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
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