Speaking of George how about unhinge? Orange. Unhinge. No, but it’s darn close.
Pass Labs and Fuses
I continue to enjoy my Pass Labs Int-60 amplifier with my horn based system. My listening area has been intensively treated for acoustic - speaker interaction and it is always a joy for me to listen to a Dialed In system.
For my latest listening experiment I decided to evaluate the sonic differences using three fuses in the Pass amplifier. A brand new Bussman fuse, a Synergistic Research Blue fuse and a Synergistic Research Orange fuse. I keep this amp on 24/7 as suggested by the manufacturer. The Blue fuse has over a 1000 hours on it and the Orange had a 160 hours (continuous playing time) on it before any listening evaluations. The Bussman was listened to for the first time immediately out of the box.
The Bussman fuse did a fine job. But going from the Blue fuse which I had been using to the Bussman, there was a definite change. With the Bussman the sound was now more two dimensional. Instruments were not as full bodied. The depth of the soundstage was compressed front to back. I was more aware that I was listening to a recording versus being in the room with the musicians. The music was less emotionally involving. I did for completeness sake reverse the direction of the new Bussman fuse several times. It did consistently sound better installed in one direction, not huge but it is there.
Comparing the Synergistic Blue Fuse to Orange Fuse was similar to my past tube rolling experiences with my 300B tubed amplifier (but cheaper to carry out). Different tubes change the sound and these different fuses change the sound. Both of these fuses brought out more of the music that the Pass Labs amp was playing when compared to the Bussman fuse. Before any serious listening was undertaken, the fuses were evaluated for best sounding direction - and they both were directional.
The Orange fuse really is exceptional in it’s ability to let me enjoy the music and who is playing what. The detail of Willie Nelson’s nylon strings on his guitar had much better dynamics and richer texture than I have previously heard using the Blue fuse. His Stardust album continues to impress me.
When listening to music that has more musicians playing, such as on Sierra Una Noche, I can more easily distinguish each instrument and it’s contribution to the musical whole. Also in this live recording that uses only two mics, I get a better feel of each musician’s distance from the microphones and that they move toward and away from the microphones while playing. These factors allow me to forget I am listening to a recording of an event. With the Orange fuse, I feel I am at the event as it is playing.
This fuse experiment was fun to do and educational.
Feel free to call.
David Pritchard
575-644-1462
For my latest listening experiment I decided to evaluate the sonic differences using three fuses in the Pass amplifier. A brand new Bussman fuse, a Synergistic Research Blue fuse and a Synergistic Research Orange fuse. I keep this amp on 24/7 as suggested by the manufacturer. The Blue fuse has over a 1000 hours on it and the Orange had a 160 hours (continuous playing time) on it before any listening evaluations. The Bussman was listened to for the first time immediately out of the box.
The Bussman fuse did a fine job. But going from the Blue fuse which I had been using to the Bussman, there was a definite change. With the Bussman the sound was now more two dimensional. Instruments were not as full bodied. The depth of the soundstage was compressed front to back. I was more aware that I was listening to a recording versus being in the room with the musicians. The music was less emotionally involving. I did for completeness sake reverse the direction of the new Bussman fuse several times. It did consistently sound better installed in one direction, not huge but it is there.
Comparing the Synergistic Blue Fuse to Orange Fuse was similar to my past tube rolling experiences with my 300B tubed amplifier (but cheaper to carry out). Different tubes change the sound and these different fuses change the sound. Both of these fuses brought out more of the music that the Pass Labs amp was playing when compared to the Bussman fuse. Before any serious listening was undertaken, the fuses were evaluated for best sounding direction - and they both were directional.
The Orange fuse really is exceptional in it’s ability to let me enjoy the music and who is playing what. The detail of Willie Nelson’s nylon strings on his guitar had much better dynamics and richer texture than I have previously heard using the Blue fuse. His Stardust album continues to impress me.
When listening to music that has more musicians playing, such as on Sierra Una Noche, I can more easily distinguish each instrument and it’s contribution to the musical whole. Also in this live recording that uses only two mics, I get a better feel of each musician’s distance from the microphones and that they move toward and away from the microphones while playing. These factors allow me to forget I am listening to a recording of an event. With the Orange fuse, I feel I am at the event as it is playing.
This fuse experiment was fun to do and educational.
Feel free to call.
David Pritchard
575-644-1462
Showing 24 responses by geoffkait
Quick question, how do you know if it’s the Orange fuse breaking in or the eMats breaking in? Also, are they still breaking in? Does the system have to be ON for break-in to occur? How do you distinguish been what you hear with the Orange fuse and what you hear with the eMats? See 👀 where I’m going with this? |
At some risk of being flamed 🔥 can I point out that because of the rather long burn-in times required for fuses generally and the vagaries of fuse directionality, as well as possible fuse holder issues interfering, that any comparison or evaluation of fuses is by necessity a time-consuming affair fraught with all sorts of possible interfering conditions that might impose themselves on such a test and make conclusions questionable. Also, I think that it would be of value to select an amplifier with a reputation for a crappy power supply on which to experiment with fuses. |
Yeah, sure, Al. You guys keep bringing this issue with the fuse holder up and I keep shooting it down. The fuse holder theory, assuming It’s true, which I seriously doubt, is that it would be random, whereas directionality of the fuse itself is not. It’s always the same direction that is superior, for ANY given fuse. The “correct direction” for any fuse is in the direction of the lowest outage drop. For anyone with ears the correct direction of the fuse exhibits much less noise and distortion than the incorrect way. Differences in the fuse holder end, if any, would not (rpt not) exhibit these rather dramatic differences. This is all just another example of you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But thanks for reminding us of this silly theory, anyway. |
You observe, you report. You run it up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes. Those who have the ability describe the details of what they observed. Everyone else, the grumblers and whiners and left behinders, can go pound sand. Everything is system and listener dependent so results vary. End of story. |
That’s precisely what wrong with the “measurement is everything” approach. Even HiFi Tuning admits the relatively small measured differences don’t account for the relatively large differences in fuses and direction of fuses heard in listening tests. Oh, well, that’s the way it goes sometimes. It looks like it’s Modjeski’s opinion vs 90,000 aftermarket fuse users. No one really knows why cables sound so different yet measure the same, either, or sound so different in one direction vs the other. This not something new under the sun, anyway. Modjeski is a few paradigm shifts behind the power curve. The only debate about fuses and cables and power cords is in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool skeptic. |
It’s a cry in’ shame 😭 those two guys don’t believe in fuses or wire directionality 🔛 Otherwise their amplifiers would have sounded even better, no? Well, half of them would. 😛 And they would have sold more amplifiers. Too bad those two guys are so stubborn. They’re probably not good listeners. 😁 No matter how much you have in the end 🔜 you would have had even more if you had started out with more. - Old audiophile axiom |
shannere ”only if the wire can be shown to sound better than the fuse". ????? Fuses are a choke point, the best fuse is no fuse. Should I infer that the purpose of a fuse is not for protection but rather to somehow enhance the sound? >>>>Uh, no. That’s just another variation of the “all amplifiers sound the same” argument. |