I tend to swap gear around often, since I have two preamps I enjoy (ref6 and Allnic L3000) and different amps. So as a practical matter, would this be effective for a gear swapper like myself? I stick with the same speakers so I assume I would treat my bananas on the speaker end but the other gear is frequently changed. Is TC effective on frequently changed connections?
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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Okay, here's my politics-free questions about this product: 1-- Can you explain micro-arcing, or, if that term was a typo, just elaborate on the what the problems are that this product is aiming to solve or diminish and what makes it different from your run-of-the-mill contact cleaner/treatment? 2-- Can you explain how the product improves sound between initial application and the 8 week burnin interval? 3-- Can you tell us what equipment you used in your tests including what interconnects were used? I'm always interested in new tweaks to improve my system. My system includes: SOTA Star Sapphire turntable, Origin Live Silver tonearm, Soundsmith Hyperion cartridge, Soundsmith MMCII Phono stage, McCormack Gold preamp and amp, Genesis III speakers and Servo12 subs, Wireworld and Musicable Silver interconnects. |
deeperthought & Dave & Troy ... I've been asking these guys to state their intentions from day one, both in this thread and in both of the SR fuse threads. They won't do it, because they won't dare claim it. I can guess what their intentions are because I've seen it many times before. Even if they don't realize it, they are making an attempt to destroy a terrific new product and a brilliant American businessman. As I said in an earlier post, entire societies have been brought to their knees by the closed minded thinking being exhibited by these fools. audiotroy ... Even if they formed a collective and reduced the price per individual to $50, they still wouldn't buy the product. Their goal isn't to find out if, or how, the product works. Their goal is to destroy and burn the house down. Well, it won't happen. Just like with Ted Denney's Black and Blue fuses, the Total Contact is just way too good of a product to fail. Word of mouth will be enough to get the product going down the pathway to success. The naysayers will be left blubbering .... "But, but ... what happened?" They won't have a clue as to why they failed. One thing for sure, once they fail here, they will be looking for new buildings to burn and fresh entrepreneurs to stab in the back. Little men with stinking thinking tend to remain little men with stinking thinking ... Frank |
Hey doubting thomas, why don't a bunch of you whom are friends in the same area, purchase one tube of this stuff, and then all test it. It seems that you need only a tiny amount, therefore, nobody would be out more than $50 bucks each. Then you can comment on if the product works or doesn't. In this industry anything can make a profound difference. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
Wolf_garcia [ …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" ........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....should be accepted on faith as, after all, what the heck do YOU know anyway? Just order the stuff, smear it on your wires........] What "questions" that have you been asking about the product? I can’t see any questions in the above statement for sure. Do you consider you comment " 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" to be a question? If so, you need to have a think about what the word means. Perhaps pointing out that it costs $299 as you and others have done? No, that’s not a question either and it reflects an underlying assumption, and it in no way questions its efficacy, just its affordability. Or how pointing out about the fact that it takes 8 weeks to really take effect - is that question? Derogatory statements - put downs, slagging-off, pi**-takes whatever are not "questions". Calling into question whether it is too expensive or takes too long to work (which is not a question!) has nothing to do with its efficacy either. Essentially the "negative nancies" have decided, in advance that this product for whatever personal reason, can’t / won’t work. And that’s just being intellectually lazy. I note that there has not been one technical objection to the links that I presented. So either people didn’t read them, didn’t understand them or simply feel that taking cheap shots is somehow an appropriate response when they are presented with information that they can’t incorporate into their world view. |
His philosophy is to give customers their money’s worth. At various audio shows in Los Angeles in the past two years, about a dozen exhibitors allowed him to use his ICs and sometimes his PCs (we tour the shows together). They all wanted to keep them for the remainder of the show they liked them so much. Those using Nordost and Transparent Audio wouldn’t try them. http://www.groverhuffman.com/home Even his IC connector’s are designed and manufactured for his own line using pure copper coated with 20mil silver and low mass. He also has a 60 day full refund return policy (with about one return in about 200 orders). |
wesheadley & wolf-garcia ... Here's an excerpt so that you guys won't have to look it up: "Anything political seems to be off limits here .... and for good reason. I absolutely love politics. In addition to music, literature (especially political history), my children, grandchildren and yes, my great grandchildren, politics is my driving force. With that said, I don’t mind sharing with you guys that I used to belong to another site (not audiophile related) that had a politics section. I was a moderator on that forum. I thought it was great fun at first, but it soon denigrated into friends becoming enemies. In today’s political climate, it would be a lot worse. Therefore, as much as I would love to debate politics with some of you, I support the mods on this forum to keep the politics out. I think we should all respect that." Frank |
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" 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. ^ how's the above CaliforniaPoopa? googoo enuff for you? |
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. |
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). |
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^^^ 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 |
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. |
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. 😬 |
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. |
^^^ 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 [ 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. |
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 |
@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?😳 |
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. |
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 |
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. |
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! |
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" |
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^^^ 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 |
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 |
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. |
