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
128x128oregonpapa
dbarger ...

If I were presented with the blind test you alluded to, I believe I could tell the difference between the system with and without the TC treatment. The difference at my place was night and day. 

Frank
dbarger
...I was suggesting to have someone apply the tweak at some point in the 10 trials, and see if you can say at which time it was changed. It could be on the 3rd time, or the 6th, or whatever. But the piece must be played for the 10 (or whatever the plan is) times.
That’s not 10 trials; that's using 10 samples in one single trial. Big difference! You can’t get valid results from any test that relies on just one trial.


If you don’t trust your own ears, what are you doing in this hobby?! (rhetorical question)
Hello Mark...
For ’me’ it’s not about the equipment improvements made in this hobby any longer,which by the way,I have enjoyed tremendously for most of my life..but now rather.. how much more the music ’serves my way of life’...instead of ’me serving the gear’..if that makes any sense to you. I don’t enjoy getting all worked up over whether or not my kit sounds as good as it can as in times past,so in that sense,I have hit the proverbial brick wall..jumping off the carousel. I now happily enjoy being more in service to the music I love.. than the means to that end.

With that being said...I use Audiogon more as a resource for the entertainment value and used gear pricing...than for anything else... Horses for courses.

PS...I still love tube rolling. That is one tweak with great merit. 8) 

My wife would not listen to her music (rock) when we first met when I had Martin Logan Monolith IIIs and Quests.  No bass, no dynamics, poor listening area.  I was driving them with Audio Research Classic 60s and an AR SP14.  Maybe it wasn't sufficient power.  Enter the Focuses and Sig IIIs.  No problem for 18 years with more powerful tube amps and higher end tube gear for the last 15 years.

2017-I install my friend's latest cables, the SR blue fuse and TC without changing the room treatments.  My wife finds the Focuses sound to bright and aggressive.  Reason-the openess exposed the bad slap echo and other acoustic problems in my room.  2018-Solution-SR HFTs (2 sets), SR speaker kits (1 pair) and removable of all baffles, diffusers, other hard surfaces in the room.  Result-she likes listening to her music again.  

Enter the SR Atmosphere XL4.  Placed in front of the speakers, tremendous increase in dynamics, detail and tone intensity.  She really likes it when dialing in Amplify setting for heavy metal and hard rock.  For me, it sounds like horn speakers dynamically, panel speakers for detail and triode amplification for tone depth.  So far, so good.  These are repeatable results.  

As to the TC, fuse and cable changes, my wife noticed the difference immediately and I didn't tell what I did.  The other acoustical tweaks she could see.  I didn't tell her what the differences were, just asked her what do you hear, do you like it or not.  She is not an audiophile.  It didn't require 10 blind tests to get an answer.