Thanks Frank, it's always a nice surprise when we discover things that we never knew were missing, especially if one loves music.....and of course the music should always be the end priority but with the recognition that even better illusions of real flesh and blood performers in our respective listening rooms can be realized.
Synergistic Red Fuse ...
I installed a SR RED Quantum fuse in my ARC REF-3 preamp a few days ago, replacing an older high end fuse. Uhh ... for a hundred bucks, this little baby is well worth the cost. There was an immediate improvement upon installation, but now that its broken in (yes, no kidding), its quite remarkable. A tightening of the focus, a more solid image, and most important of all for my tastes, a deeper appreciation for the organic sound of the instruments. Damn! ... cellos sound great! Much improved attack on pianos. More humanistic on vocals. Bowed bass goes down forever. Next move? .... I'm doing the entire system with these fuses. One at a time though just to gauge the improvement in each piece of equipment. The REF-75se comes next. I'll report the results as the progression takes place. Stay tuned ...
Any comments from anyone else who has tried these fuses?
Any comments from anyone else who has tried these fuses?
4,839 responses Add your response
Hi PTSS, there are actually 2 fuses in the Sony, both are Small (5x20mm), 3.15A, Slow-Blow types. I only replaced one of these, after a discussion in this thread back in October with Brownsfan here: https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/1357579 |
Admittedly I was skeptical about what a little fuse, which I remember buying for a nickel a pop in the old days, could possibly do for sound quality. After following all the fuss here, mostly positive though paying close attention to the persuasive `cannot-make-a-difference' minority, I went ahead and ordered one for my Sony HAP-Z1ES server and another for my almost new integrated amp (Absolare). What’s to lose, I reckoned, we can’t know what can be known if we fail to experience the unknown, and I’ve frequently discovered that technical truisms do not universally tell the tale (after 30 + years in this game, I don’t believe that everything can be measured, our ears need to play a primary role in the final analysis). The amp already has a Synergistic Red, so I will not bother changing to the Black until it is thoroughly broken in, and further to ensure I limit the system changes to one thing at a time. So, with just the one Black in the Sony, my first reaction was…..no way, this can’t be happening! When I slowly recovered my senses and pulled my jaw off the floor, I reasoned that reality can play tricks sometimes, though my next 6 listening sessions told the same story: Increased texture in the bass, more gravitas to the overall sound, more pop from silent-to-loud dynamics, and a seemingly more relaxed yet just as detailed sound. This after a week of listening, pretty amazing for a lousy fuse. Do I think it’s worth the price based upon what I’m hearing? Yes, I’ve encountered quite a few equipment/tweek upgrades that disappointed comparatively. Expectation bias? I don’t think so, I had no expectations one way or the other except to have an open mind and to keep the boxes intact in case I needed to return them. We shall see if other improvements (or indeed any negatives), reveal themselves in the coming weeks, but so far I am impressed. |
Charles ... After digging though the CD vault this evening, I discovered that I do have Jo Stafford's "Ballad of The Blues." Its recorded in mono. The LP is in stereo. The CD sound is more "up front," but over all I prefer the LP. The "Jo+Jazz" CD is recorded in stereo. Sound is good but not spectacular. Really good musicians on the recording though ... Ben Webster for one. Frank |
^^^ ... Hi, Charles ... I have the Jo+Jazz on both LP and CD. I have "Ballad of The Blues" on LP but not on CD. If the CD is anything like the LP, you're in for a real treat. I'd be interested in what you think of the sound quality of the CD. If they made a good quality transfer from the tape, I'll buy it. Thanks ... Frank |
Just installed a pair of Blacks today in Quad 12L actives, replacing Furutech fuses. Noticed some pleasant differences straight out of the box in a few senses. Look forward to what shows after burn in. Of course, the thing about checking direction with two powered speakers is that there are four possibilities. although I have a sense that one speaker is performing better than the other. |
For those of you who love soulful music from south of the border, Linda
Ronstadt made one album with great Mexico City musicians. I heard her perform the songs on this album live at the Universal Amphitheater in L.A. An amazing evening. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R2.TR10.TRC0.A0.H1.Xlinda+.... Personally, I love really good Mexican music, being exposed to it through living in Southern California all of my life and a 35 year marriage to a woman whose Mom was born in Mexico and a Dad who was born in Central America. There were marimbas, guitars and castanets at family get-togethers. The Dad was a fine marimba player ... even playing professionally at one time. Al ... Where I got the idea that Al Hibble was a Brit is a mystery to me. I've believed that since I was a kid. Now I find out that he was born in Mississippi. Thanks for the correction. This is a little treat for you, Al: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qto6cY0Fsw4 By the way Al, you mentioned the Righteous Brothers ... A friend of mine (Bill Perry) played guitar on all of their albums. To this day, I cannot find his credits on the liner notes on any of the RB albums. Frank |
Allan, You are welcome. I like making others aware of good music and I enjoy the recommendations from those posting here. No matter how large one's music library is there are always new discoveries introduced. Allan I've used the PS Audio PWT (memory transport) for the past 7 years and it is truly excellent with Redbook CD. Charles |
Oregonpapa 2-27-2017I've always loved Al Hibbler's classic 1955 recording of "Unchained Melody." How anyone could prefer the 1965 recording by the Righteous Brothers, who it seems had the best known and most popular of the many hundreds of recordings of the song that have been released, is absolutely beyond me. A minor correction, though: Al Hibbler was an American. Best regards, -- Al |
Frank and Charles, Thanks to both of you, I will check them out! Frank, Check this out, this might make ALL your red book CDs sound better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2hvtqLP4qE Allan |
^^^ Thank you, Charles ... Billy Eckstine has always been one of my favorites. As a junior high kid, I was obsessed with trying to sound like him. I was always trying to sing "I Apologize" in that deep, wonderful crooner's voice. Never could pull it off of course, but I tried. I saw him in concert back in the 70's as a side act with Sammy Davis Jr. He sang and played the trumpet ... and while an older voice at that time, he still had the juice. Joe Williams and the Brit, Al Hibbler, were two more favorites of mine back in the day. Oh, and I have the Johnny Hartman albums he did with John Coltrane. Man, those are a couple of demo vocal records if there ever were any. Soul, man ... soul. The Peggy Lee album you recommended is available on Ebay right now in both vinyl and CD format. Frank |
Frank, Helen Merrill with Clifford Brown is a classic! So is Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, timeless music. Agree with your opinion of Doris Day’s vocal talent. Two excellent male vocalist from that era are Billy Eckstine and Johnny Hartman. There’s an enormous amount of wonderful music available as this thread often confirms. I will checkout Jo Stafford "Ballad Of The Blues" this sounds like something I’d really enjoy. Charles |
a25105 ... I'm using Herbie's Ultra Sonic RX's. So far, I've put these into the REF-3 preamp and the CD player. Next will be the phono stage and the amp. I see no reason at this point ... or ever, to buy another CD player. Red Book CD's can boggle the mind. If you haven't sent your CD-7 back to the factory for the "SE" power supply upgrade, I highly recommend it. The CD player is using a full compliment of SR Black fuses, Herbie's tube dampeners, a Synergistic Research Level III power cord and a balanced Von Gaylord Legend IC. Expensive, yes. But I know what the CD-7 is capable of at this point ... and it goes WAY beyond reason. On Linda Ronstadt ... Glad you're appreciating it. She was a great singer, and when unleashed with Nelson Riddle on the Great American Songbook, she was a power to be reckoned with. If you truly like the music on the "Round Midnight" Ronstadt album, you'll like the other two as well ... the same level of artistry and the same quality of sound. Prior to Nelson's Riddle's passing, they had a fourth album planned. Untimely death, indeed. The music you've been exposed to on these albums are really a trip into musical history. Here's some other artists to expose yourself to: Jo Stafford ... "Ballad of The Blues." I have the original six eye Columbia stereo. The sound is excellent and the sound stage goes on forever. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jo-Stafford-BALLAD-OF-THE-BLUES-Columbia-CS-8139-Stereo-Re-issue-Very-Good-/... Here's another Jo Stafford album where she appears with the Art Van Damme Quintet. Excellent sound. Van Damme plays the accordion with his group. Don't laugh, he really swings and along with Myron Florin, was on of the world's premier jazz accordion players. http://www.ebay.com/itm/JO-STAFFORD-ART-VAN-DAMME-QUINTET-nr-mint-vinyl-lp-ONCE-OVER-LIGHTLY-six-eye... Jo Stafford "Jo + Jazz. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jo-Stafford-Jo-Plus-Jazz-CD-New-/142210293531?hash=item211c64df1b:g:srsAAOSw... Helen Merrill ... Another great artist to explore. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Helen-Merrill-With-Clifford-Brown-Vinyl-New-/361836544410?hash=item543f23819... Chris Connor is a good one if you like the sultry jazz style: Here's a Chris Connor "must have" reissue: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Finest-Of-Chris-Connor-2-LP-near-mint-vinyl-in-shrink-Bethlehem-1001-/38... June Christy ... A teriffic jazz ballad singer. She was married to the great tenor sax player Bob Cooper. She's been one of my favorites since high school in the 50's. In fact, I bought this album when it first came out. Its a must have. Here's a sealed copy of Cisco's reissue of "Something Cool." I have it as well as the original. The Cisco reissue is better. Buy it, you won't be sorry: http://www.ebay.com/itm/JUNE-CHRISTY-Something-Cool-CISCO-180g-NEW-OLD-STOCK-SEALED-USA-LP-/38195407... Doris Day ... I love Doris Day: This one belongs in your collection ... demo quality all the way. Amaze yourself and your friends with the artistry and sound quality on this album. http://www.ebay.com/itm/DORIS-DAY-Day-By-Day-1956-Mono-COLUMBIA-LP-/361583305911?hash=item54300b64b7... All of the above recommendations have been in my collection for years. All are demo quality that will bring out the best from your system. Most are mono ... but the kind of mono that will have you asking: "Who needs stereo?" I truly hope you try these albums. Compared to what passes for pop music these days, they are a breath of fresh air. If you like, I can recommend some really great male ballad singers from the past as well. Have you ever heard Tony Martin? :-) Please keep me posted. One the things I enjoy most about this hobby is that it gives an opportunity to expose those two or three generations up the line from me to great music like we've been discussing here. Like they say ... "Eminem and Justin, eat your friggin' hearts out. :-) |
^^^ I was going to answer .... but what's the point? There's way too much music to listen to tonight to be the whipping boy for a couple of infantile egos. By the way ... I installed six of Herbies tube dampeners in the ARC-CD 7-se last night. The result? ... A completely new level of resolution and musicality. Zowie. Frank |
+1 ptss, and I’d say every tech on this planet would say so too. And they are the ones that design the equipment we all listen to. And here we have a few voodooists that have next to no tech skills at all saying they’re wrong. It’s really sad to think that they have some influence over the gullible to hand over a hundred + dollars for a 10 cent mains fuse, and to also have the hide to say it's directional as well, with no proof from the manufacturer stating so. Cheers George |
Hello everyone , i am new bee and need your help !!! I bought 2 SR black fuses for my Mcintosh MC 501 and 1 for my wadia 781 i . The question i need help that which direction of arrow on fuses go into the amp and the CD player ? *** for MC 501 the arrow point down or point up ? *** *** and the wadia 781 i arrow point down or up ? **** Thank you for your help . Cheers . |
One of the most appropriate comments I've read about the SR (Synergistic Research) Red Quantum Fuse and Black Quantum Fuse discussion (or should it be called blatant promotion?)-- " I will continue to question fraudulent imaginary nonsensical products as insulting to the professional designers who do the actual good work , and who don’t need to compromise their integrity with inexplicable pseudo tweaks to make a buck. " from wolf_garcia. Honesty is so refreshing in this thread. |
Years ago I was visiting my neighbor, the late Lars Friedel (friend of Stereophile’s Sam Tellig), and the Sun Mook dudes had recently installed a bunch of Mpingo disc things in his sound room (Lars reviewed gear for Euro mags). We both thought the whole thing was pretty strange, and after having them in his system for a while he was certain they were utterly useless. Geoffkait mentions a pile of silly "take it on faith" tweaks that have been deemed useless by many listeners who actually hear as well as anybody, but by simply repeating over and over that something illogical, unproven , and maybe dangerous (improperly rated fuses) that is designed to remove money from the pockets of "naive seekers" provides a path to better sound doesn’t make the tweak actually work. I’ve been delighted to hear differences I didn’t expect from various cables, tubes, active gear of all sorts, and designer recommended setup suggestions, and welcome all of that, but I will continue to question fraudulent imaginary nonsensical products as insulting to the professional designers who do the actual good work , and who don’t need to compromise their integrity with inexplicable pseudo tweaks to make a buck. |
Unfortunately what we have here is just another situation where some folks just can’t hear the difference. It happens all the time. It happens with many tweaks, especially the more controversial or preposterous tweaks, you know the ones I’m talking about. Things like Mpingo disc, green pen, holographic foil, intelligent chip, tiny bowl resonators, you know, things that either don’t APPEAR to be in the audio path OR actually AREN'T IN THE AUDIO PATH. It's frequently a pretty obvious case of the Backfire Effect, I.e., the more you try to convince someone he’s wrong the more convinced he is that he’s right. Moreover, some folks have invested a lot of energy defending their position, years. Is that a self fulfilling prophecy or what? +1, well said geoff ! "Expectation bias" works for the naysayers as well. If you do not expect to hear a difference, you won't. If I don't spend money on it, it cannot possibly work, for I am a genius!! ;^) |
Unfortunately what we have here is just another situation where some folks just can’t hear the difference. It happens all the time. It happens with many tweaks, especially the more controversial or preposterous tweaks, you know the ones I’m talking about. Things like Mpingo disc, green pen, holographic foil, intelligent chip, tiny bowl resonators, you know, things that either don’t APPEAR to be in the audio path OR actually AREN'T IN THE AUDIO PATH. It's frequently a pretty obvious case of the Backfire Effect, I.e., the more you try to convince someone he’s wrong the more convinced he is that he’s right. Moreover, some folks have invested a lot of energy defending their position, years. Is that a self fulfilling prophecy or what? |
wolf_garcia You are correct. I can’t explain why. I have demo’d the standard fuse v after market fuse for a number of, "a fuse can’t make that much of a difference", audio nuts. Hallelujah, they have been converted. If you were in Sydney Australia, I would invite you round so you too, could be persuaded to the dark side(ie. the SR black fuse). Once you have tried black, you’ll never go back. |
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jmcgrogan2 You did it now Larry (lak), you have awakened the barking chihuahuas. They are barking up a storm and nipping at your heels. Hahaha! People always underestimate chihuahuas. In their native country they are bred as hunting dogs and have been known to bring down a 200 lb man who had a 20 yard head start. |
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"I paid $120 for it so it must do something, and by god I should hear it or I made an expensive mistake."+1 It’s called "expectation bias" Credit to Ralph (Atmasphere), for a great saying. and to note that fuses have meaningful "direction" because they’re marked as such is sort of why this thread is so entertaining.+1 on this too, I would have used a stronger word than "entertaining" though, "ludicrous" comes to mind. Cheers George |
@mac48025 ;-) of course, I knew you were kidding... Luckily, I usually have time each morning to listen to my system, many times later in the day also. I had added the SR Black fuse to my preamp, Phono Preamp, Dac’s, Transport’s and Integrated amp a year ago with great success also. @wolf_garcia sorry if you don’t buy into the SR Black fuses, as others have said in this thread (and I know several of these audiophiles on this thread), I trust their ears and my own ears. We know what we hear and like it. |
If indeed I "have this one wrong," then please explain how a safety device (fuses) using a tiny half inch of wire designed to melt provides any sonic benefit. What does it do? Nobody knows the answer to this around here anyway, because there simply isn't one, except "I paid $120 for it so it must do something, and by god I should hear it or I made an expensive mistake." It can't be compared to active components since it's not one…and to note that fuses have meaningful "direction" because they're marked as such is sort of why this thread is so entertaining. |
Too bad you couldn't have found a nicer amp to put the fuses in lak ;) i hope it's obvious that I'm clearly joking......the Plinius SA-Reference is an amazing amp and I'm glad to hear you heard an improvement with the SR Blacks. I had the same experience with an immediate sound improvement upon placing the SR Blacks in my amp and later my DAC. And they get even better with time. Thanks for sharing with us, lak. Btw....with all the amazing equipment you have how do you tear yourself away from the listening room? |
Bill, Gary is actually making the same point as you. Unquestionably the power supply affects the audio signal and significantly impacts sound quality. Each part in a power supply has an effect as you've pointed out with your examples. All who aspire to build a high quality audio component put much attention and effort toward the power supply. Charles |
Gary, sorry but really? Just like filter caps, chokes, and diodes all these power supply parts impact the resulting sound. The fuse is part of the power supply. If you doubt it, then build the exact same tube amp with common cheap electrolytic caps the the other with Clarity TC film caps. Listen to both. Yes indeed in one sense all power supply parts are indeed in the signal path. |
"I will repeat for the umpty umpth time that fuses are Not part of the signal path and have zero...and I mean zero...effect on the signal when performing properly. Zero." OK wolf_garcia, if one were to use that logic then it would seem to me that the use of after market power cords would also have "zero...and I mean zero...effect on the signal" But I don't think anyone here would claim that power cords don't make a difference, even you. So why is it not possible for the fuse that passes the same power as the power cord does to have no possibility of changing the sound we hear? Just wondering, Gary |
Direction of current in each fuse holder? This by itself is ridiculous, and "fuse direction" isn't merely a myth, it's irrelevant in the face of even a basic understanding of electric current. "At the risk of alienating anyone I will repeat for the umpty umpth time" that fuses are NOT part of the signal path and have zero…and I mean zero…effect on the signal when performing properly. Zero. If a fuse does have an impact on the signal in any meaningful way, things have somehow gone wrong, and the tiny wire has melted…like it's supposed to. |
Sorry to chime in again. The fuses should be evaluated one at a time. Trying to evaluate all fuses in the same direction according to the lettering, then reversing all of them at the same time is not effective, at least not unless the fuse directionality is predetermined at the factory. It’s like trying to solve three simultaneous equations in five unknowns. Since SR is correct that all fuses are directional if only 50% are in the right direction the overall sound will still be less than ideal, I.e., when all fuses are in the correct direction, which is different from saying the lettering of fuses always goes in the same direction for best sound. Repeat the entire process, one fuse at a time, you know, just in case you were unsure of the direction of one or more fuses the first time around. At the risk of alienating anyone I will repeat for the umpty umpth time fuses are directional because wire is directional. |
