Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Most amp manufacturers don't believe in after market fuse, and in lesser extend -power cords. I have had several well known brands (ARC, Krell, CJ to name a few) and they all HAVE to say that it does not matter from a corporate point of view.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  If fuses can make such a big difference imagine for a moment of the industry suddenly got smart and manufactured all wire like that.  All wire, all cables, all internal wiring of components and speakers, the transformers, capacitors, everything?  Hel-looo!

I have an important question. Let's say you are using one of these aftermarket fuses and it blows and causes damage to your equipment. Are the manufacturers still going to honor your warranty?

My ARC amp takes a 7 amp slow-blo and I see Synergistic only makes an 8 amp. I am going to talk to my technician and see if he thinks that is ok. He has repaired ARC gear for the past 30 years so I have complete confidence in him.

Charles1dad,  I have the furutech gtx-rhodium outlet's, 2 of them,  and the wall frames,  however,  as good as they are, Chris at vh audio emailed me about the new flagship furutech gtx-rhodium NCF outlet's,  the new NCF only comes with the Rhodium version's for the outlet's,  go to vh-audio and check it out Charles, BTW,  I also knew about the sr-red's when they first come out,  but I didn't know enough about the sound to pull the trigger,  I trust your ears,  so likely it's a done deal on the fuses,  but I will tell you Charles, I've tested a lot of outlet's,  not the afterburner 8 you have,  and far and away the furutech gtx-rhodium is the best for my system,  lol, now I'm going to upgrade to the new nanotechnology crystal formula furutech gtx-rhodium!

Hi knghifi,  furutech just introduced a new top outlet,  download the pdf file from Chris at vh-audio,  kinda cool,  take a peek and tell me your impressions,  the ncf gtx- rhodium, merry Christmas.

Knghifi, 
Try the AH in stead of the Isoclean, you will thank me for that.

The CD  player, taking two fuses, was the biggest improvement so far. It is so good that I will NEVER, EVER get rid of this CD Player. Put it in my casket  and lower it down with me boys, lower it down with me.

NO! .... NO! ... NO!  Tell me this isn't true!!!

Manufacturer's Description:

The Synergistic Research BLACK is the most advanced fuse to date. With Synergistic Research's cutting edge UEF Coating and Graphine first developed for Synergistic Research's new Atmosphere Series AC power cords, Synergistic Research Black Fuses deliver performance far beyond their world class RED Fuses. Improvements over RED include a lower noise floor, improved dynamics and clarity, and soundstaging that must be heard to be believed. In fact the performance gain over RED is far greater than the difference between SR's RED fuses and their original Synergistic Research 20 Quantum fuses. Sold with a 30-day no-risk money back guarantee, you won’t believe how good your system can sound until you try BLACK but don't say we didn't warn you because once you go BLACK you’ll never go back to your old fuse!

Knghifi, I don't blame you for taking the plunge.  Knowing how good the Red fuses are, why resist the very probable further improvement with the Black fuses? If my sound becomes any more realistic, the next time I play Carmen McRae I'm going to invite her to stick around for dinner when she's done singing LOL!
Charles,

Knghifi. Did you place 6.3a 250v fuses in the ref 250 as per Warren Gehl?

mid40sguy68 posts01-18-2016 8:38pmI ordered a BLACK from The Cable Company. Should have it in less than two weeks. This will go into a Modwright Oppo 9.0 power supply. I don't plan to replace the RED in my amp. Will post my thoughts on the BLACK whenever it gets here.

audiolabyrinth3,729 posts01-18-2016 7:39pmKnghifi, I’ve got some very positive feedback from my friend sksos1, Steven, on the new NCF furutech connectors, he is very impressed, Steven said that the wpo’s have not started shipping from Japan yet, when they do knghifi, I’m buying them from Steven, his company is called, sound of silence, yes, the very same maker of vibraplane air isolation platform’s for audio.

Two SR BLACK fuses are in the mail and will go into the CD player. They should be here tomorrow (Thursday), or Friday. Stay tuned ...

mid40sguy69 posts01-20-2016 8:20pmKevin said they would be fairly busy until March. If I sent my Sigma the first week of March it would be less than two weeks turn around.

koestner201 posts01-26-2016 9:18amYes, Mitch is right! Why can't SR print the best direction on the fuse? Are they unable to keep them in line during manufacturing? Let's hear from all the users who have an opinion about the correct direction, and tell us what it is.

giannicasciaro6 posts01-31-2016 4:06amHi, i'm waiting for SR black fuses to put in wadia wt 3200 transport and lamm L2 ref preamp.In my dac wadia x 64.4 i have an isoclean fuse.
Do you think better SR black in the dac or in preamp ?Boh,!
Gianni

What size/type of fuse does it take, and is it power cord socket?

The $64K question - are no fuses better than Black fuses?

May I just ask--of all the SR Reds and Blacks being placed, how many of you are exceeding stock ratings by a little or a lot?

This is often needed
 because the SR offerings are high by .5 amp or because the boutique fuses may blow easier at the stock rating

    Another reason is a higher rating sounds better, IME.  I have pushed the ratings in my AC input fuses by an amp or two. The bigger filament adds more to the overall presentation, I believe. 

Pair of Blacks are on the way for my PerfectWave II DAC/pre.   You guys are killing me.  I hate you.    :-)

Having never upgraded a fuse from stock, guess for me on this:  ought a black sound better than stock, right out of the box?  Also, ought a black in the "wrong" direction sound better than stock?

Time shall tell!

I've found that the right way actually sounds SMALLER in scale, but with a proper image size and relationship.  When the fuse is wrong. The soundstage sounds oval with a huge hump in the center, making the center image mushroomed out, creating just a huge center image with a tiny band on each side.

Not to be tedious, but a lot of equipment has cartridge fuse holders that push in on the back of the unit, then turn to lock.  Has anyone flipped an SR Black in such a cartridge, and if so, did you think it sounded better with the writing on the fuse reading towards the back of the unit, or towards the front of the unit?  That is, if I'm pushing the fuse in with my thumb, is SR reading towards my thumb, or the other way? Thanks for your patience.

brownsfan1,122 posts03-19-2016 5:30amI’ve got about 50 hours on the two SR blacks I installed in my ModWright Sony HAPZ1 now. Last night, I removed them and put the stock fuse back in. The effect was exactly the same as A/B’ing stock vs SR black in my Coincident CSL. The sound went two dimensional with loss of dynamics and a step backwards in complexity of harmonics. I reinstalled the fuses one at a time, and found that the fuse serving the hard drive was far more important than the fuse labeled "mains." Next up I am either going to buy one more 3.15 A slo, and fuse my Coincident Franks with the SR Blacks leaving the stock fuse in the mains slot, or else buy a fuse for my MW PS 9.0 power supply.

I think with the latest advances in fuse manufacture, that the old adage that "no fuse sounds best" may now be incorrect. But only with patience and a thorough investigation will we some day know.