconnections will benefit from TC--that would be everyone.  What I have learned is that an electrical connection made by pins and blades into holes and slots, etc, is not as good as it could be and has been made better by this graphene-based enhancer that takes up the empty spaces and surface irregularities of imperfectly-mated surfaces.  When you listen to what others are reporting, when you are open to learning, you will advance in any endeavor.      
      
Because TC is marketed through Audiogon, they benefit from forum promotions. If someone sold through Ebay but started a thread here to promote their product, Audiogon would call that unfair----they want to be the marketplace and they own this site. 
Very entertaining, Wolf--you just knocked the product--not that it means a thing---other than Audiogon loves this stuff:  a thread that goes viral, promotion of a featured product, arguments--it all goes toward keeping folks interested, attracting new members, increasing commerce; no matter what occurs, Audiogon thrives--as it should.  It's all a big Matrix; we're all here to feed the owners.  Difference is, we benefit via Audiogon in this hobby, as well.

Don't be such a stick in the mud.  
 
This effer guy needs to be carried out in a straight jacket.  I've never heard a bigger bunch of slandering, chest thumping, self-proclaimed fools than right here.  
Administration, please save this thread or kill it, and let the OP and the stakeholders start fresh.   
Resolution 1, you have described my own path to a tee--same additions, including SR fuses, resulting in no desire to change components for years. 
Andynotadam, you won't regret taking down your system to connect it all back together using TC.  Everyone should do this.  It's that good.  I held back on trying TC--sure glad I have it in now.   
I like the Mad Scientist's invitation to submit the kookiest theory behind the BlackDiscus because, due to commercial considerations, the Mad Scientist is unable to explain how the BlackDiscus devices work.  Examples are "The Alien Technology Explanation", "The StarFleet Explanation", and "The Dark Matter Explanation".   

Not so with Total Contact. Everything is explained so the user can understand why they are spending their money.   
The assumption was that high-quality connections between components were as good as could be---until we applied TC, and this is where the doubters are getting it wrong---again.   
"...amazing, and kind of sad."   Wolf, you're channeling the current occupant, who cries fake news to obscure the truth.  Total Contact is the real deal.  
Yeah, no one has felt pressured to purchase TC.  The decisions to buy have been based on users' testimonies.  What we have from the chief accusers here are a big pile of failing complaints.  
"If the posts “seem over the top”, then perhaps the product is that good."   Grannyring
 
Yes, TC IS that good.  We have believed that our high-quality, over-sized connections of gold and rhodium plating were top notch.  Materials science has now shown us that connections can be made even more conductive, so much so, that anyone who has connected up various components into a "system" will benefit from TC.  We put so much into separating functions out, e.g. transports, DACs, pre-amps, phono stages, mono blocks, power supplies, subs, speakers, and then we put a lot into bringing them all back together, but there is a sound degradation in that, as well.  TC is meant for the home system, where pieces are not often unmated, where connections can be made more seamless for a more integral soundscape, and this is the result I am hearing with TC.  


"It seems Agon may not be the place for the open minded assessment of cutting edge innovation. Innovation that is not understood is assumed to be an overblown hoax. At least this one and fuses fall into this category. I understand this fear and how skeptics must join together and feed and nourish this particular reality filter."   Grannyring  

A well-stated, well-defined observation, Grannyring.  As much as we have tried to make TC understood, the cynics are hanging on to their egos, the biggest obstruction to new learning.  That this thread may appear as a product promotion is only because the OP beta-tested it and published his review in the same glowing terms as any reviewer of an audio product would.  It seems some folks can't handle that.

  
Orthomead--thanks for posting your findings.  I can only agree wholeheartedly--I also have found new sonic bliss from my older CD player.  
Elizabeth, I have always enjoyed your narratives on the AC forums over the years. We who are using and enjoying TC seem weirdly protective on this forum because the attackers are much the same gang who have tried to torpedo the OP’s threads on SR fuses.

As an aside, I am sorry you are struggling with those old HiFi Tuning fuses in your new 20.7’s. Please replace them with SR Blues of the correct ratings, and you can ditch the attenuators for good--see the historically long SR Blue threads under "Misc Audio" for reference.
FolkFreak, thanks for your review of TC. In noting the high quality of your components and accessories, including the Torus wall-mount power supply, I am glad you DO hear the contribution of TC as a more organic presentation. What I get a kick out of is that TC continues to reward over time. I will be at eight weeks this weekend, and I have been happier each time I listen.  
Based on my listening evaluations, Total Contact is an absolute audio bargain.  
Frank, I am also listening this weekend with the new mystery tweak, left in the same place for two days now.  This is also my eighth week after pasting all external points with TC.  Question is, am I hearing the "peak onset" of TC, or am I hearing an improvement due to the presence of this new accessory?  I have been more impressed each time I have listened these past weeks, and if I were to ascribe this weekend's improvements to that eight-week point in time, I would say it was right on time. But, if I were not willing to be held to a linear point in time, I would have to say this new tweak is responsible for the differences I am hearing this weekend. Instruments are standing out in clearer relief.  There is more information revealed, just as in past weeks with the contact enhancer.  Whatever this thing is doing, I have just reached another plateau of enjoyment---wow!     
Geoff, are you telling me this thing just tamed a geomagnetic storm?
Seriously though, I am enjoying more retrieval of information within a more sorted-out presentation. I had to back the subs' volumes down by 20% due to more bass from the mains.  
Now I won't be listening at all for three days---back to work.  Keep up the comments on this new accessory--need some backup here, because I usually don't believe in something unless I can envision how it may contribute.      
Frank, Tommylion, myself, and now Resolution1 (Rc)?  Like most of this group, I didn't even know I was chosen to try this thing--it just appeared in the mail---call for instructions.  I was given the basic idea of its use and where---then, wait for something to happen---expect something even better than TC, as I recall.  Considering what TC has done for my system, that is a tall claim, even from its creator.  I could not even imagine how this thing could work, so I was not expecting much--then I sat there in disbelief as the sonic improvements emerged over several hours. No--must be the TC at eight weeks--has to be, but the changes came on too fast for that.  I cannot explain this thing, but, as the others have said, "I like it."   
This new thing may not be a component, but it's like putting in a new component.  The SR Blues and the TC are also like adding new components.  The system remains the same---the signal passing through it has changed dramatically. 
Not sure of the pricing or of special offers, but this product appears more likely to come with a satisfaction/return guarantee--only speculating--not sure if its properties remain constant or deplete over time--no idea how it works, just that it does.