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.
I am pleased to make a announcement regarding longevity of Total Contact. I originally stated I would guarantee at least 6 months. In all the years I have been making contact enhancers, I have never offered a product for sale. I always made up what I needed as I went along. I only started putting it in a syringe after a friend recommended it.
I had sent a tube to a friend many years ago, and while recently talking. he mentioned he still had it, and it was still good. He received it from me in early March 2014. He is sending it back to me to analyze.
Actually Graphene characteristics apply only to the two-dimensional material, not to bits of Graphene in suspension or in pieces or Nano size material or any such thing. Graphene is defined as a two-dimensional material, I.e. sheet. If it’s not 2D a sheet, what is it? Graphite? You tell me.
So now that you know what the four week phenomenon is all about, be prepared for the eight week encore. You’re gonna love it.
richmon ...
Welcome to the TC Paster’s Club. If you’ve read through the entire thread, you know that there is a history between Total Contact and some of the other contact enhancers. TC is different, a LOT different as you will soon find out. At $300 its a total bargain for what it does to enhance an audio system.
Good choice on the cartridge by the way. As you may know, there’s a bunch of us here who use the AT ART-9 ... another bargain if there ever was one. :-)
I'd love to try out the ART-1000, but its a little too expensive at this point now that I'm retired and not working any longer. Please, would someone buy one so the rest of us can live vicariously through your reviews and listening experiences?
just my $.02 on all this back-n-forth, I just ordered a vial and will report back in a few weeks.
I've used Caig De-oxit and QuickSilver contanct enhancer in the past with just very modest minor results, when this thread first surfaced, I was startled to see contact enhancement being recommended due to my experience with the mess of QuickSilver and the marginal results.
One of things that changed my thinking on this was just type into google 'wiki Graphene' and read the science behind this material. There's something electrically unique about this stuff imo.
I have a PS Audio Audio outlet power filter with good VH Audio Power cord. Was reviewing my connections and noticed I'd plugged CD player and Preamp into this PS Audio and the amp into another power strip. Since I'm 99% vinyl nowadays, I unplugged the CD player and plugged my Conrad Johnson MF2250 amp into the PS Audio filter and relegated the cd player to the regular power strip. Very suprised what that little change did to improve imaging and noise floor reduction, so I'm optomistic that the contact graphene will convey more of the same.
Rest of the system is VPI Prime with Audio Technica Art-9, Supratek Chenin preamp, Revel Performa M22 bookshelfs. Hopefully this will scratch my upgrade itch, was eyeing the Paradigm Persona B which would set me back 7K so 300 is a bargin.
Now that I've reached the 4 week point, after treating my system with TC, I realize I had no clue how good my system really is, or what it is capable of.
Others will share their own experiences, and I am confident they will be similar.
I have no control over what some may believe or say about this, nor do I really care. I can sleep well at night, and look myself in the eye in the mirror, because I know I am telling the dead honest truth about my experience with TC.
I have treated just my IC's and speaker cables, with Frank's help around one month ago. I have not yet pasted my power cords.
I think all of these tweaks are beneficial to certain degrees. My system was pretty resolving, but now that this tweak has 'burned in', I too must respond with positive comments about a 'lifting of a veil' of digital grunge, more open sound stage, better detail, and more accurate bass. The question now is how dramatic....I wouldn't say I was gobsmacked with improvement like say from a component upgrade, but everything in this hobby matters, and for the price, and the minimum effort involved, it helps me enjoy the music more, and listen to my gear less. It is clearly a definite improvement, more than subtle, but less than big bucks change up in gear. I would say its on par with the improvement I noticed by adding the SR black fuses to my gear...so slowly, and steadily, I am adding to sound quality, and enjoyment.
I will try to paste my PC's soon. I have tried the product, and found it to be a positive improvement. I hope my comments will not result in attacks, as I am trying to be fair and balanced in my review and results.
I'm glad Frank has brought this new product to my attention, I would not have tried it otherwise, and missed an easy tweak with positive effects.
resolution 1: Good quality audio very much increases the quality of my Mother's life. I am glad you will be treating your Mother's TV. My mother also enjoys audio books played on her DVD player. This might be another source of satisfaction for your mom.
It’s 4 weeks today since I treated my first AC plug with TC. Sure enough, the transparency of my system has taken a leap forward. I spread out treating most of the connections over a week, so we'll see what the rest of this week brings. I am VERY pleased so far, though.
my 86 year old mother lives with our family too and went totally blind just three years ago but she still loves to listen to to tv programming. She also has hearing aids and thus needs the clearest sound possible so I will be treating the tv in her room tomorrow.
The relationship between you and your Mom is delightful. She's very lucky to have you, and you her.
For those reading this who have elderly parents, let David Pritchard be your guiding light. Your elderly parents want the greatest gift in the world ... your face to face time. A phone call every two weeks just won't cut it. Face to face guyz, face to face.
David, your experience with your Mom's TV parallels mine to a "T." After pasting with TC, I was rewarded with better definition in the picture, better colors and better blacks. Quite amazing really.
The OLED is three weeks old and so has been through over twenty on - off cycles. The TV was left on when I disconnected the Cable connection and treated the input signal cable with Total Contact. Mother and I noticed the stated improvement with the TV still on, but signal restored. Only then did I power down the TV and treat the LG's hard wired power cord. A further improvement in picture quality was seen. When the TV was originally delivered, the signal cable connections were cleaned with isopropol alcohol. When commercials came on, she took great delight in spelling some of the advertisers logos. She is very happy today. I am very greatful
💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻 Here we come Walkin' down the street We get the funniest looks from Everyone we meetHey, hey, we're the Monkees And people say we monkey around But we're too busy singing To put anybody down
If she had gotten up and walked and exclaimed “I can walk!” some of the more stubborn and recalcitrant naysayers might start to pay a little closer attention. 💃🏻
“Ever since i joined Vein Clinic my legs have been aging backwards.” 😛
From what I've read the TV has to be turned off for a long period of time, say 24-48 hours, to eliminate image burn in/retention. The longer, the better. For other, minor settings, a few hours or less will suffice. But turning it off to apply some TC and turning it back on to see the results should not incur any major results from recalibration.
I have an LG OLED TV and am fairly fanatical when it come to picture quality and followed it's performance and noticed no discernible increase in picture quality, aside from the first two weeks (very minor but welcome pace) until I got a Cullen Cable Power Strip( (months after purchase), which replaced a Blue Circle Thingee and with it's hard wired PC (no IEC inlet) and gator grip Pass & Seymour receptacles the picture quality went a big step up.
This leads me to believe what David says, as he's been consistently careful in his tweaks and that his experiences closely mirror mine.
OLED TVs recalibrate when switched off. This is especially a big factor when very new. The screen contrast is greatly affected by the automatic calibration procedure at least initially. Big face palm moment!
I had a delightful evening last night. I took my syringe of Total Contact to my Mother's apartment. As some Audiogoner's know she is a 94 year old serious audiophile. She is classified legally blind due to macular degeneration with no vision in one eye and 20/100 corrected in the other eye. One of my goals is to ensure each day my Mother has the best possible music listening, audio book listening, and movie watching experience.
Sometimes I am slow to realize what will improve the situation. She can no longer read the Big Print editions of books even with a magnifying glass. The size of TV screens are similar to the size of book print. Ah Ha. Out with the 35 inch TV and in with a 55 inch LG brand OLED TV. I overcame the fear that the TV was 'too big" for the apartment. This TV and the Sony OLED TV have the best picture that current technology offers.
Amazon delivered the TV (great service) and all I had to do was hook up the cable connection and Big Detailed Picture Appeared. Mother was happy. A part of her life was restored.
So last night we are watching and listening to the Olympics. I then put Total Contact on the cable connection at the wall and TV, and also on the TV power cord. Turned the TV back on. Immediately the picture to me had an obvious increase in quality. More clarity , more vivid colors, more depth. When first turned back on it was the Toyota ad that had been repeating multiple times while we had been watching. I then realized my Mother was slowly but surely spelling T- O-Y-O-T-A as she looked at the screen. "I can see it David ! " She told me . She could not make out the same letters a few minutes earlier watching the same ad.
How much was that experience worth? To me at least, $300.00 for the Total Contact was a bargain.
I finally completed treating all power cables and thier accompanying power supply cables to the DNM preamp and power amps, in my main system, this evening.
The improvement in the size of the sound stage and musical detail are substantial. It seems as if the notes seem to play with more follow through and drive as the noise floor drops. The instruments are more life like and more organic. This makes the music much easier to enjoy for hours at a time.
This latest layer of improvement was quite a surprise since the powerstrip and power conditioner had already been treated. However, as my dealer/friend once told me “corrupt power corrupts absolutely”
So far I have not heard any drawbacks in my office and main systems from the treatments.
I will complete the interconnects as time, energy and musical enjoyment allows. They are a little more challenging since they are 5 pin din connectors.
If it sounds too good to be true . . .yada yada. A simple suggestion—raffle off 6-10 of this product to members of this board who are interested in giving it a try. Their only obligation iwould be to post a review of the product within a few weeks. If the reviews are anywhere near as positive as the above post, I’m sure there be thousands of members of this board who would be delighted to pony up $299 for this alleged dramatic upgrade. What has he got to lose?
^^^ Home roasting is a bit of a hassle. Joe Behmor came up with his version of a home roasting machine that enables you to roast indoors because it has a very effective smoke filter. This little drum roaster really takes most of the hassle out of home roasting.
Its hard for me to drink anything other than my home roast Coffees. Guatemalan are my favorites. Excellent brightness with overtones of chocolate, caramel and nutmeg. Yum ... It makes what they serve at Starbucks an absolute crime of the century.
Oh, and speaking of Target, do you like wine? Target is selling a variety of wines under the "California Roots" label. I’ve been buying the Red Blend, which I consider the best of the lot. Its only 5 bucks a bottle ... and drinks like any $20 bottle I’ve ever tried. Buy six at a time and get a 10% discount. They even include a very nice six-pack carry home case when you buy six.
You know you have discerning tastes when you're touting five-buck wines. *lol*
For a long time I bought green coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s, roasted my own using a varistor so as to control the applied voltage during the various stages of roast. These days I just buy whatever is on sale at Target and say, the hell with it. Every once in a while I get great deals on fresh Kenya AA on eBay.
I’m going out on a limb here by commenting that Constant Comment tea, like their coffee, though quite tasty, is not without a certain amount of uh, caffeine. 😬 Man the battle stations!!
^^^ Thanks for your comments and welcome to this thread.
1. I do have a reason for promoting TC. It works as advertised. Like the fuse threads, my original intent was to simply share a terrific product with my fellow audio hobbyists and enthusiasts.
After my initial post in this thread, a few (the usual bunch) started to denigrate the product even though they had no experience with it. By this time, Tim Mrock (the producer) and I became friends. What you are picking up on is my defense of Tim's product, and personal attacks upon Tim and me, in the face of these few naysayers and extremely destructive people. Self defense is still a legitimate function in my estimation.
2. Glad you've picked up on the humor contained in this thread. There are a lot of very talented people who post on A'gon, that's for sure.
oregonpapa... I certainly have no dog in this fight but as a reader of this thread..you do come across as if you have a reason to promote this paste. I have been known to be wrong in the past.. but that's the way I see it. The posting content here would make for a funny SNL skit though..... 8)
oregonpapa I’d say about the same amount of credibility as those few, like yourself, who continue coming into this thread knocking Constant Contact without ever trying it .... and that is no credibility at all.
Constant Contact? Freudian Slip alert! Has someone been drinking a little too much...Constant Comment? ☕️
Deoxit has a proven track record and basically claims to do exactly what Magic Goo does, albeit at much lower cost with instant results (I have no idea how long I've been using it as the pesky stuff lasts forever). That is the definition of "apples to apples" except it’s not a fair comparison as one item is expensive esoterica promoted with hyperbole and exaggeration, and the other is a successful and well regarded established product. Maybe "apples to other apples" is a more apt way to put it. I hope the Deoxit dudes put the term "micro-arching remedy" on their little cans someplace as that would be pretty funny. Maybe the goo will catch on, but more likely at its current cost it will be regarded as too expensive, messy, and unnecessarily gooey, and wind up in a dusty pile with unsold "special" fuses, ebony hockey pucks, and aluminum ju ju bees. I personally think micro-arching adds depth and character to the little signals wandering through my rig…plus that comforting sputter and flash of the tentative connection.
Op my original point is it doesnt matter what you or I or anyone thinks is legitimate or not. Each will make their own determination. Good or bad. You can take issue with that if you want but I'm not going to argue about it. Cheers!
So, If i apply a polymer to some of the contacts in my system, i'll hear improved clarity, balance and focus that continues to improve over the span of 8 weeks? Have there been any reviews posted by known and respected names in the audiophile industry? I'd love to hear their opinion on this product!
"Does someone who buys and uses a Bose wave radio and says its the best sounding thing ever automatically credible?"
It depends, mapman ... If I had never heard a Bose Wave radio and I gave it a bad review based upon nothing, how much credibility would I have? I’d say about the same amount of credibility as those few, like yourself, who continue coming into this thread knocking Constant Contact without ever trying it .... and that is no credibility at all.
If you really want to convince others that a product is truly great without trying it yourself, you’re going to need much more than a class where sales 101 is taught. In fact, you’re most likely to end up in a jail cell with Bernie Madoff for representing the world of the con man.
Your explanation does nothing to assure me that you know what you’re talking about. You haven’t tried the product or even seen the product. However, we do have some very positive reviews coming in by other members at this point in time.
So, in your estimation a person who has hands on experience has less credibility in writing about their experiences with any given product than someone who has no experience at all and has only read about it?
^^^ I have no problem with legitimate criticism. What I have a problem with is the constant undermining of an excellent audio enhancement that has taken place in this thread. A perfect example is the comparison by those who have no idea of what they are talking about when it comes to Total Contact with products like Deoxit and other terminal cleaners. Apple and Oranges guyz ... apples and oranges. Two different products with two different purposes and outcomes.
mapman If I’m not mistaken, Deoxit is a time proven product that even professionals use commonly. Maybe this stuff will achieve that someday even with the much higher cost.
Geez, what a Nervous Nellie. Faint heart ne’er won fair maiden. 😳
Addendum, those teeny tiny pins I painted were for input and output connectors for the Audioquest Carbon HDMI Cable (controlled for directionality, which means each of those teeny tiny wires in the cable were controlled for directionality). The Carbon is now sheathed in pure carbon fiber.
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