I also found the Graphene Sluggo to be directional although I was not sure at first. @ozzy posted that he felt some of the non-Graphene Sluggos, like the Gold over copper, made the music seem louder. I agree 100%. I found that at first and with break in that trait seemed to diminish. I did not hear that effect with the Graphene.
Graphene Sluggo - Unlocking Sonic Scenery
Henceforth to be abbreviated as "g-slug", the Graphene Sluggo from Vera-Fi Audio is getting its own review from me because a few sentences in existing discussions won’t satisfy my desire to fully share my thoughts about these. I feel ready to write, as the last two g-slugs I bought have about 20 hours on them, and the initial four have about 50-60 hours on them. I feel confident enough now to expound. These g-slugs are fascinating creatures; they are not your friendly neighborhood slugs.
For info on the prerequisite purchase needed to use g-slugs, see my review of the companion product, the Swiss Digital Fuse Box (HERE). (There’s an option to choose a g-slug for an upcharge on any SDFB purchase, and currently, SDFB owners get a 20% discount for upgrading.) If you don’t know what a SDFB is, my review was pretty in-depth and should give you most of the info you’d require. I’m a bonafide slug connoisseur with 13 slugs in my digital music streaming system. Yes, THIRTEEN, and soon to be fourteen when a new component arrives! Some devices have more than one slug, and I have them in subwoofers, external power supplies, everything I can manage because sonically it affects each device. Slugs replace fuses in your components’ fuse holders and SDFB is a non-sacrificial overcurrent protection device installed upstream from the fuse holder inline with alternating current. The SDFB is the key to slug town.
I’ll start at the end by getting to the point now, then walk through some details and my recommendations. G-slugs are better than other slugs. They are solid copper cylinders the size of standard fuses that have vacuum deposited graphene on the surface -- and its a thick, solid matte black coating with no etchings on the surface.
If you just want the gist, g-slugs make any device with a fuse holder (and a SDFB upstream) produce more linear, extended frequency response that constructs a soundstage and its sonic images with greater precision and dimensionality than you currently experience 
. They bring you one step closer to 3-dimensional life-like music reproduction and help vanquish speaker locations, perceived room boundaries, and obstacles to musical immersion... your worst enemies!
Okay, first thought: Solid copper slugs sound better than fuses and reduce resistance between fuse holder endpoints drastically... to almost zero, right? Is that all that matters? If that were so, then everyone would use humongous 6 awg copper conductors for all cables to get really low resistance. The reality is that there are many other aspects of the power conduction chain, like dielectric properties, crystal barriers, and a bunch of other properties of various materials, their shapes and surfaces, construction geometries, etc, that result in various sonic consequences. Most of the slugs I had been using were solid copper and I chose to hand-sand and polish the surfaces to a mirror finish and clean them carefully in order to extract the finest high-frequency details (yes, this is effective in resolving systems), which is related to the well-known "skin effect" of conductors. Yet, a graphene-coated surface dramatically outperforms my best attempts at solid copper slug surface modifications.
To get the point across, here’s a hypothetical numerical rating scale of 1-10 with my best estimates to compare sonics of the different options I’ve tried inside fuse holders:
If a stock fuse with a tiny resistive wire is a 1 and sounds the worst, then:
- a custom fuse with crystals, high voltage treatments, etc, is a 2 or maybe 3,
- brass slug is a 4,
- copper slug with original machining surface ridges and an engravings is a 5,
- copper slug with a mirror-finshed polished surface is a 6,
- g-slug is a straight 10.
Before g-slugs, my whole system was filled with mirror-finish copper slugs, which are all much better sounding than fuses, except my subwoofer amps, which have gold-plated copper slugs. Here’s what I experienced...
Firstly, two large sized g-slugs went into the amp. WHOA. When you first install these, it’s very energetic feeling like you are very close to the performance stage due to the inrush of newfound detail retrieval and emphasis on mids and low treble. I have experience using the top capacitors from Duelund, Jupiter, and V-Cap, and this initial experience is similar to using V-Cap CuTF caps by themselves. It’s like viewing the soundstage with a fish-eye magnifiying glass, which is interesting and highly resolving of details within that particular viewpoint, but it isn’t natural or a linear response. The copper in the slugs gives it the appropriately warm midrange similar to the copper in the CuTF caps, and the graphene enhances the top end. But, I found that g-slugs require about 4-6 hours of burn-in to relax, open up, and evenly express resolution across the audible frequency range and up into the very high frequencies, beyond what your components normally output.
In comparison, the best combination of linear and extended frequency expression that I’ve found in the world of capacitors is the relatively new Jupiter COMET silver foil. Using these by themselves or as a bypass cap in combination with the top V-cap or Duelund caps can be stunningly gorgeous, detailed, and realistic. Yet, they still can’t quite transform the listening experience like what the graphene coating on a g-slug does, which is like uncorking latent resolution and frequency extention, particularly beyond 10-12khz for exceptional spatiousness and realism. It brings out more spatial information that informs your mind of the implied locations of sounds within the soundstage. It also gives you more complex sonic textures, more defined images, and a more even and filled-out sonic picture.
When I was doing testing recently, I took all of the g-slugs out and went back to all polished copper slugs in non-subwoofer components. There was still a lot of details with the copper slugs, but immediately I noticed that the the sound stage flattened out in depth and my speaker locations were revealed with the particular recording I was listening to. I had forgotten how non-existent the speakers had become within the room when the g-slugs were installed. The front wall of my listening room had also previously disappeared, but now seemed to be a containment boundary. There was a loss of space/air in all directions with an obvious roll-off in high frequencies and the sound quality took on a quality that I can only describe as "stylized", as opposed to what was previously effortlessly natural. This is hard to describe, but it was like a more artificial sound quality, and the experience was more like listening to a recording of music or the reflection of a live performance off of a wall instead of a live performance itself. It was no longer a natural, linear frequency response, so the perceived realism suffered. Admittedly, I was a little shocked that I had forgetten how I had previously experienced music in the same room only a couple weeks prior.
I began progressively adding back the g-slugs to my components, and what unfolded with each successive addition were greater overall resolution, more evident spatial relationships and image location stability, a sense of space and transparency, and also a feeling of immersion into the musical experience and my satisfaction with it. These g-slugs have some real magic about them, and that’s why I’m writing this. Lastly, I think the contrast between silence and sonic substance widens, so it *seems* like there’s a "blacker background" from which the sounds arise from, but I think it’s actually about your components simply producing more sonic information to build a more convincing sonic scene than it is about removing interfering low-level noise. I think there’s something about the super-conductivity of the thick graphene coating that is more than a noise-filtering application.
In order of highest to lowest impact in components I installed g-slugs in:
1) upgrading from polished copper slugs to g-slugs in the amp had the largest effect, then
2) DAC
3) preamp, tied with the streamer’s external power supply
4) Farad Super3 linear power supplies for modem and Fidelizer router separates. Effect here was minimal, so I’m using the copper slugs in them.
My recommendation is to put a g-slug(s) in your amp. If you don’t like it, ummm, I would be shocked. If you have a DAC, do that too. I think a good goal would be to make approx 50% of your slugs g-slugs, and use slugs with a very smooth polished or plated surface in your other components. If you put g-slugs in ALL of your components that use IEC fuses, then you may end up with a need to balance tonality because of the additional top end energy, but for me, that’s not a problem because I have 101 ways to accomplish that balancing act, from power cable connectors, to which components they are powering, to capacitor combos connected to ground planes, to modifying acoustical treatments, etc. In other words, the things that you previously used to boost high frequencies may become obsolete. Overall, tonality of the g-slugs is really excellent and I'm using a lot of g-slugs to gain all the extra resolution I can. They extend all the way in both directions, and give you meat and bones and body... and the beauty of the finest airy details, too.
I feel justified in my enthusiasm about g-slugs after they’ve burned in for awhile. They are transformative in a way that is similar to going from a stock fuse to a SDFB with a copper slug. If you want a higher resolution sound system, g-slugs. If you go from a stock fuse and zero SDFB’s in your system straight to a SDFB and a g-slug on your amp(s), please leave your comments here for me to read! :)
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@grannyring thanks for the follow up post. | ||
Built my own adaptors replacing the cheap ones from Amazon. My goodness what a big step up in sound quality! Huge. If any of you are using the cheap adaptors you really must build a good DIY adaptor. You can buy great sounding AC plugs on Amazon from Viborg or Monosaudio. Here is a link to the Viborg offerings. You can order Rhodium, Gold, or copper. These sound as good as the big dollar ones based on my long history of building cables. You will discard the outer plastic barrels so don’t spend more money on the fancy carbon fiber or aluminum ones. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4J8DZC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Simply use Neotech 14 or 12 gauge solid core copper wire in Teflon as your conductor. Remove the outer barrels and hook up the the connectors back to back with short 3 or so inch lengths of wire. I soldered spades to the conductor ends for ease in assembling. Not a must. Close quarters if the conductors are cut this short, but you can cut them a bit longer if you like. Don’t do this unless you understand the proper way to assemble a power cord as you don’t want a short! I covered with 3 layers of adhesive lined 1.5 inch diameter heat shrink (3:1). Very robust and safe. Sounds incredible and takes up very little room. Total cost per adaptor of around $50. I am able to place the Swiss box right behind my gear on a rack with these adapters in place. I place footers or wood blocks under the Swiss box for support. . Works wonderfully. You can also use a short 3-4 inch section of your favorite bulk power cord cable. Your choice. I like the Neotech solid core conductor sound and robustness. You do need some skill and experience to build these as lining up everything can be a challenge. I used these spades to tighten down inside the AC connectors, but these are not a must. After you tighten down the connector screws and apply 3 layers of double walled, adhesive lined shrink wrap no part of this adaptor will ever move! Hard as a rock with no give or chance of any movement! https://www.soniccraft.com/product_info.php/sonic-craft-bar-spade-p-1516 | ||
I have 3 of these Swiss boxes and various Sluggos. Easily the best component upgrade I have made in my system. I like the Graphene Sluggo the most and find it more naturally resolving and complete. Sluggos are easy to install and you don’t have to modify your gear soldering in a bypass wire. Rather than using a second power cord I use a $6 adaptor made of non-ferrous conductors that works wonderfully. Only some 1.5 - 2 inches long when plugged in. They plug into the back of your gear. Simply place a footer or block of wood under the Swiss boxes to support it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1SY1PBH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Have other folks found the Graphene Sluggo to be directional? I am not sure as yet. | ||
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@1971gto455ho How many Swiss Audio Fuse Boxes do you own and use in your audio system? | ||
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@tdhayes I don't know. the Rythmik sub isn't very sensitive to different sluggos like it is when going from a fuse to a sluggo. | ||
@gladmo did you mention on another forum that you've used SDFB with a Rythmik F12 subwoofer? Curious what sluggo you preferred with the Rythmik. | ||
@roxy54 All good! I’m just here to share and discuss. Not possible to prove anything without hearing it, nor is my intention to convince people. The hallucinogenic type of instrument realness and presence is only experientially believable in my listening room, of which the graphene sluggos play a part of the whole system. | ||
Thanks Mark @verafiaudio ! I’ve been trying to figure out how to make these system recordings not sound muddy and atrocious. I don’t think there’s much I can do with a $35 mic and the cheapest of cables and components feeding my laptop... But think I’ve optimized levels more now than before, and it’s a bit less crappy now... This is fun :) | ||
@gladmo
@sbayne
I think we are getting quite a bit better re Sluggo Production. We learned a fair bit through these last 15 ish months. | ||
I just put in my graphene sluggo and... whoa. Had the pure copper sluggo in before and that was good, but even without break-in this g-slug is a worthwhile upgrade, Just get it. | ||
Agreed that the additional power cable needed could be an issue. I use my own DIY cables so it really didn’t come up for me. But using their pigtail with your regular power cable throws another variable into the sound equation. As to potential liability, lots of disclaimers come with the SDFB and knowing Mark, and his history in the audio industry, I think it’s safe to believe VeraFi when they say they did plenty of failure testing before releasing the product. | ||
I briefly read through this entire thread and very surprised that I didn’t see any reference to the additional power cable that is needed in order to use the Swiss Box in line between the wall receptacle and component. I currently use two Swiss Boxes in my system. One is used for my power amp and the other I have going into a power strip that supplies AC to 5 components, all of which use the same fuse value. I have found that regardless of the sluggo type and “piggytail” that I use, I prefer the Swiss Box in the system. That being said, I think the choice of the piggytail to be just as influential as the choice of sluggo, maybe more. | ||
I think any component with a decent power supply can benefit from a SDFB. If you have a high current power amp (requiring say a 10A fuse) a SDFB with graphene sluggo is REALLY good. But I've noticed power supplies that require less amperage may sound better with a copper sluggo. The graphene, in my streamer for example, sounded a little edgy. I have a SDFB on order to use in my DAC and I'll experiment with various sluggos but I'm guessing I'll end-up using a copper sluggo in that too. I realize its system/ears dependent but I do think the power supplies play a role in which sluggo is best. | ||
Update: I’ve listened for a while now with just the copper sluggo in my preamp. I moved on to the next component and popped a gold immersion sluggo into my DAC/streamer. I noticed another same level improvement as I did when I popped in the my first sluggo into the preamp as mentioned above. Another positive/ same improvement just a level higher improvement. The downside for me is that it seems to have slightly reduced slam/ chest punch in the bass region. I lstill have the copper sluggo in my preamp- which is still great. I gave the gold immersion sluggo in my DAC a chance for several days of listening and had to yank it. Went back to the stock fuse and the missing punch in the bass region came back. Yeserday, I received my Graphene sluggo and tried it in the DAC/streamer. For me and my system it’s is the same improvement as going from stock fuse to a copper slug just to the next level. Hopefully, this makes sense. But I still get this missiing bass/slam. It’s only been a day so I need to give it more time. This is just what I initially noticed in the first 6 hours of listening with it in. As far as the sarcasm goes: it’s the absolute cheapest form of humor and requires zero wit. I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that the deniers and cable trash-talkers either have bad ears, poor setup, or non-revealing gear. Maybe a combination or all of the above. I’ll gladly admit that I started off as a denier at the beinning of my journey as well. At some point, I got to a point where I started to notice and appreciate these little "tweaks" and adjustments. The difference of swapping fuses in my setup and system amount to the equivallent of upgrading an amp/preamp/dac/cartridge. It’s not a tiny, tiny difference we’re talking about. | ||
Why stop with tube rolling and fuse rolling?? I’ll open the chassis, give you a soldering iron and you could roll everything, roll every cap, thermistor, roll the transformer....Roll everything Punch a few holes in the speaker box, see how the sound changes, keep adding holes, plug them back again, see how the sound changes. You could also roll the listener, put different kinds of chemicals in him and see how the sound changes...ROLL EVERYTHING....NEVER STOP ROLLING...
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I had a SR purple fuse in my preamp, stock fuses in my class D monos and another SR purple in the streamer/DAC for the past 6 months or so.When this thread started, I removed the SR fuses and put stock fuses in everything once again. I listened to my system with these stock fuses almost every day for a week or so. Yesterday, I received a partial order from Vera-Fi. I started off with replacing the stock fuse in my tube preamp with the "high purity copper" 6x23 sluggo. I allowed about 2 hours of running in as background music before plopping down in the sweet spot for some critical listening. I have a few test tracks that I know better than any person should. Immediately, I noticed exactly what @gkr7007 mentioned in his post on the previous page:
I whole-heartedly agree. This is exactly what I experienced. And I mean exactly! At the intro for Yello’s "Pacific AM" there is a sound like waves crashing. Before this sluggo, I could hear the same thing but without as many layers in the depth. It was a big improvement to me, I feel I have above average ears, but that’s pure opinion since I have nothing to compare to other than the the guys that work at stereo shops. I think it’s probably best to assume some will have better ears than me and some might be worse. I like to pull my ever-so-wonderful Wife into these experiments. She is not an "audiophile" but she has come to appreciate the improvements in the system over the years. I just invite her to come sit and pick out a few of her favorite songs in the evening. After 5 or 6 songs, she mentioned "the stereo sounds really good tonight and that it’s noticeably "fuller" than it was last night. Strange thing is that when I installed the purple SR fuses about 6 months ago (one at a time with plenty of listening before adding the other one for the streamer) I noticed strange things happened to the bass. Kind of that sound if you play bass through a driver loud while outside of the enclosure. Where it makes that bottoming out sound. It somewhat improved but never got to where I was hoping it would. There are hundreds of hours on those purple fuses by the way and they have been filpped around and cleaned terminals etc. When I put the stock fuses in last week, after about 6 hours, they started sounding better that the SR purple ones to me. How is this possible? When I installed the purple SR- back then it was an improvent over the stock fuses. Now, somehow the stock fuses sound better? I don’t know what’s going on with that, but I’m done with SR fuses and not going to examine any deeper. I will say that there was no downside to installing this sluggo compared to SR fuse or stock fuse....only improvements. I guess time will be the true test. I’ll switch back to the stock fuses again in about 6 months to see which is better and report back (if no nukes have been launched). For those of you who went all-in on replacing all your fuses with sluggos: was it the same amount of improvement each step of the way or was it less and less noticeable as you started adding more sluggos to your system? | ||
For example, my preamp has 4 fuses in total, and gets a big upgrade with a sluggo in the fuse holder by the IEC while leaving the downstream fuses installed. My DAC requires two main AC fuses at two different different ratings, so I use a SDFB set at the lower rating with both fuses replaced by sluggos. | ||
@verafiaudio I was looking forward to giving this a try, but given the way it works with the AC line only, none of my SS amps will be agreeable. The Luxman has 5 different fuses, two of which are the AC line, but the rest are on the secondary side of the power tranny with different ratings than the AC primary depending upon the power rail they feed. In other words, the SDFB would protect a primary overload, but not necessarily the secondaries with their lower ratings. And to leave those fuses in place would negate the promoted benefit....not to mention the speaker outputs are also protected by fuses. So, on to my vintage but amazing Sony TAN-8250. Both AC fuses are solder lead type. I'd have to install a fuse holder. Not difficult, as I am a tech, but needlessly invasive for a fine vintage amp just to test a product. Thirdly, my VTL Stereo 90 might have been an option, but there are two B+ fuses in addition to a 6 amp AC fuse. For the same reason as before, any sonic benefit to the superconducting sluggo would be negated by the downstream fuses with different ratings. Perhaps a nice Krell or Sanders will fall in my lap one day to revisit options for a proper product review. My other system is a low power system feeding vintage Altec 604 which are subjectively very enjoyable, but probably not a fair test rig for a cutting edge product. Thanks again for the offer! | ||
@verifiaudio "You are seemingly highly technical so the best option for me is to offer you a Fuse Box to try with a few differing Sluggos " Very kind of you to make this offer. Wish the SDFB had an external way to adjust trip rating. I have two complete systems that I'd use for review. For a proper test I would want to use it with each of the preamps as well as each of the amp options, including monoblocks. Naturally, none of the pieces share the same fuse values. Testing a single piece in line with a conventionally fused piece would likely obscure the results. And for others like me who have a rotating stable of amps with different ratings, the ability to adjust the SDFB rating and characteristic (fast or slow blow) would be a bonus. At least the sluggos are universal as long as they're the correct format.
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Always good to re-visit the Agon forums.
YMMV of course. I will still be here | ||
@verafiaudio "The "simple answer" is that FuseBox will hold 100% current rating indefinitely. When steady current consumption gets to 110% it will trip." Unfortunately, this characteristic will subtract dynamic replenishment from my system, which was designed around the performance attributes of conventional fuses. For transient response, the power supply in the amp is robust enough to effectively isolate the impact of a marginally better conductor in the fuse holder, but the propensity to trip the breaker with as little as 110% steady current draw interrupt the music, whereas the conventional fuse would continue to pass current for up to an hour at 135% of spec. Perhaps the SDFB is better with SMPS, but not with my current (pun) setup. | ||
I recieved my G-slug order last night. The small size was not in stock, but I get get the two large format slugs for my Gryphon EVO amp. There is no doubt they change the sound. It is not suble like trying to figure out which 500 dollar cable or old style fuses sounds the best. It went through lots of sound changes as it began to settle into it's new home. It's too early for me to comment as it wasn't done changing last night. It makes the sound different, but I don't know yet if the timbre is better. The imaging is clearly to my ears better. It Deepens the stage, seperates the musicians and vocals are very focused. I am encouraged that these G slugs are going to be a nice improvment over the standard gold alloy super slugs that came with the SDFBs. More as I learn more about them. | ||
There is no way a small hunk of graphene placed where a regular fuse goes is going to somehow sound better and be superior to getting rid of the holder altogether and straight wiring instead. You're simply fooling yourself. But, that seems to be the norm in the audiophile world and companies are more than happy to cash in on it. But, your perception is your reality and it's your money. Have at it... | ||
I agree with your assessment. I also wonder how SDFB and fuses would improve the sound because the output of the power supplies used in audio equipment is already well regulated. Any fluctuation in power output due to the fuse would be compensated by the large output capacitors etc. If SDFB with SLUG does help to better regulate the power supply then one may hear some increase in mid/bass loudness. Is it that this loudness is perceived as improvement in sound! @rshank64 |
