Pop Quiz! Wolfie cannot hear the difference between a stock $1 fuse and an advanced audiophile fuse. Yet 50,000 others do hear the difference. What does that tell you? I know what Wolfie is thinking, "But my system sounds fabulous!"
Something For The Fuse Guys ...
There are fuses, and then, there are fuses.
I'm evaluating some prototype fuses that I received in the mail three days ago.
Over the past few years, I've used fuses from five different manufacturers. The last three were the Red, Black and Blue fuses from Synergistic Research. Each one incrementally improved the sound of my system. My favorite so far was the SR Blue.
The prototype fuses being evaluated presently raises the SQ beyond all of the others mentioned above. The major improvement to my ears is better tonal accuracy. Instruments and voices are more life-like. The noise is reduced allowing for a more solid 3-D presentation with the musicians more solidly presented on the sound stage. Overall, more information is fleshed out of CDs and LPs.
The manufacturer, the price and the name of the prototype fuses will come later. I don't have the information thus far. My understanding is, if all works out, the release date is to be mid-October.
Stay tuned ...
Frank
I'm evaluating some prototype fuses that I received in the mail three days ago.
Over the past few years, I've used fuses from five different manufacturers. The last three were the Red, Black and Blue fuses from Synergistic Research. Each one incrementally improved the sound of my system. My favorite so far was the SR Blue.
The prototype fuses being evaluated presently raises the SQ beyond all of the others mentioned above. The major improvement to my ears is better tonal accuracy. Instruments and voices are more life-like. The noise is reduced allowing for a more solid 3-D presentation with the musicians more solidly presented on the sound stage. Overall, more information is fleshed out of CDs and LPs.
The manufacturer, the price and the name of the prototype fuses will come later. I don't have the information thus far. My understanding is, if all works out, the release date is to be mid-October.
Stay tuned ...
Frank
666 responses Add your response
Translation: Frank your evaluation is good enough for Ted Denney, but not for me. I’m jealous. Why doesn’t Ted care what I think? Why do people listen to you and not me? I’d like to hear from people who say its crap.Thank you for your profound translation. Only problem, Frank actually tried them. You have not.I use SR Blue and Black, Hifi Tuning Supreme Everyone who’s actually tried them knows they are really, really good. So sorry. Guess you’ll just have to content yourself with raining on the parade.I would like to hear from those who use Orange and compared them to Blue or Black. That’s a translation. Didn’t actually mean raining. millercarbon, you are such a jerk :) Jerk in the rain Kind Regards |
So Kaitty, you don't get my position on internal wiring to the extent that you actually help make my case...internal wiring "direction" isn't regarded as even barely important in components as it's simply not. The tiny fuse wire isn't either, and your claim of knowing how many Magic Fuses have been sold has nothing to back it up except your alleged position as an "Audio Insider," who the Ted Dennys of the world open their sales books to. Baloney. I still maintain that the vast majority of sane audio geeks disregard the hyperbole of the Magic Fuse Cabal and enjoy snake oil free sound. The rest can hold up Oregonpapa and Millercarbonfootprint's sandals and cry, "Cast off the shoe and follow the gourd!" |
People seem to be catching on to the fuse nonsense.Got that right, especially the ****** that say ac mains fuses are directional. Oh and once again for good measure. The only way a fuse can sound better, if it replaces old crusty one that seen too many switch on surges over time, doesn’t have to be $200 fuse, should be $2 same one but new, and the same result will happen, and switch-on surge ageing will be the same for both $200 fuse or the $2 fuse A slow-blo fuse ageing over time right to left https://ibb.co/k5KgcB6 A fast-blo fuse ageing over time left to right https://ibb.co/1LNFGxQ Your better off spending $2 on a "new original fuse", and save hundreds. Cheers George |
Wow, all I have to do is say the magic words, thick as a brick, and George pops up. Am I psychic or what? I have explained many times right here on these forums why fuses and all wire are directional in AC circuits including the power cords. It’s not rocket science. Besides, are all cables and fuses in the audio system in AC circuits? Did I miss one? 🤗 |
I have explained many times right here on these forums why fuses and all wire are directional in AC circuits including the power cords.Yes, you have explained it so many times that, well forget it. You have explained that in the wire extruding process of pulling it through the dies to create the various gauges the wire molecules or whatever are distorted into a certain direction, and this creates a directionality that impacts the sound. We get it, but think it is BS. Have a nice evening. |
Kaitty simply has no actual idea how many Magic Fuses have been sold and bristles when called out on that because he knows he's clueless. Regarding my "question," nobody clearly addresses "internal wire direction chaos" as it simply renders Fusers nonsensical, and unable to respond with anything beyond personal attacks and weak excuses often from people who should know better, but need to feel somehow self important with claims of some strangely superior hearing skills. Carefully applied Snake Oil can grease your way into some self satisfying imagined legitimacy...hyperbole yer sneakers away! |
Carefully applied Snake Oil can grease your way into some self satisfying imagined legitimacy, and you can take the gullible with you on the ride to nowhere. I believe that could be a Scientology’s mantra, think now, could it apply to Geoff?? Give any one species too much rope and they'll **** it up. (Roger Waters "Amused to Death") http://www.machinadynamica.com/ Cheers George |
Fuses are a difficult subject, because there will always be people who don't believe they can make any difference.. And there also be people who don't hear any difference, either because they are less discerning as to the changes in their sound systems or because their systems are not good enough to show any differences. Or, what's even more likely, they have never tried any aftermarket fuses in their systems, but they generally know better about things in this and other subjects and they want to let the world know about it. Fuses have occupied me recently - a few months ago, I would have never believed they could change anything in my system, but they did! I have written a little review of a Polish product as compared to SR Blue, I've had it on my computer for a while, wondering where to publish it. I just thought I might publish it here. I liked the Polish fuse much more than the product from SR, but hang on, things are not as obvious as they might seem. The Verictum X Fuse happened to massacre the Synergistic Research Blue fuse in my system consisting of a Metronome CD8 S player, a custom-made KT88 amplifier and a set of Franco Serblin Accordo speakers. Its advantage was manifested primarily in the unique culture of the sound versus the vivisection of the SR. There was no jaw dropping when it comes to the bass range. Well, there was the right amount of bass all right, and there was nothing missing in that area. But most of all, the bass came where it should have been and when it should have been. Such a seemingly dry review of the bass is actually a big compliment, because, most of all ,I do appreciate a balanced sound, where no range is emphasised. The area where the X Fuse really stood out right from the start is the midrange. Beautiful vocals (especially male vocals), acoustic instruments, outstanding piano and incredible realism of the double bass, "you can hear the wood" said a friend of mine. I did not get the impression that the X Fuse might adversely affect the treble (as I’ve heard from one user of Polish forum). Maybe people who have relatively warm-sounding amplifiers can get that impression because the X Fuse certainly does not emphasize this range. Strong treble may lead to “a good first impression”. Strong treble may also be conducive to creating hyper space. However, we should ask ourselves if live music really sounds like that. Listening to live music in a jazz club, for example, we don't see those hectares of space among the musicians, not at least in my experience. What you do get, however, is a coherent, natural sound that will make you abandon whatever you were doing and listen to your favourite music for hours. I still feel obliged to report an Audio Research user preferred the Blue J
Before and during the listening I read everything that had been published about these fuses, both in Poland and abroad (not much there), and one conclusion I drew (apart from the ones I will keep to myself) is that little is said about the significance of the breakin period. When I replaced the fuse in my CD player, the sound was great right away, then the sound improved further. The sound was very good right from the start maybe because the Metronome CD8S is generally a great sorcerer when it comes to colour. But in the case of my amplifier, there were moments when I wanted to return the fuse. My amplifier is hyper-transparent and the addition of X Fuse brought an effect I did not quite like at first. But things improved so much after some 200 hours or so; the artificial hyper detail smoothed out, and there was just beautiful, noble sound, further enhancing the realism of the acoustic instruments. Diana Krall was no longer intrusive with the details of her thorax, but started to sing as your mother might have sounded when she was putting you to sleep. To sum up, I would strongly emphasise the significance of the breakin period, even if it’s not stressed as much as the infamous breakin of Furutech’s products (I did break in Furutech’s rhodium outlet so I know what I’m talking about).
Overall, I believe the Synergistic Research Blue might be an excellent product when you are concerned about impact on your treble (in warmer-sounding gear), when you love your soundstage expansive the American way, when you love your bass to impress your guests. But if you want to hear what musical instruments really sound like and your gear is up to the task, I would choose the X Fuse. I would say, X Fuse is Europe, with all its upsides and limitations, and the Blue is America, with all its grandeur and limitations ;) Disclaimer: I am a customer having recently purchased X Fuse products encouraged by recommendations from some friends of mine. I absolutely have no personal interests in promoting the X Fuse. I am a university teacher in Poland in no way related to the industry. I happen to be a member of a Facebook group of audiophiles of the U.S. where people produce a lot of hate speech targeted at Ted, the owner of Synergistic Research. In my review of the X Fuse, I do not mean to discourage people from using his products. I just want to draw your attention to the X Fuse, because I believe it is an absolutely outstanding product. But it’s for experienced audiophiles, who are far over with the audiophile hype, people who want to sit down with a glass of good whiskey and listen to music. But then the discussion is still purely academic, as I believe Vercitum does not do much trading abroad anyway… If you only get a chance to grab it, do! You might find your holy grail!
P. |
More X Fuse info, ”As our team at Verictum mainly consists of demanding “long-term” audiophiles, we had personally used higher standard, very good fuses available on the market. However, we had always felt that it was possible to do more in this field, to do it in a different way and obtain even better-quality sound. We decided to investigate this matter further and create a fuse that would be optimal for us. As it eventually appeared, our work let us achieve spectacular results. This is how the first Polish audiophile fuse called X Fuse was created. X Fuse is a ceramic fuse. The conductor inside is covered with quartz sand that damps its vibrations very well, but its main function is to extinguish the electrical arc which occurs at a short circuit. The conductor of the fuse is made of silver-plated copper. The contacts of the fuse themselves are not nickel-plated, but covered with a thick layer of silver. After many hours of cryogenic freezing adjusted appropriately to X Fuse, fuse contacts are hand-polished using jewelry equipment – each fuse is polished in this way. Next, the contacts are carefully cleaned manually, using an isopropyl alcohol-based cleaning agent. Thanks to this, the purchaser does not additionally have to degrease the surface of fuse contacts. Since the fuse wire itself is protected inside against vibration by quartz, we decided to damp vibrations of the ceramic housing, too, using properly prepared multi-layer covering, to isolate our fuse as effectively as possible from this type of phenomena and unwanted distortion. The whole manual process of preparing one X Fuse lasts almost 60 minutes. X Fuse fuses are directional. Their directionality must be set after 12 hours of heating by reversing the fuse in a socket. After the direction is set, the fuse is going to “adjust” for about 50 hours.” |
Ok, so other than the conductor and silver-plated end caps, it seems you can get at least some of the benefits of the
Verictum X Fuse
by using standard sand-filled ceramic fuses, polishing the ends using the felt pads on your Dremel tool, maybe adding a bit of contact enhancer to the ends, and damping the body using a method of your choice. Same old thing, good contact with the holder and damping of both the internal wire and fuse body. Oyaide has long espoused the benefits of polishing their power connections, both power cord and outlet blades. For years, I have suggested using sand-filled, ceramic fuses, improving the connection between fuses and standard u-shaped holders by placing a small orthodontic rubber band around the two prongs after the fuse in in-place, and damping the body with a wrap or two of teflon tape. Folks who like contact enhancers can go that route, Pro Gold for me after trying others. I have the SR Blue fuses in my new amps and they sound great but I have no idea if that has anything to do with the fuses and probably won't until it comes time to change a fuse. Hats off to the Commercial Technology Group (CTG) for coming up with an apparently worthy competitor to $150-$200 fuses for just under 100 bucks. |
mitch2, You forgot cryogenic treatment and the “heat treatment” for directionality, whatever that is. to whit, “X Fuse fuses are directional. Their directionality must be set after 12 hours of heating by reversing the fuse in a socket. After the direction is set, the fuse is going to “adjust” for about 50 hours.” You said, “other than the conductor and silver plated end caps.” Only the conductor and end caps? That’s gold, Jerry, gold! 🤗 |
Interesting comment below on copper wire used as the fusing element for low amperage (i.e., most audiophile) fuses. I also find the use of "silver-plated copper" as stated for the X Fuse interesting since it seems the plating thickness and overall thickness of the plated wire would both have to be consistent to maintain fusing within a suitable range of the rated value. On copper fuse wire: Copper wire suffers from the drawbacks that it operates at a rather high temperature if a reasonably low fusing factor is desired. There is thus a tendency for the wire to overheat with the result that its cross-sectional area and fusing current are gradually reduced, and premature melting of the wire may occur. |
Do any audiophile fuses use 100% copper conductive elements? One wonders. “HiFi Tuning has long been a fan of Germany’s legendary Mundorf capacitors. Revered in audiophile circles for creating gorgeous sounding no-compromise capacitors which grace some of the world’s best electronic designs, Mundorf capacitors are built using a special conductive material. Ultra-pure silver is impregnated with gold creating a material with gobs of resolution and golden warmth; glorious tonal color with truly outstanding dynamic shading, essentially the best of both gold and silver and absolutely no compromise. Each Supreme fuse uses this special material for its end-caps and conductive filament and pure silver solder connects everything. Inside the ceramic casing, Supreme fuses further distinguish themselves by receiving proprietary resonance and quantum treatments.” |
Again, fuses do not provide, and simply are not designed to provide any sonic effect (except that imagined by imaginations) other that shutting down the proceeds by melting. It's simply a tiny wire whose "directionality" is utterly rendered irrelevant by my previously described internal wire direction chaos in components. No matter what one does to a fuse...fill it with sand, polish it, coat it with silver, freeze it, bombard it with magic, try "1,000,000 volt multi-stage, high-frequency conditioning process," or a "2nd Stage Rev. 2.0 Molecular realignment process" and whatever pours forth from the ever fertile minds of the snakes who run these companies, a fuse will merely be a fuse. |
Fuses by their very electrical and molecular nature, and how that interaction happens with respect to the audio equipment..well.. fuses definitely ~DO~ alter the sonic signature of a piece of audio gear. Anyone who touts being a professional in the associated fields...and is confused about that ...should get their engineering or professional papers yanked due to dangerous levels of ignorance and incompetence. Go talk with the companies that make the fuses. They'll explain to you how wrong you are. I'm talking Cooper-Bussman, Schurter, SOC of Japan, you name them. Go talk with their engineers and they'll be totally confused about how ignorant you are...and why are you bringing this to them? As for directionality..well... within a year or less, dude, you’ll be eating those words. Big time. I read the physics journals every day, and lately they’ve been issuing the cutting edge work that cuts the naysayers to pieces. But I don’t expect you to be around to eat it. In my experience...the naysayers always cut and run when proven wrong. |
Fuses certainly provide sonic improvement. Funny how wine tasters can taste differences when the same wine is tasted in various shaped glasses and even different wine glass materials. I am a super taster and can taste differences others cannot. However, for some reason the sense of hearing throws some folks into near fits when some can hear differences they cannot. Actually, many anti-fusers have not even tried to listen? Strange indeed. Not sure why so narrow a mind when it comes to hearing. |
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Friends - I have a new-ish PS Audio Signature preamp and 250 amp. In both of their user manuals the manufacturer suggests that the stock fuses be replaced "but we
recommend care be taken to use H-Rated fuses, specifically tailored for high current, high transient
in-rush conditions." My preference is to use Synergistic Research blue fuses. There are 250 and 500 slow-blow and fast-blow options of difference sizes. My question is, are they all H-rated? I can't find anything in Synergistic's online literature, so I'll ask you all. |
@ jimkiely- Personally; I’ve found the tech people and owners at PS Audio very accessible. You might ask them if they’ve any experience/concerns, with the Synergistic fuses. https://www.psaudio.com/contact/ |
I have had mixed results with audiophile fuses. My rectifier tube in my power supply went bad and blew out the fuse in my power supply. That was an expensive blow. I replaced the fuse in my preamp with a blue fuse of the same amperage, it blew. It was within the warranty period so I had a one step increase in the amperage rating. They upgraded me to an orange fuse and so far so good. |
Well, this is refreshing. My thanks to whoever is responsible for reopening the thread. The three prototype fuses (SR Purple) are broken in now, and the system has never sounded better. Since the time that the thread was closed, I received another product to try out. This was a major improvement, and the fuses continued to stay out of the way of the music. What a midrange! |
So many fuse threads! I can't keep em all straight! Sad to say my QSA are still back-ordered. Between the price and the time (and the new Purple) my patience has run out. I just canceled and will be ordering Synergistic. Would've been nice to compare but for the price diff hard to believe they wouldn't have been going back. Even if Violet turned out better than Purple, hard to believe so much better to be worth the extra. |
Frank, How much time did it take the Synergistic purple fuses to break in ? I use orange in everything now but have ordered a purple for my amplifier as well for 2 Foundation Research pc/ conditioners that run to my Martin logans which makes a big difference soundwise from the logans. I look forward to getting them after reading your favorable comments. If I like what I hear I will do the pre and phono stage probably as well. |
simguy ... They sounded really good right out of the box. Much better than the SR Orange fuses they replaced. They continued to improve over about 50 hours or so. I think you'll like them a lot better than the SR Orange fuses, and that's saying a lot because as you know, the Orange fuses are not chopped liver. :-) Frank |
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@oregonpapa Thanks for that description on the SR Purple fuses. I’ve been looking for a review of their new fuse. A coworker and I have been discussing getting the SR Orange fuses the last several weeks to try in our systems. Our systems are very different from each other both in level of equipment and approach to music reproduction. We thought this would be an interesting experiment to try. Also, I have the SR Foundation cables in my system and know they make high quality product that works. Do you think it would be worth trying the Purple fuse at just the amplifier level to start? We both think the cost difference between the Orange and the Purple is minor enough to try the new fuses. Cheers! |
femoore12 ... You're welcome ... Your choice where to start, but I've always started with the line stage as everything that is plugged into it is affected, including the amp. For the price difference, I would go for the SR Purple fuse. As stated above, it was a substantial improvement over the SR Orange fuses that they replaced. Frank |
@oregonpapa Did you remove your post describing the fuse or was it deleted? I wanted to say thank you for the reply to my questions. The line stage makes complete sense. I admit I am a bit hesitant to start there because it requires me to open my relatively new preamp to access the fuse. I will try the amps first and go from there. Thanks! |