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it’s rhetoric or it’s hyperbole. I.e., that it MUST be an exaggeration
"
Only if hyperbole.
Break out your logic book and you'll see your mistake.
Only if hyperbole.
Break out your logic book and you'll see your mistake.
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
To t-ramey, jond, and the others who recently posted their observations on the sonic changes after installing the Synergistic Research Black fuse congratulations. It is a liberating experence to try something new - especially when a first thought might be " it just can't have an effect". It is interesting that many people are not able to overcome a prejudice to try something new, even if the cost to try is only $3.00 for return postage. The original poster Oregonpapa took the time to post about the Synergistic Research Red fuse, as to him it made a major difference in sound quality. Pretty simple statement. Also pretty simple statement- the SR fuses come with a 30 trial and refund if returned. Not just store credit. No restocking fee. Simply - money refunded. I read this topic to see in what equipment these fuses work or do not work in. I also was reminded and proved to myself that the direction of fuse can make a difference. In my systems it was worth the effort to try the fuses in both direction and to try the Black fuse. I have made new friends on this thread and look forward to meeting some at the upcoming Newport Beach audio show June 3-5. I also have seen the ugly side of human nature in geoffkaitt, georgelofi, and wolf_garcia's posts. Non of these persons have tried the Synergistic Research RED or Black fuse. They all seem driven to resort to childish name calling and worse. Again I applaud all who try a non original fuse. Whether it is a Little Fuse brand, the earlier generation audiophile fuses, or this newest generation of fuses - the Synergistic Research Black fuse. I think it is a liberating experiment. David Pritchard |
georgelofi1,376 posts04-01-2016 8:20pmI agree 100% and have my list. Their position or result is not surprising so why waste server disk space. |
Logged my first impressions of SR Black fuses in the Atmosphere power cord thread by accident, - I had two, one in power amp and the other in my pre-amp and suitably impressed. Got a load more a couple of days ago after having to wait for a few weeks while they were out of stock. The new lot has gone into my cd player, Oppo Blu-ray player, a/v processor and sub woofer. Additionally an internal one went into my PS Audio P10. The waiting begins until I add the requisite 70 hours for burn in. Already very happy with the audio side as the original Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits cd sounded superb, very 'live' recordings with no 'veils' sounding very much like the band was in my room. Wife wanted to watch a movie last night so we watched Burlesque, (don't laugh), which she really enjoyed. Lots of musical numbers in the movie, two especially impressed, dialogue at nice room level, not loud but these two numbers really came through with unlimited dynamics. Still early days for the fuses but don't regret buying them in any way. |
Before this thread comes to an end I would like to personally thank Oregonpapa for starting probably the most informative, stimulating, and successful posts I have yet seen on these forums. He has provided an economical upgrade path for thousands of audiophiles. But this thread has done something even more important: It has opened up the minds of many. Thank you very much |
nyame, Well said! It's very gratifying to realize how many music lovers have discovered a wonderful affordable tweak as a result of this thread. The sharing of listening experiences, information and goodwill is inspiring. The strong positive vibe this thread has maintained is also noteworthy. Many people have increased their enjoyment of music reproduction in their homes. What more could you want? Charles |
nyame ... Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated. But ... all of the credit goes to the designers at Synergistic Research. All I did was put skepticism aside and took a chance based upon their 30 day return policy. I was so taken by the overall improvements in the system with just one Red fuse in my preamp that I felt compelled to share the outcome with the members here. These SR fuses have benefited so many now, for so little money in relation to what one would have to spend for similar results via other means, that its a bit mind boggling at this point. It's encouraging me to try other SR tweaks. Based upon SR's Youtube videos, there are a lot more exciting things to come. As I try them, I'll be reporting the results here. Charles, David, and others have experienced some of the other offerings from SR with very positive results ... so I suspect they would like to share their experiences as well. On ending this thread: Not yet ... I still have to replace a Red fuse in the amp for a Black fuse. I'm going to wait another week for that though. The system is sounding so good that I want to put off the 70 hours of break-in for the new fuse for a little bit. My friend Robert came over last night and we listened to a whole variety of music. One thing we listened to was a jazz compilation of previously released material titled "Jazz Like You've Never Heard It Before." One cut features Mel Torme' singing "Too Close for Comfort." It was "reach out and touch Mel Torme' ... so realistic. Another cut featured Sonny Rollins playing "Body and Soul." That tenor sax was right there in the room. So tonally correct. Robert called me again this afternoon to compliment the system and its natural, realistic sound. His comments: "You've got the tonality of the piano just right." "I've never heard a muted trumpet sound as real as that cut you played of Joe Gordon. It was right on." "Wow, Sonny Rollins was real!" These are truly great compliments coming from Robert. He has talented ears. If something isn't right he can nail it right away. He's been around the hobby for years. Robert works with one of the great mastering engineers helping to master some of the most well thought of vinyl reissues we enjoy so much today. Also, Robert has been instrumental in the choice of what records are to be reissued by a well respected audiophile reissue record company. And ... Robert is very critical of recordings that are not done right ... and systems that pretend to be high-end but that just don't cut the mustard. Bottom line ... if Robert says its right ... its right. Stay tuned ... more fuse updates to come. |
nyame36 posts04-02-2016 7:02pmBefore this thread comes to an end I would like to personally thank Oregonpapa for starting probably the most informative, stimulating, and The thread can't end until I share results of my 7 SR BLACKS. Preamp upgrade is done and VAC scheduled to ship next week. They ran out of signal transformers so was delayed. After ~100 hours of breaking in, replacing 7 fuses all at once so will be interesting. I have success with SR HFTs and later replaced with Audio Magic Bells. The new UEF Panels look interesting and probably next tweak. Like I said before, it pays to be stupid and just trust my senses if a tweak works instead of handcuffed by a slide ruler. |
knghifi: Indeed the newest acoustic treatment - the UEF Panels have my interest. They are being demonstrating at the audio show in Chicago in two weeks. My system became progressively better with each Black fuse and then an interesting type of total system harmony when it reach 100% Black. I look forward to the amp upgrade impressions and the fuse impressions. David Pritchard |
Hello Jond, I replaced the stock fuse with the SR Quantum20 over 3 years ago with good result. That fuse was replaced by the Black fuse with definitely further improvement. The fuse is located on the rear panel at the IEC plug site. It requires a 3 amp slo blo small size. À very worthy tweak for the Yamamoto. Charles, |
Jond: The Yamamoto looks like a great DAC reading about it at the Six Moons review site. Nice that they showed a schematic and under the hood pictures. Congratulations on evaluating two different fuses. It is this type of persistance that elevates a system to a system taht is truly speclal. The Synergistic Research Electronic Circuit Transducers (ECT) are worth considering on a product such as the Yamamoto. I have had good sucess using them with the Antelope DAC and the Marantz SACD players. I hope everyone has a good week filled with beautiful music. David Pritchard |
Just received my brand new Miyajima Madake Cartridge. Now I can replace the four fuses in the Aesthetix Io Power supplies with four black SR fuses. I can’t wait. I have not received my four black SR fuses for my amplifiers, hopefully this week. Happy days are upon us. Charles, Doug helped me remount my turntable wall mount above my cabinet so now the turntable is easy to reach. |
David, The Yamamoto YDA-01 a is a one trick pony as it is limited to 16/44.1 Redbook only. The good news is that it renders it so organically, it just sounds right. I'm listening to a live recording of Wes Montgomery "Full House " and it is a joy. Jeff, Congratulations on acquiring the Miyajima, I really look forward to hearing it and how it differs from the ZYX Universe cartridge. More Black fuses will be a genuine treat given what we've heard them do in your system thus far . You have a lot of listening to do. Charles, |
Charles you inspired me to put that same Wes Montgomery CD on, well at least what they have on Tidal, Wes Montgomery Fullhouse Live- The Keepnews Collection and it does sound great. One clarification on the Yamamoto and I could be wrong but though it can handle sample rates up to 192k I believe. The Remedy reclocker I put in front of it outputs a 96k signal and the Yammie handles that brilliantly. I know that’s still Redbook but not straight 16/44.1. Or is my techno-ignorance causing me to miss something? |
Wes Montgomery + Black fuses = A great experience. Charles and jond: I hope when your system changes slow down you will consider experimenting with the Synergistic Research ECT's. In the right locations they help to focus the music and enhance the emotion. They are a bit of trial and error but no 100 hr. break in to endure. They do come with the 30 day return policy. I found them to be a very rewarding experiment. David Pritchard |
Was listening to some Rolling Stones SHM-SACDs on my Ayre C-5xeMP player, and decided to experiment a little just for the hell of it. Pulled the SR Black fuse out of my Symphonic Line CDP and popped it into the Ayre (replacing Furutech fuse). The results were so pleasing I just ordered another Black for the Ayre. |
^^^ And it continues on. These SR Black fuses do amazing things. One more to go in my system. I'll be ordering another SR Black fuse to replace the SR Red fuse now residing in the ARC REF-75se. When I replaced the HiFi Tuning fuse in the amp for the SR Red fuse, it was really ear opening. The Black fuse in the amp should be another significant improvement. |
For those who do not have a replaceable fuse (ala the Oppo 95), this is a good place to try a WA Quantum chip on the soldered fuse. It's benefit is not of the same magnitude as a Synergistic Research Black fuse, but it may be better than the stock fuse. It was on my Marantz SA11-S1. The Marantz SA11-S2 has a replaceable fuse and was helped by the Black fuse. David Pritchard |
Hi Jond, When you pull the fuse tray out there are two fuses. The outer one is the spare and the innermost fuse is the functional one. I placed the Black fuse in the normal reading i.e. left to right position. Charles, Keith, When you consider the enormous number of posts on this thread, the positive ones are an overwhelming majority. Actually there's been only a minute number of negatives, which is to be expected. I personally don't consider Al one of the negatives. He has healthy skepticism but refrains from insults or put down comments. He doesn't question the subjective findings of the many seasoned listeners here that he's familiar with. Al is the epitome of class IMHO. Charles, |