Aftermarket fuse to tame a bright system?

I took possession yesterday of a pair of Audio Magic Masterpiece M2’s to grace the Audion Mk3 monoblocs. These fuses have been just the ticket for the last bit of settling down of the Cornwall 4’s. They get a soft grip on the treble and high mids without lessening detail at all. Even though they are nowhere near break-in yet it is already quite obvious that they are a perfect match for my set-up. First thing noticed was that diction of the sung word was quite a bit more intelligible. This may be because instrument separation is handled better which then de-clutters the music. The music is also less in your face but with no diminution of musical information - more relaxed, more natural sounding. This is as close a sound to my tube set-up as I have ever gotten with a SS system.

I am just starting out - more later.

Real Snake Oil

The double doubters may need to come up with a less ill-informed expression.

Silver in cable has its problems I will admit. Kind of reminds me of what you hear said about the often way too bright and analytical Telefunken tubes - that they were tuned for much earlier tube gear that had that syrupy sound.

The IC's in my system are the Anticables gold/silver alloy. Now those behave themselves while singing clearly all the while.

I am now on day four of the Audio Magic Masterpiece M2 Fuse. I don't have a streamer - just a one disc at a time CD transport - so I have been unable to give it a 3 weeks of constant playing style burn-in, but this fuse has been enlightening. A most obvious change has been that files can be played louder now without distortion, and files can be played at lower volume than before with less loss of information. There is a somewhat wider soundstage as well with better instrument separation - cliches I know but crucial still. Perhaps the most noticeable change is that all aspects of the system have become more shall we say noticeable. The Rel S812 subs are now much more sensitive and responsive to minute adjustments of the crossover and gain settings. I also have come to realize that what I was previously perceiving as treble hotness was just distortion - not an earthshaking idea at all, but hearing is believing. The cleaning up of mumbled diction as mentioned in an earlier post still hasn't worn off on the amazement scale either,

I would love to see how the fairy paste is compounded. I wonder too if this paste could be deployed on a power cable.

@gavin1977

Anti-cables Lvel 5.3 XLR Interconnects

"Design Concept:

Typical interconnect cables usually have a signal wire surrounded with a thick plastic dielectric material, which is then surrounded by the ground conductor to shield it from EMI/RFI noise, and then more plastic dielectric material. This typical approach has the usual drawbacks of accumulating a lot of dielectric effect distortion, and an accumulation of shunting capacitance.

The ANTICABLES Analog XLR Interconnects use a different approach. Since air is a near perfect dielectric, no extra insulation dielectric material (beyond the thin white and red coating) is used, and the wires are suspended in free air. Eliminating dielectric effect distortion is what allows these interconnects to sound like music, (not a cable)."

It took me a while to realize that over damping a room with bass baffles and traps can sometimes boost treble. Duh!

@jjj666

"Ahem...changing the toe-in (or lack thereof) of your speakers can greatly impact treble. Give it a try before lightening the wallet with multi-colored unidirectional fuses."

Believe it or not, there is a very high probability that most people here have played with toe-in,,, extensively.

The Audio Magic Masterpiece M2 fuses have now been through what must have been a pretty good burn-in. All I can say is that everything now sounds "right," and this is the first time in my 4 years working with this system that I can say such a thing. I would also particularly recommend these fuses for horn systems like my Cornwall 4's and for class D GanFet amps like my Audions.

@audphile1 

Paul McGowan On Audiophile Fuses

Paul of PS Audio describes his astonishment at what a difference audiophile fuses made in his system. His first experience was a blind test during which he didn't even know what the tweak was. We also learn that PS Audio has been using such fuses in some of its equipment since then.

My overall impression of the Audio Magic M2 fuse is that it reduces distortion. I would not call that "meddling with coloration." This whole process was illuminating in that regard - much of what listeners may be calling brightness, bassiness, etc. may be more a matter of distortion and not something that needs to be "tamped down."

That said, room treatment is also crucial.

Synergistic Fuse Experience

Least Biased Fuse Review I Have Seen So Far

Might be worth noting that this fuse hasn't even been burned in for any appreciable time either/