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?
I am glad you were listening to Savoy Brown. A talented British Blues Band with some real good Marshall amp powered guitar playing. They did not get much radio air time but were quite good. They really torn up the Zephyer Club in Salt Lake City when I was there in 1990.
Who would have thought Salt Lake City would have such a hot club but there it was. A hardcore rock and roll oasis in the dessert. And lots of alcohol with the purchase of the three day private club membership.
Salt Lake City was an interesting place to visit in the 1990's.
"I am glad you were listening to Savoy Brown. A talented British Blues Band with some real good Marshall amp powered guitar playing. They did not get much air time but they were quite good."
Saw them in a small club (with great acoustics) about two years back and they did not disappoint.
Jack The Toad is my favorite Savoy Brown album start to finish but many fun and enjoyable tracks from the band over the years.
"Now on your way through life Sometimes you just got to be a little bad I knew Jack and, my goodness, he was bad He was bad, bad news You just got to be a little bad because, if you ain't The great gun fighter in the sky Ain't got no one to save And if you're just a little bad Just a little bad Nobody forgets your name
Bad, bad news, he was bad, bad news Bad, oh my goodness, Jack was bad news"
Last night was a night of wonderful live music. Zuill Bailey playing a program of cello pieces with Dominic Dousa on piano. The listening room holds 225 people and I was fortunate to be sitting front row -10 feet from the performers. The music were pieces that had a relationship to the impact Picasso had on the world of art. Casals, de Falla, Debussy, and Piatigorsky all these men had links to Picasso.
The interaction of the two performers was inspiring and enlightening. One brief practice of parts of the program was held earlier in the day and then a confident "Let's Go!" Two consummate musicians interacting and at times improvising from the score added a freshness and vitality not often heard at "classical" concerts.
I highly recommend Zuill Bailey's cello CD's. Especially the beauty of his cello and guitar CD recorded with David Leisner (Azica Records). I believe his sound conveys wonderful emotions and has a freshness that gives the music a real sense of being alive and not merely performed.
And then to come home after the 50 mile drive to put on the headphones was a sonic dessert that ensured the most blissful dreams.
I do so enjoy the benefits of upgraded A/C wall outlets and upgraded fuses.
I'd also like to thank both Synergistic Research and The Cable Co for resolving an issue I had with the 1 amp SR Black fuse blowing when I returned from vacation and simply powered on the Ayre player.
After a little bit of back and forth (and some good advice from oregonpapa, who definitely does NOT work for SR but does have common sense), SR agreed to send me a 1.25 amp fuse gratis. It was nice to see a company exercise a customer-friendly approach to an issue occurring in the grey area, so to speak.
I'm pleased to hear that you got the blown fuse issue resolved to your satisfaction. Thanks for posting the results. More often than not, businesses hear the complaints and not the compliments.
The SR crew led by Ted Denny realize that the true boss that every employee, from the janitor to the CEO, has in a private company is the customer. The success of any company relies eventually on satisfied customers. Satisfy the customer and the business thrives. Don't take care of the customer and the business will fail. It is the customer that determines if the doors of the business opens the next day or not.
Tommylion ...
I don't know about a transport, but swapping out the two fuses in my CD player absolutely transformed the player.
On Clifford Brown ... Yes, he was taken way too young by a car accident. He was only 25 years old at the time of his death. He was an absolute genius. Lucky for us that he recorded so much of his work.
Back in the 70's, I was going through a record bin at Aaron's Records in the Fairfax district in Los Angeles when I noticed a nicely dressed man in a suit looking through the Clifford Brown albums. I asked him if he was into "Clifford?" He said ... "Oh yes, I play trombone for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. All of us brass players know about Clifford."
Clifford Brown not only had blazing technique, but he played with soul too.
Over the years, I've collected most of Clifford's albums. Back in the early 70's I ran across an Ex-DJ from Hawaii. He didn't want to move his albums back to Hawaii, so he sold me whatever I wanted for two bucks per album. I cleaned up on his Clifford Brown records on EmArcy ... all in mint condition. Two bucks apiece.
My favorite is the one with the red jacket and the bell of the trumpet on the cover. The cut "Autumn in New York" really gets to the soul of Clifford's playing.
Tommy lion, Clifford Brown is a genuine iconic jazz trumpeter. As I became more deeply involved with jazz I discovered the fabulous Bebop trumpeter Fats Navarro and could hear some similarities between him and Clifford. It was later that I read Clifford credited Navarro as being an early and significant influence on his developing style. "Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown " is an all time classic recording in my opinion. Charles,
Tommylion I replaced the stock fuse in my theta pearl cd transport with the 'red'. It was a very noticeable improvement for the good. Everything improved. Much like the upgrade of good a/c power and a better power cord for it. Maybe I am getting carried away but it was easily a noticeable improvement for the good.
On the subject of changing fuses in SACD players, going to the SR Black fuse makes a major improvement. If on a budget please try a Black fuse first.at the incoming power cord location, The Marantz has six additional rail fuses. And in fact I replaced all six fuses one at a time giving each fuse 150 hrs of burn in, before adding the next fuse. I really was surprised that the fuse that supplies power to transport mechanism made a significant difference but it did.
It is so inspiring to have one's system really dialed in. I do think the Black fuses make that event much easier to obtain.
^^^ Interesting comment marqmike. I keep saying that myself. It just keeps getting better. After you do the fuses, you may want to try a ten-pack of SR's HFT's. They are NOT subtle at all.
I look forward to your report on the changes in sound with upgrading the fuse in your DAC. With the Antelope DAC, it was interesting that changing the fuse on both the hot side and the fuse on the neutral side made an improvement. I hope you are able to leave the DAC on 24/7. According to the Antelope DAC developer, a DAC clock needs to be on three days to reach final sonic stabilization.
I put my black fuse in my sim audio moon 300d v2 dac. Already had a red in my power amplifier and cd transport. I put them in those first because I thought if the hi end fuse would help much it would the amp and cd transport. And it turned out to be right, not me, but synergistic recommended that. My system sounded great before but I had played with straight silver wire in my fuse holders and noticed a improvement, not big, but noticable. Now I know from the reds it will change as they go through their fuse menopause, but right now I feel this, a black in the dac, is the bigger change in my system. Oregonpapa thanks for the heads up on the hft's. Sounds like a good late fall/winter project. It will probably take that long for the fuse to fully settle in. I will probably post again in a few weeks to gaga over what will surely happen. I know Wolfe will want to hear about it.
Nice to hear that the fuses are working out for you. The Black fuses are really amazing. For an extra 20 bucks they are a no-brainer over the Red fuses.
On the SR HFT's ... How these little things do what they do is a mystery to me. How can something so tiny affect room feedback so significantly? When I placed the ten-pack around the room as directed, then dialed in the first tune on the stereo, I was in disbelief. The HFT's are NOT subtle at all.
I recently acquired another ten-pack of HFTs via AG and used most of them on my very modest speakers and a few more on USB cable ends, pushing me to a stage five install or beyond (sounds a bit like Scientology, don't it?).
I am so enjoying Patricia Barber's "Nightclub" right now. Extended,very well-defined bass, vanishing noise floor, open top-end with a great sense of space, and a glorious shimmer, ring and detail on the cymbals....
"The astonishment at the shameless promotion of nonsensical, technically unexplainable, and ridiculously overpriced faith based pseudo tweaks never fades"…Wolf Garcia.
I'll scurry back into my troll home under the overpass.
When one lives under bridges and uses a PA system and claims it to be an audio system, it makes one stone blind to audio truth. In fact, the massive echos that emanate off of the concrete arches under the bridges cause severe listening fatigue and makes one stone deaf as well.
Massive amounts of Synergistic Research High Frequency Transducers (HFT's) are seriously called for in Wolfie's sorry-assed case. The SR HFT's have been known to transform under-bridge living and listening to an almost human-like existence.
Now, I know you will all say that in Wolfie's case a human-like existence is impossible, but I disagree. Anyone who uses KT-150's in his PA system can't be all bad.
Oh wait! ... in a recent post in another forum, he said that he dumped the KT-150's in favor of another tube ... and he actually claims that he can hear the difference. Imagine that! He can hear the difference between glass bottles, but he cannot hear the difference between a stock fuse and an after market fuse that 99.9999% of those posting through 52 pages of this thread can clearly hear with no problem at all.
If it were any good he'd post pictures of it in the "virtual system" forum.
I'm betting that its a PA system that plays at only one level ... LOUD. Either that, or the heart of Wolfie Cotton Ear's system is a 1978 Pioneer receiver that he picked up at the Salvation Army thrift store along with the worn out first generation CD player that he bought at the Goodwill store five years ago. How good could it be with all of that moisture dripping from the concrete under the bridge?
Under bridge dankness does not make for good sound.
This just turns into a bump fest to sell more fuses, don't entertain it anymore. As without us, they bump themselves with which piece of music they like with their new fuse in place and it's becomes obvious it's a bumping ploy.
What's the point of buying a fine California Napa Valley Cabernet for 20 bucks a pop when we have Trader Joe's selling Two Buck Chuck for $2.49 per bottle? Wine is wine, right?
Why buy a fine aged single barrel bourbon for 50 bucks a pop when we have Thrifty Drug Store down on the corner selling Ancient Age for $4.99 a pint? Bourbon is bourbon, right?
Why buy a fine small brewery Kraft beer when we can buy that swill known as Bud Lite for 50 cents a can on sale? Beer is beer, right?
No point in buying super fine Prime beef when you can save a lot of money by buying a cut of Choice or below. Beef is beef, right?
Why drive a Lexus when there are perfectly fine used VW Jettas out there? A car is a car, right? Point "A" to point "B" is all that matters, right?
Why buy a high end fuse when we can buy a perfectly good fuse for 2 bucks at Pep Boys? A fuse is a fuse, right?
Those who don't know the difference, who lack a discerning taste in the finer things in life, will never know the difference these things make, or the joy they bring, but they will take delight in tearing at the seams of the dreams of the rest of us as we seek perfection in much of what we do.
For those trolls who just cannot stay away from this thread, I ask you ... what is your motivation? Before you answer, dig deep into the inner reaches of your brain and deep down into your heart of hearts. Was it mistreatment as a child? Were you bullied? Abandoned as a child? Molested? What causes you to strike out against your fellow humans in such a derogatory manner? The only thing I can come up with is that trolls lead a very darkened, narrow little life, and the only way they can feel better about themselves is to go through life destroying the joy in the lives of others. A very sad existence, indeed.
In the meantime, and in a much more positive light, tonight was taken up mostly with Franz Liszt's orchestral music. The bowed strings, from top to bottom, were singing to the tune of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.
Back in the early 80's, MCA Classics came out with a budget CD series of Westminster classical recordings; a bargain at two CD's for ten bucks. I bought a bunch of them, as I already knew from my record collecting how great a lot of the Westminster recordings were. They are all analog stereo recordings. Yes, there's some tape hiss, but better that than compressed highs. The music is gorgeous.
I have to say, since converting over to the SR Black fuses, installing the SR HFT room treatments and upgrading the cables, massed strings are so real, its amazing. They just wash over you with sublime beauty. The lower strings, like bowed basses and cellos have real POWER.
But then again, a fuse is a fuse is a fuse is a fuse. Right?
There are those who will never know. A real shame, actually.
Right now I'm digging Rosanne Cash's 10 Song Demo with full SR regalia sans any SR cables (only one powering my REL). Read 'em and weep--Black fuses, outlets, Atmosphere, FEQ, dozens of HFTs and a Tranquility Base for my BDP-2 and its USB drive. Sounds sublime.
Georgelofi is right, it’s a bumpfest festooned with more promotional rantings which are right out of the Vegematic sales manual (although I can reasonably assume a Vegematic works). A good financial deal for SR certainly, and the wordy reactions to my posts questioning the efficacy of overpriced silliness exposes a classic paranoia. These guys must know it’s nonsense and if it’s not, why not cough up a technical and reasoned explanation of how tiny aluminum dots "transduce" (really?) sound waves, and how fuse that is out of the signal chain can make cellos sound better? I guess I expect too much….or I know too much...
Mapman and Wolfie and Gorgelofi move me to sing this from the distinguished diplomat Bill Withers 'My friends feel it's their appointed duty They keep trying to tell me All you want to do is use me But my answer, yeah to all that use me stuff I want to spread the news That if it feels this good getting used You just keep on using me Until you use me up Until you use me up
My brother sit me right down and he talked to me He told me that I ought not to let you just walk on me And I'm sure he meant well Yeah, but when our talk was through I said, brother, if you only knew You'd wish that you were in my shoes You just keep on using me Until you use me up Until you use me up' Feel the groove boyeees. Everybody else, hope you are enjoying your systems greatly. I am.
Wonderful music playing as I type. Shirley Rumsey playing and singing "Music of the Italian Renaissance" on Naxos. This is quiet expressive singing and solo guitar music at it's finest. The acoustics of St. Andrew's Church located in Toddington, England are beautifully captured and complement the soulful voice of Ms. Rumsey.
I do hope all who read this thread will audition audio grade fuses and A/C wall outlets. They have made a major improvement in my sound systems and contributed greatly in increasing my enjoyment of the music I listen to. I do think they are worth the time and effort to audition.
^^^ To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the problem you have Wolfie Cotton Ears, isn't that you know too much. The problem is, you know too much that isn't true.
As a technical person, its understandable that you suffer from the common affliction of many techno-boobs ... and that is analysis paralysis. You are so locked into the trees that you cannot rise above them to see the forest.
Its understandable that the audio hobby attracts techno-boobs like you with functionality problems and serious social dysfunctions. If I, or others tell you that we have gained substantial benefits in our audio systems from certain tweaks, but cannot tell you why, why is it that you cannot understand that we don't give a fig why? We are romantics. We want the end results. We will leave it up to you techno-freaks to figure out why ... and also to design more and better tweaks so that we may improve our systems. For your skill set, we are willing to pay good money ... and that keeps food on your table, a roof over your head, your wife well dressed, your children in private schools and your subscriptions to technical journals current.
For God's sake, Cotton Ears, if I buy a new Ferrari, do I really have to understand the function of Weber carburetors or the dwell angles of the dual overhead camshafts? I just want to go fast and enjoy the handling on challenging roads ... not to mention the sound of that lovely V-12 at full song. Try to get your technical head around that.
You seem to have a real problem with salesmanship and/or those who sell for a living. I don't give a damn how good of a product you invent and/or develop from a technical standpoint, if it doesn't get to market it won't sell and your doors won't stay open.
The next time you're driving on the highway, take an introspective look at all of the semi trailers loaded with goods on that same highway. Those goods are going to market, and they wouldn't be going to market without a salesman on the initial end of the transaction. Someone has to SELL to a willing buyer or the product will just sit there taking up room in your warehouse. No movement, no money. No money, no profit. No profit, no business. Without salespeople, the entire country would come to a standstill resulting in an eventual economic collapse.
Look Mr. Cotton Ears, you may be great at figuring out that two plus two equals four, but try to figure out what will motivate a potential seller to buy your product ... then exercise professional sales skills that have taken you years to develop. Developed to the point that the prospect doesn't even realize that he/she has been sold. Then, once they buy, they thank you for turning them on to such a great product.
That takes real people skills, my friend. Skills that you sorely lack. Why do I say you lack people skills? Its obvious. You continue coming into this thread with a jackhammer in an effort to impress everyone with your delusional "superior" knowledge. You find joy in insults, even to the point of accusing me of being on SR's payroll, and in general just pissing everyone else off. Great people skills, eh?
As a person who has spent over a half a century earning a living in 100% commissioned sales (no draw and no salary), knocking on doors, making appointments, giving sales presentations and closing transactions, I can honestly say that most people wouldn't last a week in the sales business ... especially techno-freaks like you, Mr. Cotton Ears. If your biggest fear is criticism, which it most likely is, you wouldn't be able to stand the constant rejection that professional salespeople experience on an hourly basis. For us, every "no" puts us closer to a "yes." For you, the "no's" would be devastating. For us, we need to apply for a new job every day. For you, you wouldn't be able to stand the insecurity ... never realizing that you find true security when you give up the "security" you have right now.
So, stay secure in your comfortable lab coat with a hot soldering iron in one hand, a tube tester in the other and a slide rule in your shirt pocket, and just keep quiet and stop telling the rest of us how much knowledge you have and what WE should think and what WE can or can not hear. Wake up ... we don't give a flying .... ####.
Now then, on a brighter note, this morning's listening session consisted of more of Franz Liszt's orchestral music. Lovely what these SR fuses, SR room treatments (HFT's) and the SR level 3 power cords have brought to my audio system. Nope, I don't know how the fuses, the room treatments, or the power cords work, nor do I care. I only know that they do work.
I think the next SR tweak I'll try will be the SR PHT's for my cartridge. If the promotion on these items hold true, and I have no reason to believe that it won't, it should be a major upgrade for the old Well Tempered Turntable. Perhaps Mr. Wolfie Cotton Ears would be kind enough to do the research then tell us why they work while the rest of us just sit back and just enjoy the music.
With all due respect, there's no problem with anyone "not buying into what is being sold." The problem lies with those who have a condescending superior attitude while intimating that those of us who have been in the hobby for years, in my case over 40 years, don't know what we are hearing, or that we are fools for investing money on products that "just cannot work."
Until Mr. Wolfie Cotton Ears (and others) make a trip to MY home and listens to MY system, then he should just keep his trap shut. Without hearing what I have going on, or any of the other members who are enjoying the various tweaks offered by Synergistic Research for that matter, he's going against his own"scientific" principles by not having all of the facts in place to form a legitimate opinion. Until he/they have all of the facts in place, and that would most importantly include hearing first hand the systems in question, they are spouting nothing but bull pucky. I suspect that Wolfie Cotton Ears' dilemma is more about suffering from the pain of envy more than anything else.
Just an observation ... The better the system gets, the more I'm enjoying the complexity of classical orchestral music. Classical Rock too.
Just finished listening to a CD that is a live feed from a Fleetwood Mac concert. Its a bootleg burned from the master tape. I don't remember where I got it, but I dug it out of the vault of CD's that I haven't played for several years. Great blues guitar and harmonica playing! I had no idea just how good this recording is. The SR tweaks have really brought it to life.
For those wanting to try an audio grade fuse in their equipment but are reluctant to do so because of a price barrier, High End Electronics Inc., Apple Valley, California is having a sale on the Synergistic Red fuses.
The horn system is sounding very three dimensional today with the added SR Black wall outlet. The circuit the audio system is on has a total of 5 outlets. Now it has 2 SR Black, 2 SR RED, and one PS Audio Premier ( copper with nylon body - not as dark as an Oyaide R-1 )
Bigger sonic differences than rolling tubes - even those 300 B tubes. Any more recent news on the Elrod 300B tube situation?
Off topic but put a SR Tranquility Base under the Samsung Blue - Ray player and had a marked improvement in the picture quality.
No bar-b -que this Labor Day weekend but I will be listening to some great sounding music.
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