This is interesting. I've been using different fuses, since (and I had to come on here to see when I first started posting about fuses: senior moment…) 2012.
Just 4-6 days ago, I noticed that my system sounded really, REALLY bright, especially on Mercury Living Presence CDs. Stravinsky's 'The Firebird' was pretty screechy on cut 23. I had gotten speaker cables weeks ago, and were breaking them in (same company, updated cables), and until this week, never thought the sound 'bright' or 'screechy.' So, tonight, I was talking to a friend and suddenly exclaimed that, if I'd changed the fuses in my other equipment, I must have changed it in the CD player as well. At the time, I could not discern correct orientation, but that was hardly surprising: terminal illness in my family had just begun, and I was not in the state of mind to be as observant.
Anyway, opened the CD player, and sure enough, there was a Synergistic SR-20 fuse in there. I changed the orientation, and SOME of the brightness was ameliorated. I wanted to simply post now, while I was thinking about it.
Fuse application is clearly not Universal. What works in one application does not necessarily translate to others. I found a thread from 4 years ago, when I first started experimenting with fuses, where I had complained that the Hurricanes sounded not so good with the Hi Fi fuses in them (I first posted that in 2012). 4 years later, and post some losses in my family, I looked in the Hurricanes fuse box. Something just told me to look in there: Hi Fi tuning fuses in them. I had WONDERED what was wrong with the system over the past few months, although the use of the Hurricanes was to bypass the amp stage of an integrated amp. Don't recall WHY I put the Hi Fi tuning fuses back in the amps, but it must've simple been that I forgot they didn't work as well. So , I'll be putting Synergistics back in - as soon as I can locate them. (Don't ask. It's been 4 years, and I have fuses upstairs, in the basement, in boxes in the shed, the garage, and, I'm sure, stored in trees outside [ hope the squirrels haven't found them]). I had stopped using the Hurricanes in the system because of the lack of dynamics and low-level detail. Now I know why - but don't know WHEN I put them back in the amps. (Must've been during that bad period, when my memory was ONLY a memory - to me) But the CD player is clearly better with the orientation change. Just a warning to those who don't see the improvement that maybe it's not the fuse: maybe it's the orientation or the component into which the fuse has been placed. |
I saw Dave Pritchard’s comments about wall outlets. I have most of the same as he does; Oyaide R-1, Teslaplex, Teslaplex SE, Furutech GTD-X (rhodium), FIM 880s, (blue and white: I like the blue better, but the FIMs sound a bit soft) PS Audio Classic and Premier outlets and the Maestro. Unlike David, I do like the Teslaplex SE (although it IS a little forward in the upper midrange). And the Oyaide is rich, but it has a definite sound: it moves the soundstage forward on EVERYTHING, so it’s a permanent in-your-face soundstage, but with the consequence of foreshortened depth. I liked the forwardness of the soundstage when I got it years ago (it was like moving from Row K to Row F), until I realized EVERYthing sounded up front, even RCA Living Stereos, which are certainly not recorded to be forward-sounding. RCA placed their microphones much further back than Mercury, so you get more of the hall ambience than direct sound on RCAs. An equally nice sound, just not quite as "immediate." But just as grainless as some Mercurys.
I found the Quantum Black as Dave describes it, although I’d say the noise floor, my Arcam FMJ CD player, is light years ahead of the SR20 model that was previously in it. In fact, the difference between an SR20 and a Red, to me, is good, but not the proverbial "order of magnitude" (the late HP's favorite phrase) better.
And I can see how Siddh’s would see what he observed. One thing about the Stillpoints, I found: as you move up from the Ultra Minis to the SS (I never got 5s: against my religion to pay that much, not to mention, against my wallet!), the midbass becomes "leaner." Tight and harmonically great, with terrific impact, but leaner. I remember clearly that Robert Harley pointed this out in his review of the 5s in TAS when he reviewed them. I would conclude - although I’d have to find that damn Audio Horizon fuse first - that the Audio Horizon is a richer-sounding fuse than the Synergistic. I have observed, as I mentioned earlier, that the Teslaplex SE has a slight brightness to it, which, in Enjoy The Music, the reviewer also noticed. But in my system, the Quantum Black fuse ANNOUNCED itself, as I noted in another thread. It was as though it was saying, just wait 'til you pull your system out of mute. I felt like the Boogeyman had jumped out and scared the daylights out of me (it was pretty astounding, seriously. I'm not joking.) I'd sauntered into the music room, sat down and casually thought, "I'll listen to a few minutes of music" given it is now half past midnight. I’d last listened to it last night and it sounded very good - but not astounding. Somewhere between last night and tonight, it transformed. Tonight it sounded more like the live mike feed I'm used to hearing when I listen to the Metropolitan Opera live on Saturday afternoons, which, even on a mediocre tuner - but a decent system, you can tell it’s live and not a recording. I’ve never heard - using an integrated (I had the NAD C325BEE in there) such a vivid representation of a live orchestra sitting there quietly between numbers - and with the harmonic information intact enough that the Rochester orchestra hall sounds more like the hall than it has in past listening, using mostly the Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CDs. To say it is vivid is not an exaggeration. Normally, I hear a sound or two from one or two members of the orchestra moving in their chairs in between numbers (Mercury did not always stop the tape: in some cuts, they clearly let it go from one cut to the next and continued running the tape). Tonight, my head was swiveling around like a cabbage on a stick, hearing sounds coming from every part of the orchestra. This bespeaks a highly significant reduction in grain, which then manifests as a more continuous presentation due to the lack of grain and, as a necessary adjunct, much, MUCH lower noise floor. The presentation is simply more "see into" than it was. Even though the NAD integrated is a bit on the dark side of the Force, with the Synergistic, it's as though you went from listening to an orchestra light by 60 watt bulbs to 80 watt bulbs (yes, I do know it's 60w and then 75w, but I'm making a point here). It's obviously more lit up from the front to the back of the sound state. Not more resolution - well, not with the NAD - but more transparent.
I’ll have to listen further to see if it resembles Siddh’s description, but so far it does not. But, I agree with him: fuses are like power cords or interconnects: some components they mesh with seamlessly, and in other components, they are less favorable. That’s been my experience, too. For example, I would never again put Hi Fi Tuning fuses, Supreme or otherwise, in my Hurricanes. The sound becomes wimpy, and the Hurricanes are, if nothing else, extremely powerful-sounding amps. And their realism, although the resolution doesn’t match my Goldmund Mimesis 9 amp, when I had it, possess a realism the Goldmund could only dream of having, despite that spectacular high frequency extension it had. I’m sure putting the Blacks into the Hurricanes eventually. This is one hell of a fuse, and I’ve had HiFi Tunings, AMRs, Furutech fuses (which I dislike intensely, and I don’t like saying that about anyone’s product, but they do something unpleasant to the midbass as well as the upper midrange and treble ranges), Audio Horizon and, of course, the 3 generation of Synergistic fuses.
My room in CT is tube trapped, same as it was when I lived in San Francisco. I’ve had Tube Traps for the past 30 years: takes the room out of the equation and makes it easier to evaluate. I’d love to try Synergistic’s stuff, but the room’s quite good as it is, so I’ll stick to the fuses.
Whether or not it works in one place in your system, try it in different places. It is a truly excellent fuse, and much superior to the previous Synergistic fuses.
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Audiolabryinth, happy to respond.
I like the Furutech outlets, because they are very smooth. In comparison, the Teslaplex SE has a slightly more forward upper midrange, which, on some Mercury Living Presence CDs, can be a bit intense. My wall outlet is the Furutech, but I swapped out the outlet on the PS Audio Power Plant 300 a year or two ago, and put in a Teslaplex SE. conversely, on vocals, the Teslaplex - to my ears - more readily reveals the gutsiness of Aretha’s voice, as well as other Black singers and even David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose voice you can clearly hear straining at times, which the Furutech does NOT do. The Furutech is more refined, and that’s great but Aretha is NOT a refined singer, she is a bring-it-home sister like I’d hear in church growing up. Hence the Furutech at the wall, and the Teslaplex in the PS Audio. I have another Teslaplex SE, and I might put that in the wall to hear what changes are wrought, but that MIGHT become too edgy. And then again, maybe not, since the new fuse is audibly smoother than the SR20 that was previously in the Arcam. Hmmm... For now, here’s what’s interesting.
When I had the SR20 in the Arcam, the sound, plugged into the Teslaplex, was a bit too harsh for my ears. Brass had an unquestionable edge on almost ANY Mercury CD (and yes, I know they used bright microphones back then, so maybe the Teslaplex was just revealing the ’truth,’ but I don’t think so: it was a little TOO much ’truth’ to my ears. BUT. BUT. As soon as I put in the Quantum Black - from the first CD - I was aware that the harshness was gone. Then, when I read Cymbop’s description of cymbals, I though, ’Now, that’s REALLY interesting, because I have had the opposite effect. The leading transient is less ’hashy’ or white-noise sounding compared to having the SR20 in there (I never put a Red into the Arcam) and as for the dimensionality, read on a couple of sentences. Something else: I noticed that the tension of the music is slightly less than before, almost as if the music is being played at a slightly slower pace. End result? Less impact, and as a corollary, I also noticed that somewhere around the lower parts of the upper bass down into the upper-midbass, the sound is not as physical - or as HP would put it - it has less ’authority’, so I’m with Cymbop on this point. Hence, the lessening of dimensionality, or 'flatness' he discerned.
Since the midbass is what gives instruments their sense of ’solidity’ (that’s why the original WATTs sounded so holographic: the sound was weighted towards the midbass, but you only heard it with a Rowland Coherence preamp, which had a center-of-the-earth gravity from the lower midrange down to the low bass (as Dave Wilson noted in issue 47 of TAS) and then later, around 1988, when he came out with the first generation of the Puppies. Now, any lessening of the midbass WILL make images seem flatter, and I did encounter that with the RCA Living Stereo CD of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, where cut 9 is the beginning of Lt. Kije. The trumpet was less focused and ’present.’ I thought perhaps I’d moved a tube trap (even jarring them off by 1/8" can affect subtle sonics), but I hadn’t. So, the bass is clearer, but very slightly more lightweight, although I then followed that with the Labelle CD ’Nightbirds’ (you know, the one with Lady Marmalade’s famous ’voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir’ phrase on it). I’d never been impressed with the bass on that CD, yet there was WAY more of it than i was used to - and I noticed that the NAD volume setting was at a lower volume, too! Some mysteries, as well as ecstacies, live in the Quantum Black. None of the positive statements I said were wrong, but I also hear the - again - VERY SLIGHT loss of focus on instruments, although the overall presentation is more transparent and immediate, and, along with that low, low, low noise floor, it’s ZOWIE. (And the highs, on my system, were superior to the pre-Quantum era.) It does seem, though, on solo instruments, particularly guitars, that the instruments are more physically there, but on symphonies, there is, perhaps, a bit less image specificity and kick on the bass drums. Again, I think it’s somewhere in the lower part of the upper bass/midbass that the focus and specificity is not as secure as it was when the fuse was only at, say, 20 hours.
The larger picture is that the noise floor is SO much lower, and there is GREATLY reduced grain between you and the music, particularly on voice, both male and female, and more passion IN those voices than before that you might not notice the bass (and who knows, it could be that I have to rearrange the Stillpoint Ultra Mini Risers). BUT, Patti Labelle was unquestionably more forceful sounding on ’What Can I Do For You?’ as were both Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, and their harmonies were more separated (not that the NAD is the MASTER in this regard, but you get my point). I’ve had mine for a week and find it fantastic, but I support Cymbop’s observations.
I think we must all accept that there is no perfect component, and even if there is, when it comes to fuses, we have - most of us - had enough experience to realize the fuse is not perfect in every application, and it is a matter of finding the right location where it will show its magic. That magic may not be in every component. The Arcam Fmj 23 , for example, does not have "thunderous" midbass, and this was noted by a colleague who wrote about it in issue 136 of TAS. So, its bass dynamics are not the last word. The Quantum Black, after break in, may be showing that it, too, has great definition in some areas of the bass, rather than sheer quantity of bass. I don’t know: we’ll have to swap stories here on the forum and note the equipment we have, and how that equipment USUALLY sounds in the bass, both -pre and -post Quantum Black.
For all that, it is by far the most instantly striking fuse of all that I’ve used, meaning, it takes NO time to hear what it does. BUT, it does actually seem to be have more midbass when you first put it in than at 100 hours. I’ll check my observations, but that’s how it sounds to my ears.
And DavidPritchard, thanks for clearing that up. |
So, Oregonpapa, did you observe that the bass, with the Quantum Black fuse, had the same "weight" to it - or even more or less weight - or did you simply observe that the bass quality seemed better?
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Well, I've just discovered that the PS Audio Power Plant 300 actually prefers the Red fuse over the Quantum Black.
A friend of mine, who loves music (well, let me correct that: he loves Scheherazade, and ONLY Scheherazade), was over the past few days, so last night, I decided to play the vinyl version (I think it's a Classic Records release, but don't hold me on that).
SO. We listened once and suddenly I wondered, because the sound was just slightly strange sounding, what it would sound like with the Red fuse. So, I popped out the Black and put in the Red, and put the needle on da record and wonder of wonders, it sounded better. So, I began changing the orientation of both the Red and Black and in the end, the Red sounded better than the Black. I have no idea why. Don't even suggest burn in: it's been two weeks, 24/7 in the Power Plant with a fan hooked up to it, too.
Hey, no skin off my nose: I can put it in the NAD C356BEE integrated I'm giving to a friend and see how it sounds there! But it was a surprise and no head scratching was required. Dave said, it sounds better this way, and that was with the Red fuse in it. Go figure! |
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I agree with Oregonpapa: try the fuses and return them within 30 days if they don’t improve your system. I have no qualms whatsoever about doing this. Not that I was thrilled at the increase in price (is anyone????), but given that I can get my money back without question, I see this as a win-win situation. I’ve returned fuses to VH Audio and not heard a whimper out of the owner. At least Synergistic is smart enough to put their money where their mouth is, and say, if you don’t like it, return it.
I WILL say that I did NOT like their Black outlet. Not.At. All. And I returned it. It started out sounding good, but then lapsed into a rather generic sound. Of course, it can be that the outlet surpassed my test system, which is inexpensive, but I’m under the belief that if it takes a 10k amp, 10k preamp, 5k CD player, 3k interconnects, 3k speaker cable, 4k equipment rack, and an army of other accoutrements to demonstrate the improvement, then I that’s pathetic. I mean, I don’t expect a Best Buy integrated to show off the fuses, but NAD, Arcam, and Hegels are plenty good enough to show off if the fuses work.
So, as far as my preference with SR’s outlets, I preferred the 2nd generation Red, even though it had a "bite" in the lower treble. It also had a magnificence on voices that was hard to beat, as well superb rhythm and the ability to stop-on-a-dime - when the music stopped on a dime!
However, I was not pleased when, a year ago, I asked a straightforward question of SR about the new Black outlet, and about whether the "bite" (of the Red one) had been resolved in the Black version, and received a marketing person’s emailed response that I had to "hear it to believe it." (I worked in PR for the mayor of San Francisco, and I know a non-answer when I hear one). Fine. I bought it and I heard it. On MY system, it stunk. Fortunately, the fuses never do, although I would say - and quite LOUDLY - that not every new fuse works best in each piece of equipment. For example, in my PS Audio Power Plant, The Red outperformed the Black (and another user on here came to the exact same conclusion, independent of me. In fact, I didn’t even know him until I happened across his thread and saw that he had written exactly what I had written in an entirely separate thread).
So, I’m going to order a Blue or two (not for the Power Plant, though. I came across an Audio Horizon fuse I’d lost (things get lost around my place: it’s like the Bermuda Triangle) and put it in the Power Plant and expected exactly nothing. But I got a beautiful tone.Not euphonic, since Burt Bacharach’s solo ’70s albums still sound awful (Casino Royale was a ’60s album, for the sharp-eyed). It sounded that way last night, as a matter of fact!
So, either the Reds and the Blacks are voiced for certain components remains to be seen. (They seem to like Audio Research’s electronics). And I wasn’t keen on SR’s upper level interconnects, either. One was lean, and the other was clearly "rich."
Anyway. The Audio Horizon put the Red fuse to shame. Now, someone on another thread posited that it could be how slowly the circuit "discharges" or something technical - and he could easily be right. I don’t care. I tried it in 3 different systems and I could hear its sonic character. Which is fine: everything has at least a slight character. As long as I can identify it objectively, then I can subjectively decide if I want to keep it. But I want to be able to identify it objectively first.
So, tomorrow - oh, it’s ALREADY tomorrow - I’ll get a Blue. Well, I’ll get two, because after all, I want to make sure one component is not hiding back the Blue’s effect. And I’ll report it.
By the way, the "cheap" system is an NAD C325BEE ( I have friends with the 326 and 356, so I can try the fuses in their setup, too ). A CJ ET3SE and a Classic Sixty sitting around with my Hurricanes. Nordost Frey 2 and Nola Contenders (and, let me tell you: the Nolas are one of the ONLY speakers I’ve EVER had that tell you instantly if your azimuth is off, or VTA needs tweaking). And for a $3500 pair of speakers to do that...well, the only other ones I’ve had that do that are the little Sound Dynamics RTS-3s. My WATT/Puppies/Convergent/Goldmund Memesis 9/Versa Dynamics 2.3/Goldmund Accurate/Transparent Reference/MIT (whichever speaker cable I had in 2005) didn’t even do it that easily. So, either I was lousy with room setup (sure, sure) or it was something else, I’ll never know now. Oh, did I mention I’ve given RTS-3s to three friends??? For $150 used, THEY will also immediately show a dirty needle, as a friend of mine with the NAD 326 discovered two weeks ago, when I brought over the Townshend Audio Seismic Isolation Platform for him to hear his (inexpensive) Denon turntable on. (It was eye-opening how "human" singers’ voices sounded. You could hear the nasality in Paul Simon’s voice on "I Am A Rock" as well as his bitterness (and bitterness is - in my opinion - hard to hear clearly on an audio system). So, the Blues will get around in the 30 days I have them. I hope I hate them, because I don’t want to spend the money. But if they work in these inexpensive systems, I’ll let you know. FAST. And then I’ll move them to the better system, whose provenance I ain’t sayin’. But maybe it takes a system like Frank’s to make ’em shine. And so, if it takes a $50k system to make ’em shine, then we should all know that, right?
Let The Games Begin! It’ll either cost me nothin’ (by the time 30 days is up) or it’ll cost $750 for 5 of ’em. Hey, I’ll be sellin’ the old ones at really good prices. I believe we should ALL be able to enjoy music without it costing us an arm and a leg, so keep an eye out. I’ll put ’em on Audiogon for fun prices!
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Yes, My Papa. Me, either. So much so that I ordered 3. I kept deleting the 4th one from the order. It was a 5A fuse that I was going to put into the PS Audio. I had to remind myself to test only the NAD, although I looked at the CJ preamp, longingly beaming telepathic thoughts at it: "Couldn’t you, wouldn’t you....like to be Blue along with me?????" But then I head the voice of God (Lew Conrad or Bill Johnson) from the past, saying we’ve never found another fuse that works as well as the ones we use in our components. Hearing the voice of God makes one crumble. Defeated, I did not order fuses for the ET3 preamp, although I cried bitter tears at God, saying "...but isn’t it even remotely possible...there could be even more Light??" God did not answer and I did not want to tempt his wrath, so virginal shall the ET3SE remain. But some day...I mean, after all, I put the EAT 88 tube in the CJ and it - and I - have not yet exploded from the wrath of GOD. And I looked for where the 3rd fuse is located in the CJ (God hid it), so I was defeated by the fact that it was not visible to my fading mortal eyes. Besides that, it is well after 3 a.m. and there I was on my knees in front of the CJ instead of reclining in my bed. And so didst I retire. I shall diminish and fade into dreams, filled with images of Blues skies, Blue birds, Blue Oceans, Blue Fish and Blue fuses...
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Jetter, that’s why - in most cases - one does not evaluate equipment immediately any more than one would assess a speaker system after 30 hours. I was trained to play music through a component for weeks, and if you have ever read The Absolute Sound, you would recall that they did the same thing for weeks. Amps, preamps, speaker cable, power cords. Everything. I clearly remember Andy Benjamin’s review of Audio Research’s Classic 60 amp, way back in the day. He was appalled by the sound of it out of the box, and it took weeks for the amp to fully burn in, and for him to hear its virtues. Shunyata cable is the same: it takes hundreds of hours to break in (Shunyata demurs on this), but the owners almost universally state otherwise (including me). And God forbid you move the cable around and then listen to it immediately: you have to wait an hour or two for it to "settle." Sound ridiculous? Perhaps, but nonetheless, that’s the reality. I didn’t always know that, especially about Shunyata (I don’t know if everyone’s cables work that way, but Shunyata’s sure do!), but I know if after 15 years of owning their cables, power cords, etc. And I have friends with better ears who have good systems, who will come over and listen, too, and they can hear it as well. And I don’t tell them what to expect. I just let them listen. Some of this is VERY esoteric, but that’s why the non-believers state it’s "hysteria," "hogwash," etc.. Of course, they say this with little-to-no personal experience, or a one-time listen on a poorly set up system at a dealer’s "who has a $200,000 system," they proclaim loudly, as though that means it is well set up. I know otherwise about setup (and the setup can kill even the best electronics and speakers’ ability to deliver the optimum performance). Poor electrical isolation can mask differences, too.
The same thing applies to fuses. I don’t know why, but I imagine Synergistic allows a 30-day guarantee because they KNOW it will take time for the fuse to break in. I wonder why other manufacturers of fuses don’t do the same. It would certainly provide assurances for the Doubting Thomases, although some people are simply unwilling to trust ANYthing. That’s their prerogative, but it sounds exhausting, not to mention depressive in nature.
I will listen initially, wander in and out of my music room, and then listen again seriously, at, say, 200 hours, and then - if I am missing certain aspects of the sonics I KNOW should be there from having owned the disc for 30 years - reverse the fuse to see how it sounds and then give it time in that (reversed) direction, although I can usually determine where the human voice (unamplified) is displaying its full harmonic palette. Voice is, I find, the easiest way of determining correct orientation, but yes, it does take time. But it helps to use discs you know really, really, really well, vinyl OR CD. You can’t pull some new CD or LP that you haven’t used over the course of years and thru several different components in YOUR OWN SYSTEM and expect to make experienced observations.
And even after I’ve tested the new component (in this case, the fuse), I will still take it out and re-insert a previous generation of the same company’s fuse, let IT warm up for a few hours (or, if I’m REALLY unsure, days) and see if the voice is missing information and/or harmonics.
Some people don't have the time or the patience, and I understand that. They would also not be hired to write for audio magazines. That requires curiosity, patience, a little skepticism, and a love of music above all. And even then, one can make a mistake. But at least the whole experiment has been conducted in as scientific a manner as is possible. And that's all anyone can ask. |
