Uh, oh, looks like Revenge of the Nerds II Nerds in Paradise will be showing all weekend. Get out your popcorn and Milk Duds.
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
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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hifiman5 Here is my first experience with the application of Total Contact to solder joints. Waiting out the storm that never really occurred I decided to treat my Altmann hybrid dac and its add on 12 chip tower. Inspecting the board connections and their close proximity I had to choose the joints that had safe and easy access. Those joints were the input filter caps as well as the output caps all the naked Vishay resistors I could reach short 2 inch jumpers between each board and the zenors in the power supply and finally the dc input pins from the battery and cap box.I used a fine tip artist brush but mostly a toothpick to place and spread the Total Contact on these tightly placed solder points. I checked my work with my phone magnifier tool and light to see if there was any bleed over between joints. Application of this solution was safe because it stays on the tool and there is no drips or spills across terminals. I probably treated 20 joints total. I turned the dac on first by itself hoping for no bombs bursting in air..there were none. From there I powered the rest of the system on which had been off for 2 days. Before I could get to my chair 9 feet away I knew something was for the better. The system sounded as if it had been on and playing for hours and not off for 48 hours or more. The dac especially, always sounded best after it had signal running thru it not just on at idle. Out of the gate it had that 2 hour window of sound now even more transparent than ever before. The first cd that was at hand was Beggars Banquet..always liked the Stones music but the recordings always sounded like they were congealed and grungy. Sympathy for the Devil now had transparency and a grunge free see thru window. The sound stage on my system has always been big and wide and now even more so. The stage left and right of each speaker was that of the room width 21 feet. The sound from each speaker extended down each side wall towards the back of the room about 4 feet in length on either side. These instruments and characters were more than just the normal phase components mixed on many recordings. Never before was it so apparent on this disc that the background vocals on the right side being a distinct group of multiple figures standing in a separate space when recorded..This disc has an excellent mix now not what I ever heard or saw before. With this experience I will continue to remove covers and plates on all my components expecting full well a continued increase of transparency a reduction of grunge and the addition of flesh and bones to the musical experience. What I just described was nearly immediate and not over days or weeks..pretty darn cool. Tom |
I had Robert over for pizza and a listening session last night. We had a blast listening to Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman recordings. Robert’s constant comments: "I knew these recordings were good, but not THAT good!" Yep, the system continues to improve with each listening session. Like Tom’s post above, I hadn’t listened to the system for a couple of days and yet the improvement was definitely there. The latest Total Contact treatment is still maturing with the sound improving as it does ... leaving me and Robert wondering just how much better will the system get. For those of you who have not discovered Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman recordings, here’s what you’re looking for: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xthe+best+of+a... https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=the+best+of+arthur+lyman&_osacat=11233&_from=R40&_... Both mono and stereo versions are good. One CD we listened to had the first 13 cuts in mono. It was fantastic. If you like Tropical/Exotic/ Polynesian music from the 50’s & 60’s with all of the drums, gongs, rattles, voices and great sound, give them a try. The entry price certainly is right. Frank |
cheapbob ... I have to tell you, this little Kenwood CD player is pretty amazing. It lacks low bass, but the mids and highs are really good. Right there with some of the best I've heard, including my temporarily defunct ARC player. All I did to the Kenwood was to paste the PC and IC's with Total Contact, put some good footers under it, and a VPI brick on top. Another "cheap" player to consider is the old "Sharp." Similar in sound to the Kenwood, and maybe even a little better. Usually available on Ebay for under 100 bucks. These old CD players can be problematic, but when working right, can be pretty amazing too. Today, Robert and I are going down to Steve Fleischer's house to finish pasting his system. We still have all of his PC's and speaker cables to do. So ... more smiles for Steve. :-) Frank |
@oregonpapa I have no CD collection any longer. When I saw the end in sight, I ripped everything to MP3 (I had never even heard of FLAC way back then) and then sold them off to the used CD store, while it was still open. Maybe I had a vision, but when Napster was a hot ticket, I realized the music industry was about to make a shift in its way of delivering music. My CD collection was not that extensive--maybe 100 discs or so. When I figured out FLAC and had a public library card, the majority of my digital library was gained 10 CDs at a time (The limit I could borrow from the library) Hence, on the Cheap. My street cred as 'being cheap' got a solid broadside when an audiophile friend gave me a pair of Nordost Valhalla Reference speaker ribbons. The total value of the Computer Audiophile on the Cheap system went from several hundred dollars to $4,000 plus a few Hundred dollars. Such problems to have... |
The rest of the two systems consist of power cords, three prong and the units IECs prongs, the insides of IEC plugs and speakers terminals and wires. The result was multiplied from just treated the ICs 3 weeks ago. The sound is more focused, 3D sounding in width and depth, more dynamic in both micro/macro dimensions and superior bass. That’s the immediate change. It was thrilling to hear both micro changes in quiet music playing against loud, simultaneously loud music. Music sounds more like a live performance as opposed to canned music/sound. My wife and I listened for 2 hours this evening to 70s rock cd collections on the secondary music system which previously sounded less than enjoyable (probably not from original sources). The change in sound was so profound that the music had a live performance quality like never before. Then, I spent the rest of the evening listening to LPs in my main listening room. The dynamics on LA 4 jazz combo LPs was immense, as the best LPs can do to equal uncompressed CDs. I am very happy. When I purchase TC next week, I will do my secondary equipment (PC on cassette, VPI 19 78 rpm TT, masterlink alessis CD mastering piece, VPI TNT/VPI speed controller) and 2 video systems with all of their PCs and ICs. For $300 to be able to improve multiple audio video equipment systems so much, I think TC is a bargain. I will be treating a cable manufacturers own system. I bet he will recommend it to all his customers. He already recommends upgraded fuses and circuit breakers where possible after experiencing the improvements in my system. |
I understood extremely clearly - TC is amazing and nothing beats it not even an electronics upgrade! This is the wonder product of the millennium - and only $300 for a huge quantity! What a bargain. The fact that it only works fully after exactly 8 weeks to the day just proves how amazing TC is. Frankly, the absurd marketing claims are back firing heavily. And the more extreme testimonials that your promoters add, the more dubious everyone is becoming. |
Shadorne is a troll. There is no back firing on TC marketing. TC does what the SR blue fuse does, due to creating superior electron transmission between contacts. The results are heard immediately (although the claim is that it improves with age-I can only attest to the fuse improvement over time at this time). I will post at the 4 and 8 week time marks as to changes in sound/musical enjoyment. |
Color me skeptical.🙄 Do you guys mean to tell me that you make no changes to the system or add any tweaks to your systems in all that time, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, whatever? I don’t think I ever heard of audiophiles who are that patient, who do nothing at all for that long. Do you just sit on your hands the entire time waiting for a sudden boost in SQ? Many testers already said they keep treating more and more contacts over time, as new applications are discovered, so they must loose track of what was treated originally. 4 weeks starting when? After the first application? After the last application? Weather conditions, time of day, day of week, all those things - and more - influence the sound, too. I suspect this should be filed under, Too Many Variables. If it doesn’t make sense it’s not true. - Judge Judy |
^^^ geoffkait ... There is a definite improvement right off the bat, very similar to installing a whole complement of SR Blue fuses. With nothing else done, at four weeks there is an additional breakthrough in SQ. Between the four week and eight week time span, I was in the hospital and rehab hospital recovering from heart surgery. So ... I hadn’t turned the system on for over four weeks. That took me slightly beyond the eight week jump. When I got home and took my first listen, the eight week phenomenon had already set in. In my system, it was amazing. Everything was the same ... all the things we like about audio. Still tonally correct. BUT now there was a super clarity that I had not experienced in ANY audio system before except in Randy Cooley’s room at the Newport show a few years ago. Could it have been his 150k turntable, 10k arm, 10k cartridge, the Vandersteen 7’s, and his super ARC reference electronics causing all of that transparency, who knows? All I know is that I’m getting a healthy taste of that sound now with a far, far, more modest system. I heard a bit of it on both of Steve’s systems yesterday after pasting his electronics and speaker cables with the Total Contact. Steve is raving about the gain in SQ that yesterday brought him. He’s just scratching the surface. If he gets the same clarity I did at eight weeks, and I’m confident he will, he’s in for a real treat. So, to address your concerns >>> Nope, no other changes between the four weeks and eight weeks in my case. I didn’t even clean the contacts before applying the Total Contact. Nothing. Nada. Frank |
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The last 2 paragraphs below are what I posted on the 25th of December the very first day the thread was loaded. If you actually read the last sentence below you will read that the Total Contact made an immediate improvement on just 2 connections and that impression made me move forward with many more. So that means the improvement was heard within the first minute of turning the system back on..not 8 weeks later. Again you don’t need to wait 8 weeks to hear an improvement unless you just want to sit there with the clock ticking...................the improvement is now. "This product I applied first to the terminal posts of my 40 lb deep cell marine battery that powers my 1lb dac..I chose these connections first because they were easy to get to, they were far apart so I could avoid any migration of the solution, I could determine how the product flowed from brush to metal posts.. if the solution didn’t make for an improvement then it would be easy to remove. " "I thought if the solution was brushed on these two connections first.. upstream from a 100000uf capacitor bank and bypass caps as a supply for a dc. Dac. If the solution made for a improvement here then I would move ahead..The solution made a broadband improvement, so I moved forward with more application points. Tom" |
I am just pointing out that the TC marketing team has gone completely overboard on the superlatives. It just sounds way to good to be true. If it is too good to be true then it probably isn’t - and that is how this marketing approach is back firing. If there were just a few credible statements rather than blatant promotion then the TC marketing department might have more success and enjoy more sales. As it stands, if I paste TC on my golf ball then I should easily beat Tiger Woods - because it is that amazing! |
This ain’t my first rodeo, cowboys. 🤠 I am not (rpt not) disputing there are audible improvements right out of the gate with product. I got on board the whole contact enhancer train 🚂 way back when Ronnie Raygun 🔫 was in office. What I was objecting to, uh, in case anyone missed it, was the claim that differences in sound, if any, after 4 or 8 weeks can be directly attributed ONLY to the product under discussion. You know, to the the many variables issue. It’s the same for ANY product that is assumed to take a very long time to break in, by the way. I’m not (rpt not) disputing the break in, I’m disputing the claim of being able to hear it. That’s all. |
The newest component in my high fi food chain is my deep cell marine battery that powers my dac. The battery is at least 3 years old. So I think I know what my rig sounds like..I know what every minor change can make, a change in postion of a lamp or candle holder even the humidity in my sound room. Total Contact makes for a boat load of change to the good side as soon as it is applied..at first touch at every additional touch the improvement is heard..not 4 weeks not 8 weeks. That time zone change has not yet arrived in my audio room.Tom |
As to tweaks, prior to upgrading two amp fuses and an SR black duplex, it was nearly two years prior when I upgraded my Stillpoints (5 pair) from the early 2000s model to the current models and installed a Bryston Bit20 isolation transformer. I have changed IC cables per my friend/manufacturer but those were incremental changes (sleeve over positive wiring which reduced capacitance by 50%, change from a 30g. to a 26g. return silver wire in a loom of wiring, etc-subtle changes). I have the same components and other tweaks for over a decade. So, an immediate and dramatic change in sound wrought by the SR fuses and TC are wonderful and all thanks to Frank for bringing them to me. P.S. As I've previously stated, I went through nearly a dozen different types of isolation devices two to three years ago until I settled on the Stillpoints. |
@geoffkait Did you mis-type the following: " I’m not (rpt not) disputing the break in, I’m disputing the claim of being able to hear it. That’s all." How can you, of all people here make such a claim? You have claimed countless times in a wide variety of threads to hear all kinds of differences in tweaks and equipment as it/they break-in. So which is it?😳 |
Any more news on when this TC is available? I am at day 28, after applying Quicksilver Gold to the tube pins of my NSO Mullard 12au7 1950's longplates, in my preamp part of my hybrid integrated and the increase in performance across the board is very noticeable. When I first swapped out my RCA clear tops for the Mullards the difference after 72 hours of breakin wasn't as much as I had expected, but the RCA''s had the QS Gold put on them about 4 or 5 years ago. So it wasn't until after 28 days after putting the QS Gold on my Mullards that it was fair to judge them. I am now very happy with my Mullards. Very full, smooth and detailed sound and . I was afraid I might lose some detail at the frequency extremes but I haven't found this at all. I bought my Mullards from Brent Jesse here in IL and he was very helpful, patient and a gentleman to work with. I tried his top tube dampers too. The QSG has always yielded great results on all my connections for the past 5 years. Additinally, I do not feel the QSG'S performance ever deteriorated after going past the inital 30 day mark as Oregonpapa and some others have. I was just told about this thread about two weeks ago by my friend and fellow audio nut "dorkwad", after I had already applied QSG to the tubes. I have followed Oregonpapa on many threads and bought the SR fuses, power cords based on his and others recommendations. I have found his reviews/opinions of products to be very helpful and to be close to what I have experienced upon trying them. I still have a little QSG left but I am very tempted to try the TC for future changes. I am not sure I want to pull everything out and reapply with the TC though. Lol |
Jetter [ Also, deep, the fact is that all 16 of your posts since joining A’gon are defending this product from us naysayers. Do you have a financial or other interest in it, or just really jazzed by graphene?] Read my posts. You’ll note that I do not at any stage defend this product. I have no exposure to this product and I’ve made that plain a few times. I have no financial interest in this tweak, in the Graphene industry or in Mad Scientist for that matter. I just hate when people pepper internet fora with scoffing and ill researched comments. |
^^^ Tuffy ... Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated. Its been a long time since I used a Quicksilver product. It was an initial improvement for sure. I found that it deteriorated over time. Now, with that said, you and I may not have used the same product. Was the Quick Silver GOLD an upgrade from Quicksilver? The Total Contact is in a league by itself in my opinion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For those asking questions, I’d suggest they read this thread from the beginning. Most questions have been answered already. A case in point is the fifth paragraph in the opening salvo where I addressed the initial application’s improvement of the SQ. " 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!" Frank |
Jetter [ Hey deep, the fact that you are putting your vastly superior intellectual abilities to use discussing the merits of "sparky tonic" kind of indicates that maybe you are taking this all a little too seriously. There are plenty of us who use our writing and reasoning skills in real jobs and don’t have the need to research and write long winded dossiers about tweaks in our time off. But, I will look forward to reading your well thought out, grammatically correct review of this product after you purchase it and wait the required two months for it to activate and start working.] Thanks for acknowledging the high standard of my writing skills. What I take seriously is half-a**ed attacks on anything that might have some merit and which are the result of laziness (intellectual or otherwise). I am back to work now and was on holiday last week so had lots of time to write dossiers and such. I am now back to a "real job" but I thoroughly enjoyed myself here. It’s fun trolling the trolls. |
Oregonpapa wrote, “Its been a long time since I used a Quicksilver product. It was an initial improvement for sure. I found that it deteriorated over time. Now, with that said, you and I may not have used the same product. Was the Quick Silver GOLD an upgrade from Quicksilver?” >>>>Uh, I’m getting a very vivid sense of deja vu. Oh, maybe that’s because I answered this exact same question only a few days ago. 😬 |
oregonpapa OP tuffy ... Brian was a nice guy. As I shared in a previous post, Brian and I hooked up at the CES in Vegas one year and went room to room trying to talk the vendors into using Brian’s product in their demo. >>>>>How did that work out for ya? Clark Johnson, Audio Journalist at large, went from room to room at various CES with several of my products, including the Intelligent Chip and Brilliant Pebbles, but also with other tweaks like CD treatments and that gray cloth Stillpoint ERS anti RFI crap. 😛 The usual response from exhibitors was, “We don’t use tweaks.” Frequently Clark was met with the Ooshka Ooshka look. 👀 Which, if you don’t mind me saying so too much, kind of illustrates the pretty severe gap between the industry in general and real audiophiles. How many real audiophiles are there out there? Oh, gotta be at least, what, 50. From what I can tell the high end is drying up faster than an old bottle of Quicksilver Gold. 🤠 but I digress. |
^^^ How did it work out? Same experience as you Geoff. Except we did get one high end manufacturer to try it on his IC’s and speaker wire. The improvement was obvious and immediate. In the meantime, Brian and I had a lot of fun. How many "real" audiophiles are there? When the international market is taken into consideration, there’s plenty. I had one manufacturer of high end electronics tell me one time that his best customers were in Brazil. Frank |
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Grover Huffman high end audio cables are sold internationally with a significant portion of his business from East Asia (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan). He has sales throughout Europe and countries like Egypt, Turkey and South Africa. He has more difficulty selling cables in the U.S. because his cables are priced lower than comparable Nordost, Transparent Audio, Siltech, etc. cables by a factor of 10X to 20X. There are many more audiophiles internationally than in the U.S. (CES is tiny potatoes, Munich audio show is the big one). |
Wesheadly…question the efficacy of certain seemingly "faith based" tweaks at your peril! Even asking simple questions and foolishly expecting rational answers to them can result in being labeled a "troll" or "negative nancy" or maybe even a "Republican," as the Golden Eared Uber-Qualified sophisticates who shamelessly promote certain things are "real serious" magic hat rack and directional fuse wire aficionados with money to burn. $300 contact enhancing goo that takes 80 hours to ultimately work its Complete and Astonishing System Improvement magic (although, to be fair, it seemingly produces some of the life changing magic mojo immediately after applying) should be accepted on faith as, after all, what the heck do YOU know anyway? Just order the stuff, smear it on your wires, and sit back knowing somebody smarter and possibly better looking and clearly more qualified to opine about Sonic Goo Benefits told you to get the damn stuff. At least the proletariat tin eared masses can enjoy statements like, "Brian and I hooked up at the CES in Vegas" for its comedic potential, even if it has zero to do with goo…or everything to do with goo…you can never be certain. |
