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
I jumped the gun on the 8 week improvement when I purchased the SR Atmosphere XL4 to go with my 2 HFT sets and 2 Speaker HFT sets. It was like TC on steroids.

However, my wife noticed congestion/hashy sound on choral parts on LPs recorded in the 50’s and early 60’s (all four Aida Triumphal Scene LPs-recording tape headroom saturation problem). Jazz and instrumentals sounded fine but with the slightest blur on some (using a custom made tube phono stage with perfectly impedance mated SUT). I thought there could be worn stylus problem but my best LPs sounded fabulous. I did an experiment.

I decided to plug in my old EAR 324 phono stage. It was difficult to get the right impedance/gain match (which is why I switched five years ago) getting too much bass, insufficiently open sound or too little bass and open sound (150 or 400 ohms, cartridge is best at 220 ohms).. Then I decided to treat the EAR 324s 2 pairs of RCA ICs and the A/C power cord with TC. Wow, I was able to dial in a setting I liked. The choruses became 50% clearer (wife approved as listenable) and a very tube-like tonal quality ensued. As noted, bass becomes more prominent. I was able to use a higher impedance match for my cartridge (Benz Ruby 3). My wife approved of me spending $300 for TC (as well as the XL4 after she heard what it did and the removal of all the wall/window treatments for the HFTs). She spent some time listening to LPs (luckily the XL4 has an Amplify room setting so that she can enjoy heavy metal and Robin Trower recordings).

I just want to say that TC improves everything I pasted so far. Unfortunately for me, my wife will be spending more time listening to 80s rock LPs in my music room. On a personal note, my wife had about 300 LPs when we met 21 years ago which she kept in pristine condition. I’m a lucky man.

hifiman5
@geoffkait +1 Blind testing often produces so much anxiety in the listener that it interferes with their normal perceptions of their system’s sound.

>>>>I actually don’t think so, I mean, unless there was a lot riding on it. For example, The Amazing Randi’s Million Dollar Challenge definitely produced a lot of stress in the challenger. The protocols themselves can produce stress, you know, what system is used for the test and where located, how many people are present, how the test is administered, which CDs can be used for the test, how many trials are required, things of that nature. It’s enough to freak out any mild mannered audiophile. 😩 No wonder nobody ever won the million bucks. Casual blind tests at home, on the other hand, are probably not too stressful. Nevertheless, as I already pointed out, negative results don’t prove anything.
Fleschler,

I considered buying the speaker HFTs to work with my FEQ, but decided to purchase TC instead. I'm not sure if my system would benefit from adding the HFTs at this point. I tried the original HFTs on the walls with no improvement to my system and I do not wish to upgrade the FEQ to the XL4. Any thoughts?