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
oregonpapa

Showing 50 responses by tommylion

I’m at the point where I know that if I change anything in, or add anything to, my system, and it involves any plugs or connectors, I’m going to treat them with TC. This means waiting 8 weeks for the TC to fully cure before I hear the final result of the change. I’m less motivated to make a change, unless I feel pretty certain that it will be worth all that.
Not “hanging up my spurs” as you say, I’m just going to be more choosy about any (non-TC) changes.

For example, if I change interconnects, I want to be reasonably assured they will be a substantial improvement over what I have currently, not just try some to see what kind of difference they make. I don't believe TC eliminates the difference in sound between ICs. Given two different sets of ICs, both treated with TC, I'll likely still prefer one over the other.

It’s  been 4 weeks today since I treated my Blue Fuses and the pins of the tubes in my DAC and amp. Right on cue, my system has opened up with even more transparency, clarity, and sense of air & space. It's nice to hear things improve, right before my ears, without doing anything 🙂


dgarretson,

Thanks for sharing that, I've heard from other sources that solderless connections make a difference.
david_ten,

I had (and still have) six iQSEs in my system before I started with TC. I very much like the improvements they made, but, if I had to choose between them and TC, I’d definitely go with TC. Fortunately, I don’t have to make that choice 😉
Something quite enjoyable for me, is that, at certain points in the TC curing process (especially around 4 and 8 weeks), there will be a profound positive change overnight. Sometimes, I can even hear it taking place over the course of listening to a CD.
I'm loving what I hear 4 weeks after I treated all my tube pins. Can't wait to get to 8 weeks.
My passive pre has two transformers (actually autoformers) as volume controls, one for each channel. Yesterday, I decided to do an experiment, and painted just the top surface of the square shroud on both with TC. The results were immediate, and the already fantastic sound I was enjoying got even better. Add transformers to the list of areas where TC is effective.

What a fun ride! My system is doing all the things I've hoped and wished it could over the years, and I know there's more to come.
“I painted all the shiny centers on the tops of 20 or more capacitors in my transport..Simple and easy pretty much an obvious bulls eye. Sound stage became even more coherent and much denser. One of the best returns of any of the TC applications I have performed.”

Tim had suggested I try this last week, and I just did it with my CEC TL-5 CD Transport. From the early results I am getting, I have to agree with you.
Painted the top of the caps in my CD transport, and the tops of the input/phase splitter transformers on my amp Monday. Things have settled in nicely, and my CD front end is sounding like the really good turntable setups I've heard in the past (without the noise & fuss).
This week I started crossing the 8 week mark for the last batch of connections I treated. Amazing, not a trace of “canned” sound here!
geoffkait,

please take your personal battles with other members elsewhere, and stop polluting this thread.
amg56,

I don't believe you are a moderator here? Bottom line, if the moderators agreed with you, and others, that this thread was in violation of forum rules, they would have shut it down by now. They haven't, so...?

You can protest all you want, but, just like I have no control over what you post, you have to live with what the moderators decide.
Advertisements are intrusive and generally not easy to avoid. This thread is NOT intrusive (Just the opposite, you actually have to navigate to it, and open it, in order to read it.), and is EASILY avoided by those who are offended by it in any way. The real problem is that some think it should not be allowed to exist, merely because it offends them.

When I am offended by something, my first response is to simply avoid it, if possible. There are lots of threads/posts on this forum I find offensive in one way or another. Fortunately, I can avoid them with little to no effort.


The response that, unfortunately, seems to be becoming more prevalent is “That offends me, it must be eliminated!”


amg56,

It’s more like choosing your battles. If something really has little effect on you or others in the grand scheme of things, and you don’t have any authority to do anything about it anyway, what’s the point in getting worked up about it?

You're offended by this thread, I'm offended by others, but neither one of us are moderators.
“This is like the stoning of the sceptics (Oxford Dictionary; skeptics: Funk and Wagnalls), by the religious zealots who believed the earth was flat. Even Nicolaus Copernicus was confined to his house.”

Wow, you come in, guns blazing, clearly offended and antagonistic towards this thread, then you claim you are being persecuted?!
“I heard a rumor that someone has taken the technology in those devices to a new level. I was not told much, just that if and when it’s released it would really shake up the world of tweaks.”

Interesting, I heard that rumor too.

It’s 8 weeks today since I treated the connections on the speaker side of my SCs. This means I have finally reached the 8 week mark on all the connections in my system. Sound is amazing. Prior to TC, the only way I would have envisioned myself hearing reproduction like this, is through someone else’s megabuck system, hoping I could afford it some day.


grannyring,

If it is truly as you say, that's a real shame. It gives cover to all kinds of malicious, slanderous statements, because “That's just normal on the internet.”
geoffkait,

That’s the crux of the matter; to you, wolf, and others, this is just an amusing game, of no real consequence. For Tim, on the other hand, it’s his livelihood.
“Hey, I got an idea. Let’s take up a collection so Tim can eat tonight. We don’t anyone starving to death on my account.”

Perfect way to confirm what I just said.
There sure are a lot of complaints, from people who’ve actually bought TC, about how hard they were pressured into it, and how they regret it.

Not.
grannyring,

Thank you for your eloquent description of the benefits of TC. It mirrors my thoughts & experience.
Apparently, sharing your actual positive experience with an audio product, and saying it does what it claims to, is not legitimate “discussion” on an audio forum. Especially when someone, who has zero experience with the product, somehow “knows” that it’s all hype, or “over the top”.
“So if you think I walked away and you can disparage me,..You are wrong. I suggest you skip the attacks on me and what I said unless you want me to continue.. for say the next two years? on this thread making it clear that some folks are not so easily bamboozled . I am retired, and have all day every day to just be as annoying as you are. So it is your choice, O. And the same goes for the rest of your ’team’ of ’enthusiasts’..BTW oregonpapa, you can start by apologizing for insinuating I am not ’honest’ or ’genuine’ for starters.”

elizabeth,

So you are threatening to be a troll?

“While the noise floor is lowered further, and is quite obvious, there is a relaxation to the music not unlike what we hear in live music ... enhancing the realism. As the days pass, this relaxation continues to get better.”

Frank,

interesting, I am noticing the same thing. I really like it!
I’m beginning to think the new tweak should come with a warning that it may be habit forming.
“Not looking forward to another 2000+ posts arguing about a tweak that will not change audio forever.”

You make it sound like it’s compulsory reading.

As far as changing audio, you might be surprised.
“The system remains the same. The song remains the same, too”

The connection between the listener and song (music), however...
Because they have the sense to know that someone who hasn’t tried it saying it doesn’t work tells them absolutely nothing about whether it actually works, or not.

Saying that you think it is unlikely to work, and therefore don’t feel the need to try it, is perfectly valid. Making an absolute statement that it doesn’t work, when you haven’t tried it, is either just ignorant, or intentionally trying to stir the pot.

There are a multitude of tweaks out there that I have no plans to try, for various reasons, but I can't say with any certainty that they don't work. I can only say that I don't see enough potential benefit to try them.
I have found that, as I progress in making improvements to the sound of my system, it becomes more and more about dealing with problems that I didn’t have (or rather, didn’t realize I had until they were fixed).

Another way of saying it is: You'll never make any improvements in an area, if you are not open to the possibility that there are improvements to be made.
Enthusiasts get enthusiastic when they find something that really makes a difference, and they want to share it with other enthusiasts. It's that simple. Do we go over the top a little bit sometimes when sharing our experiences? Sure, but it's because of our genuine passion for music and it's reproduction.

 I've been around enough to know a shill when I see one, and Frank is definitely not one. I'm getting awfully sick of people coming in here for no other apparent reason than to throw around these accusations and disparagements for their own amusement.

When you see someone has a history of making these kinds of posts in numerous other threads, what other conclusion can you draw?
If I make a post, or start a thread, to share my positive experience with a particular product, I pretty much know ahead of time who is going to show up and spew their negativity. I dearly wish this forum had an “ignore list” feature, like some others.
You read the posts by the “usual suspect” trolls, with long histories of derailing threads, and you’re upset with him? It's about time someone called them out for what they are.

There are members here, almarg being a prime example, who can post with genuine questions, concerns, or skepticism, and still make a contribution to the discussion. This crowd is a different story.
The oft mentioned solution to aggressive trolls is to ignore them, and they'll go away. The problem is, they don't. Moderators do what they can, with limited time and resources, but I think it’s up to us, the majority who can carry on a civil and decent conversation with those we may disagree with, to let them know they are not welcome here.
ps,

forum member ozzy tried the Mad Scientist graphene enhancer, and, I believe, stopped using it because of some issues. You can do a search to find the details.