[moray james]

Hi don't you guys ever play around with ideas? I made the time yesterday to try out my "Black Nail Polish" idea. I coated the chips (both sides on the socketed ones as well as the sockets) in my fully updated meitner bitstream convertor. My girlfriend recommended Revlon polish as ultra hi quality so that's what I got (black due to very high carbon content). It's true you can hear the difference wet! Smoother with better attack and much more open. If you don't like it you can scrape it off for free. Don't pass on this one. Please anybody who has tried the TubOlator or the C37 do a comparrison and report back. You stand to save so serious money here.

[Hantra]

Moray:

Report back if you do it to something with very high temps.  I'd hesitate to do it on my amp, or DAC b/c they get amazingly hot.

B

[moray james]

Moray:

Report back if you do it to something with very high temps.  I'd hesitate to do it on my amp, or DAC b/c they get amazingly hot.

B

Hi Hantra: will be doing some tests on some hot surfaces and will let you know how things work out with respect to high heat devices. I have coated the plastic side of some three pin regulators which get past warm into the hot range but not so hot as to need a heat sink and they seem to be happy. Will post when I get done. I also plan to coat the under side of some preamp tubes inside the pins. Most pre tubes do not ger hot enough to do any damage to paper as there are many tubes (even Power) which have paper wraps for ID purposes. So I think that the bottom of most tubes would be ok to try and you can always remove it with acetone if you change your mind. I don't see much chance for risk there. Regards Moray James. Thank you too for your feed back.

[randytsuch]

Hi Morey
First, thanks for the cheap tweak ideas.  I love cheap, fairly simple tweakd.  I am currently a little backlogged in audio projects, so don't know when I will try it, but I am putting this on my list of things to try.  Figure it can't hurt, like you said somewhere, if you don't like it, just take it off with nail polish removers.  I also want to try your feet sometime, and will compare them to my aurio's.
My SACD 1000 has surface mount DAC's, and I plan on trying in on the top side of the DAC, and see if it makes a difference.
Also wanted to comment on comparing it to c37.  I was reading about c37 today, there is a review of it at tnt, and the guy there said you need to give it a couple months to "break in" before you judge it.  Makes it harder to compare to nail polish, since it has a long break in time.
I also wondered if you tried nail polish on transistors.  My SACD 1000 has a discrete transistor output stage, and I was thinking about it there.

Randy

[moray james]

Hi Morey
First, thanks for the cheap tweak ideas.  I love cheap, fairly simple tweakd.  I am currently a little backlogged in audio projects, so don't know when I will try it, but I am putting this on my list of things to try.  Figure it can't hurt, like you said somewhere, if you don't like it, just take it off with nail polish removers.  I also want to try your feet sometime, and will compare them to my aurio's.
My SACD 1000 has surface mount DAC's, and I plan on trying in on the top side of the DAC, and see if it makes a difference.
Also wanted to comment on comparing it to c37.  I was reading about c37 today, there is a review of it at tnt, and the guy there said you need to give it a couple months to "break in" before you judge it.  Makes it harder to compare to nail polish, since it has a long break in time.
I also wondered if you tried nail polish on transistors.  My SACD 1000 has a discrete transistor output stage, and I was thinking about it there.

Randy

Hi Randy: I am only guessing here but the differences I noticed with the polish even wet would lead me to think that you could probably hear differences early on with C37 also. Most all coatings take anywhere from 20 to 30 days to fully cure but you get over 90% plus within the first three days. Just a thought but I believe that the IC's in your Quad 306's front end are socketed so you could try it there and then you can try it on the remainder of the circuit which is all descrete. I have coated transistors in a cd player and have found the same results. I would suggest two seperate light coats rather than one thick coat. This way you will have less chance of dripping polish all over. Why dont you compare hard drafting graphite to the black polish? All you will need is a bottle of clear Revlon and a full size 5H drafting lead which you can grind to dust with either a nail file or some sand paper. Have fun and post your results. Regards Moray James. PS you can coat your component iso feet and expect the same kind of results. Makes sense that surface resonance control would be consistant.

[randytsuch]

Hi Morey,
Actually, the quad is a power amp, and I am not using it anymore.  It was replaced by a Stan Warren modded Adcom, and I have not gotten around to updating my info yet.

The C37 info came from this link
http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/c37_e.html
The reviewer says the sound changes during breakin, so you should not judge the results for 2 months, but that appears to be mainly for coating a speaker, so the results may differ for coating different things.  But, you also appear to be assumming the results for c37 will be similiar to nail polish, and this may not be the case.

At any rate, I plan to at least try the nail polish sometime, won't make any promises for doing any comparisions, but I will post my results, when I get to it.

Randy

[moray james]

Hi Morey,
Actually, the quad is a power amp, and I am not using it anymore.  It was replaced by a Stan Warren modded Adcom, and I have not gotten around to updating my info yet.

The C37 info came from this link
http://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/c37_e.html
The reviewer says the sound changes during breakin, so you should not judge the results for 2 months, but that appears to be mainly for coating a speaker, so the results may differ for coating different things.  But, you also appear to be assumming the results for c37 will be similiar to nail polish, and this may not be the case.

At any rate, I plan to at least try the nail polish sometime, won't make any promises for doing any comparisions, but I will post my results, when I get to it.

Randy

 Randy thanks for the link to the C37 review I will read it. I do not know that the C37 will be like the nail pollish or vise versa but I do know that cure times for most all coatings are very similar. That said I think that it is reasonable to expect that one can look for comparrisons between different coatings to be possable a week or so after application.  Both coatings will be effecting the integrated circuit by way of damping so it is also reasonable to expect similar kinds of results. While one coating may well damp more uniformly or over a wider band both will have some similarities.  Being able to make damping compounds with different hardnesses of graphite will allow one to quickly find out wether harder or softer graphite does a better job. All this said the only way to know is to give it a try and listen. I am sure enough now to know that C37 and TubOlator both do have positive effects. I am sure that these people have most likely spent quite some time working on these products before thy would go to market with them. I know that what I have heard so far is well worth the time I have invested. I hope that when I have come to the point where I am sure I cannot improve on the project at hand I would then like to be able to compare my work with the C37 and TubOlator. I hope that others will share thier ideas and thier experiences. I look forward to hearing back from you and of the results you find. Best regards Moray james.