Quantum Science Audio light blue fuse; $71, what a bargain!
I wanted to start a new thread about the more affordable versions of these fuses. I don’t doubt that the higher end versions are amazing, but most of us aren’t very likely to be able to hear them for ourselves. Fortunately, pretty much anyone who is serious about building a musically enjoyable and engaging system can get a good taste of what they’re all about.
I’ve had the light blue QSA fuses ($71) in my CD transport and DAC for over two weeks, now. They replaced SR blue fuses, at around twice the price, and easily bettered them. I am expecting one more light blue tomorrow, to replace an SR orange in my amp. I’ll give an update on that, once I get it installed and listen.
Meanwhile, here are a couple quotes from my posts on the other thread:
“What I am hearing is; voices & instruments are more solid and lifelike, with increased natural detail and sense of space, better dynamics, and a more relaxed overall sound.”
“Just got in a second light blue fuse for my DAC. So far, more of the same improvements I got in my CD transport. Very nice!😃 One thing I appreciate is the break in seems to be pretty quick, without any of the nasties you get with some other stuff. Pop it in, and you’ll hear improvements in short order, at least that’s been my experience.”
I am continuing to greatly enjoy what these fuses bring to my system, and am really looking forward to getting the last one in my amp.
George, Hmmm...the designer of iconoclast - retired Belden engineer Galen Gareis, designed cables using measurements...likely the best measuring equipment around - (you may want to watch their icoonoclast cable videos) - it is Belden after all. He is also an audiophile and wanted to design the best cables he could using measurements and science - very good cables btw. And they offer cables using better grades of copper as they sound better, but guess what? They could't measure it...only speculate on the grain structure of the copper... You may want to read up on Graphene and Fermions - scientific articles that is... |
So, perhaps fuses can make a difference...BTW - I can hear the difference fuses make, but don't have the equipment to measure it. I appreciate "Goners" that post all of these findings as it has added to my musical listening pleasure! My experience in tweaking has been it can make more of a difference than equipment upgrades, depending upon the tweak. So, perhaps tweak is a misnomer. |
there are some reliable, known members here that seem think fancy fuses make a difference sonically - but many more that don’t in all my years pursuing high end audio, i personally have never paid attention, nor tried... that said, i do notice, and am very much on guard (coming from a business background) about potential guerrilla marketing tactics being employed when the product itself has gross margins to the order of several hundreds of percentage points -- same for megabuck audio cables, magic damping dots... and so on... |
Go back to some of the old fuse threads and you can see georgie bragging about getting fuse threads shut down. The historical record is against him. He’ll continue to prod and try to provoke an argument with insults to others and when they respond, he’ll cry foul and run to the mods. Like I said, above, same old tactics. Don’t fall for it; just point it out to the mods. All the best, Nonoise |
I do wish this forum had an ignore feature. I know it is hard to ignore when he is deliberately trying to stir up a fight, but please don’t feed the troll. Pointing out his history of obnoxious behavior is clearly not going to deter him, so not responding to him at all really is the best way forward. |
Regarding the profit margins on these fuses, we can speculate all day long, but we really don’t know. Obviously, the maker is in business, and looking to make a profit. It also seems pretty clear that they are purchasing stock fuses in bulk and applying some sort of proprietary treatment to them. What we don’t know, and what they aren’t going to tell us, for sound business reasons, is how much the treatment costs them to apply. Sure, it could be ridiculously cheap, but it could also be horrendously expensive. Probably somewhere in between. The mere fact that something is expensive doesn’t tell you whether or not there are legimate reasons for it to be that way. |
1. Isn’t using the term "shill" to describe a fellow member akin to a personal attack? 2. Every manufacturer in the hobby marks up their products. Most manufacturers of electronics mark up their products 100% to the dealers, and the dealers mark them up another 100%. In other words, a product that costs $2500 to produce, is sold to the dealer at the wholesale price of $5000. The dealer then marks it up again to the retail price of $10,000. Why no complaints about that Georgie? How about cartridges, Georgie? To date, I haven’t seen you complain about Koetsu Coralstone cartridges or other cartridge makers like Lyra, etc. How much more could it cost to produce a $10,000 - $15,000 cartridge than a $1500 cartridge ... or a $200. cartridge? What gives, Georgie?? Frank |
And now captain "fuser" has made an appearance 1. Isn’t using the term "shill" to describe a fellow member akin to a personal attack?No, I’m not using a members names, as allnoise does, I just use term shillers for all the mainline fusers here, that con the gullible. Every manufacturer in the hobby marks up their products.>1500% markup!!!!!! (10cent fuse to sell for >$150) What gives, Georgie??Biggest con job in audio history, that’s what, that needs to be stamped out!!!!!!!! |
Regarding the profit margins on these fuses, we can speculate all day long, but we really don’t know. we don’t know exactly, but we know - we know the profit margin is exorbitantly high... much more so (as in several mutiples, at least), than that makers of active components, loudspeakers, in this industry... not taking anyone’s side in this -- just using common sense, and some basic business acumen |
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Frank, I’ve had a yellow in my amp that replaced an SR Orange for over a week now and it’s tremendously better than the Orange. From the light blue in my dac and the yellow in the amp they definitely have a house sound but you just get more of it with the yellow. The light blue is great and it also replaced an Orange in the dac but if you can swing the yellow I say get it. Big beautiful soundstage that is naturally detailed and the musicality is just sucking me in. QSA attaches something to the outside of the fuse kinda like what SR does with theirs and I’ve noticed as you move up the color wheel on QSA that material they attach gets bigger. Not sure what it is but it must be what’s affecting the performance, or at least part of it. |
@tsushima1 As far as I know Tweek Geek is the only dealer at this time. https://www.tweekgeek.com/qsa-quantum-science-audio/ |
I'll have to give one of these or more a try - thanks for the feedback vs. the SR - . I had SR Orange Fuse in the past. In amps that were sold, and one in use now on another piece of gear and like them but why not improve upon it...will explore further - I really appreciate threads like these. Not sure why some feel the need to "rain" on the parade - I have been told it's a coping mechanism for fragile ego's. |
t_ramey ... Thanks for the reply. It looks like a yellow fuse is in my near future. I’ll start with the line stage and work up from there. All I can say is, if they can beat the SR Orange fuses, that is saying a LOT. Competition, allowed by the free market is a fantastic thing. Let's see who goes back to the drawing board. :-) Frank |
Before I swap out all of my SR orange Fuses and Duplex boxes Absolutely https://youtu.be/YTY26k0CA0I?t=4 I do see that the fuses show which direction they should go so that is good.Like I said before, you can’t, the mains is AC (Alternating Current), it changes direction 60 x a second) so it’s impossible to put the fuse in the wrong way!🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ |
As far as the duplexes, I believe there is a review forthcoming from Clement Perry at stereotimes. I suspect it will be of the higher end ones, though. Might not be real helpful if you are looking at the lower end ones. Obviously he is selling them, but Michael at Tweek Geek seems to be a straight up kind of guy, who is not just in it for the money. I think he could be helpful in getting an idea of what to expect from the duplexes. |
Never tried boutique fuses, or different directions on any cable or fuse Don’t even entertain the thought, it’s a snake oil con, aimed at the electronically gullible They have to be akin to a diode to be directional, but it’s a piece of wire. Same goes for cable, and if they do act like a diode then that’s bad news. Just clean and tighten your fuse holder and re-new your fuse (if old) with a good quality 50cent Bussman, Littlefuse or similar, as with "many switch-on surges" they do deteriorate and get crusty as these pics show of a fuse ageing over time. https://ibb.co/9NbTwqK (and even the $$$ boutique ones will also) Cheers George |
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