Just bought a 2ml vial of graphine based contact enhancer from Mad Scientist Audio after I was searching for info on either a power conditioner or cord on Bing (not a Google fan) and it directed me to one of the audio forums where someone mentioned a graphine based contact enhancer (so I had to search who made it since it wasn't mentioned). I looked it up and the price was right to at least try the smallest bottle (I have become more adventurous since some other odd tweaks actually worked), and I'm running out of De-Oxit Gold 100% and my Stabilant 22 gel concentrate is newly empty (Furutech Nano Liquid has been gone for a few months) so I needed a contact enhancer since I'm putting my main system back together piece by piece. It's (the graphine enhancer) honestly the dollar for dollar the best a/v buy I've made in a long time, maybe ever.
It shipped from New Zealand to the Northeastern U.S. in less than a week, which is pretty crazy since that's almost the exact opposite place on the face of the Earth to my location (it would actually be off the west coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean, actually looked that up the other day funnily enough). It was pretty darn cheap too for a 2ml bottle (looks like one of those bottles used for cologne or perfume samplers), I think it was around $40 with air mail shipping ($25 sans shipping). Mind you Furutech Nano Liquid comes in a 2 ml bottle as well, but both the graphine contact enhancer and the Nano Liquid are thinner than De-Oxit Regular or Gold 100% or Stabilant 22 gel concentrate so they can last longer than you'd think given the small bottle size since they can be painted on much thinner.
Since my main setup is going through some changes right now I tested it on the HDMI going from my desktop PC to my Darbee then the second HDMI cable from the Darbee to the tv, as well as the HDMI to and from my Nintendo Switch and the cables in my headphone setup on that PC. I used the minuscule little brushes I received when I bought Stabilant 22 gel concentrate some time ago since they can get into little nooks and crannies like the slot in hdmi cables where the conductor contacts are.
To me using the graphine enhancer feels like the boost you get when upgrading cables and power equipment together (I know since I just did that). I popped in a few blu-rays (new Criterion Princess Bride disk from a 4K scan and new Night of the Demons disk from a 4K scan as I haven't put it away since Halloween), disks that I was just scanning through two days prior as I was testing out a new video driver, and the movies looked considerably better, much more three dimensional like there was more natural air in the image if that makes sense. Played a few games of Overwatch, again looked a lot better and sounded a lot better as well (had the volume low for the movie testing as my headphones weren't on and it was late at night). Tested some music both through the tv and my headphones (made sure to test several genres including music with higher dynamic range readings) better instrument separation is the big thing and more three dimensional sound field. Tested out Breath of the Wild on Switch, it was like playing the game for the first time again considering how much the image changed for the better, looked significantly better; tested Mario Odyssey and noticed much better sound separation there too (what can I say videogames help me to relax).
Now I've used De-Oxit Gold 100% solution (love it great bang for your buck as well), Stabilant 22 gel concentrate (about 4x as expensive as the 100% Gold, but that little bottle LASTS, works great as well), and Furutech Nano-Liquid (the best of the three, but also twice as expensive as the Stabilant 22 concentrate which is already about $80). I even came up with a method for combining all three in different layers which worked better than any of them alone. Honestly the graphine contact enhancer works a lot better than each of the other enhancers alone or combined. I've never tried the silver "paste" type enhancers that Mapleshade and Walker Audio and others sell due to hearing mixed things about them as well as them being a pain to remove if the sound starts to degrade after some time, and I have no idea about the one that Perfect Path Technologies advertises here (too expensive for me to try on a whim), so I cannot compare the graphine contact enhancer to them
I also received two free samples of these little Reece's Cups looking disk tweaks that I put on the HDMI cable base on the PC output and the HDMI cable base of the tv input to test them out and they work similarly excellent; reminds me of the Bybee QSE in effect but in compact form (I have no idea as to the differences between the QSE and smaller iQSE's that can actually be strapped to cables, save for the size difference, why the larger one is cheaper I'm not sure). I Immediately noticed the picture was brighter on the tv (was reading black text on a white background, so the brighter whites were pretty striking) after installing the disks. I checked out Mad Scientist's website afterwards and the mini sample disks are only $10 a pair so I ordered some more (they have more sizes as well, plus a crystalline-mineral mixture in a tube that reminds me that Bybee's QSE's supposedly use crystal and mineral mixtures, the same with Audiophile Rocks/Coconut Audio's tweaks). I mean the disks work for me so it couldn't hurt to grab a few more at that price (I'm not a well off man, so a bargain is a steal for me). Smart to include those samples since they had confidence in them working.
I'm continually surprised by tweaks in this hobby that read like things I'd be very skeptical of beforehand, things that would normally set off one's bs meter, but you surprise me once and I'm more apt to at least test out something (whether or not it works or works well that's a different story). Went from analog video cables, to audio cables, PC audio cards, to contact enhancers, tube amps, vacuum tubes, then on to things that "weren't supposed to" work like power conditioners and isolators, hdmi cable upgrades, power cables, "quantum tweaks" and the like, and I think the graphine contact enhancer can be separated a bit from other contact enhancers due to just how unique it is and by virtue of the concept being one where shady type salesmen could get their hands into and sell some bunk- so the concept of buying it was a risk, just one that ended up paying off tremendously thankfully.
Sorry for the wordy post, but I just tested everything out last night and am genuinely happy that it worked (also had a cup of coffee which I rarely have).
