Synergistic Red Fuse ...

georgelofi: "And the world is flat."

I always suspected this to be your belief, but confirmation is always nice.  Happy New Year!

Dave

Charlatans and snake oil salesman must be maintaining this thread.
The claims being made "sounds like out of phase" are nonsensical.

ptss: "The claims being made "sounds like out of phase" are nonsensical."

How would you know? Happy New Year!

Dave

>>   As for me, I'll take Chet Baker's trumpet in my face. 

Can't resist commenting -- just think how much better Chet's recordings would have been if they would have had these fuses 50 or 60 years ago when the bulk of his best records were made. Amazing what they were able to accomplish with the plain-vanilla conductor material they were stuck with in those days. 

Come on guys,

Stop thinking about the fuse for now and focus on the ones that you love and care.  It's new year and happy new year to you all.

First, my wife is a very impartial and impatient person who I inflict my audio changes to. I did the same A/B test that an Optometrist does to a patient. No hinting as to which I preferred. She indicated she clearly preferred one direction over another and it was just as obvious to me. Same in both audio rooms systems.

Second, after 33 hours burn-in time, the fuses sounded mostly as good as they initially did. I listened every 10 hours until 70 hours when the sound was quite exhilarating. Record noise diminished 75% (alot) and the pleasure of hearing records with less than good vinyl or condition was tremendously improved. It’s more effective than adding the SimplyVinyl SugarCube pop and click remover but better since it removes even more vinyl noise.  I intend to add that device next year to my tape loop for 78s and LPs with lots of pops and clicks (we are talking 1000s of records).

Third, CDs improved in similar ways but I have an idiosyncratic sounding EAR Acute player because I use the earliest stock Amperex 6922s which have huge tonality, dynamics, mids and bass with a rolled off high end (slightly covered sound with less ambience) when I listen at the increased global feedback setting on my amps (I have this feature in 2 db steps from 2 db to 8 db range). When I use the minimum feedback, I have a leaner, less tonally rich sound from CDs (perfect for my LPs & 78s) but great ambience and openess as well as slightly tighter bass. I think it’s time to change the fuse in the CD player (which is plugged into the Teslaplex SE not the black duplex). That may alter the sound beneficially. I’ve tried about a dozen other NOS 6922 brand tubes and they just don’t sound as compelling (i.e. gold pin Amperex have fantastic mids and highs but no bass, Siemens were dry and lifeless, etc with the stock JJs okay comparatively speaking).

As I’ve stated before and as several other contributors have said, they’ve tried many tweaks over the decades. Some work, some don’t. The degree that they affect the sound also varies. Almost all of our audio systems are different. One naysayer should get off this site as he does not contribute anything positive, only cynical negativism to our enjoyment of our avocation..

As to why such great recordings were made in the 50’s and 60’s, first they used simpler but effective power supply and design technology (and cleaner A/C lines back then-no digital hash). Second, they used state of the art tubes with metallurgy unavailable today with proprietary construction. Third, simpler miking, done correctly to capture the sound and not so much the ambience aka wrongly miked recordings by Yarlung today as an example. There are probably more reasons which I can’t think of currently.

I’m so excited about my "new" audio system, I’m going back to listen for another few hours.

Happy New Year to all of you who have taken the time to contribute to this very enjoyable thread. Its been a real pleasure for me to meet so many dedicated audiophiles here on A'gon. Here's to a great and positive 2017.  

missti ..

I read an interesting article recently about Chet Baker. The author made the assertion that Miles Davis spent his entire career chasing Chet Baker's tone ... and never quite captured it.  After reading the article, I can hear the author's point when listening to Miles now.

Misstl,
I see your point, I have many jazz recordings from the 1950s-1960s and the vast majority of them sound oh so good! As fletcher noted in his post above, good quality tube equipment, generally simple signal paths and talented sound engineers with high standards and good ears are responsible for the recording quality.

Misstl my tubed preamplifier and power amplifier came with "stock" fuses and tubes installed. How did they sound? Wonderful! However when I changed to better quality tubes and fuses there was unquestionably improved sound quality. The original sound was never substandard by any means with generic tubes/fuses. In addition to tubes and fuses, improving wire and capacitors can clearly improve the sound of equipment.

Essentially the baseline sound began as "very high caliber " and moved further upwards with the inclusion of superior parts. I believe that the sound engineers did their best with what was available to them during that era. If they were made aware of better quality items I suspect most would have taken advantage.
Happy New Year folks,
Charles

Frank,
I suspect that author may be stating opinion/speculation rather than fact. Miles had been well established nearly 10 years on the jazz scene prior to Chet’s arrival. I can fully accept the idea that Miles  admired Chet’s tone, but chasing to mimic it  for his entire career? Miles had his own sound and approach to the trumpet and was always innovative and searching for ways of musical and creative expression.

You could make the case that he had 4 different career eras based strictly on his changing styles of playing. Bebop,Hard Bop, Modal and fusion, and perhaps some further subcategories. I don’t question that he admired the trumpet tone of Chet, he openly admired the playing of trumpeters Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro.
Charles

Advise on the Synergistic research Black fuses , recommendations .
due to standard fuses with a variance of over 15%  many times the very accurate 1% or less Premium fuse will pop. Recommend to go up one size bigger
and still be very stable  and runin time 48 hr to Start runin ,200 hours to full resolution  . These coating are very  stable but demand  lots of use to stabilize.

Charles ...

I stopped listening to Miles when he entered the "fusion" era. One of my favorite miles album is the original mono release on Columbia that I found in a used record store back in the early 70's. I think that's the era the author was alluding to. This album puts Miles' muted trumpet right there in front of you. If memory serves me right, I think I paid fifty cents for it. Man, those were the days for record collecting.  Here's an original copy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MILES-DAVIS-Round-About-Midnight-LP-COLUMBIA-CL-949-6-EYE-DG-MONO-John-Coltr...

Frank,
My Miles collection includes all eras with the exception of the fusion genre, I just don’t enjoy this style of jazz music. I have quite a few Chet Baker recordings, I simply enjoy both of these artists. Although lesser known, Art Farmer had beautiful tone and particularly on his flugelhorn, just gorgeous. His collaborations with Gerry Mulligan were excellent.
Charles

Just want to reciprocate and extend good wishes to all for health and happiness, and good listening, in 2017.

Looking back at 2016, the only significant change I made to my system was purchase and installation of an Audio Technica AT-ART9 phono cartridge, which has been wonderful.  I made the decision to do that in part because of the advocacy provided at this forum by Frank (OP), among several others.  I continue to be grateful for that.

Best regards,
-- Al
 

Frank has good taste 😊
Charles 

^^^  Thanks, Al & Charles. 

On a side note ... who put Meth in the Clemson football team's Gatorade? 

Next week, Clemson vs Alabama. It gonna be a war. 

I guess that Ohio State showed that they did not belong there. I wonder if that will have any weight in the future, next time that the selection committee considers a non-conference champion to place in the final 4.

Ohio State was impressive early, but was really leaking oil coming down the stretch. Losing to PSU, and barely escaping Michigan and Michigan State.

Clemson vs Bama should be a good match-up. It's a shame it's on too late for us East Coasters who have to get up early for work to watch. I'm sure I will see a replay eventually.

Having been married to a Bama fan for 35 years and becoming one myself by said association I am looking for a great game between Bama and Clemson, recalling last year's game, I believe Clemson outplayed them for 3 quarters and that Clemson just got Sabined in the last quarter. wine or lose we are looking for a great game.

Bill berry & his Ellington Allstars - "FOR Duke " Vinyl Album

The storage area continues to give up its secrets. I gave ALL my LPs to a music lover in New York many, many years ago. So you can imagine my surprise ( and delight ") to find about 8 LPs Including " FOR DUKE ".

I would like you to have it if you do do not own a copy. If you do have a copy I would offer it to Sir Charles 1 dad. This was my " GO TO ") disc for sound quality evaluation. I also regarded the performance as excellent.

This disc deserves a place in every fine collection if only because the engineer was Steve McCormach.  

Charles 1 dad

I always assumed you were into vinyl. I was of the belief you were still using your turntable. I know you use a low powered amp and I subconsciously concluded you were most likely still spinning vinyl.

A very long time ago while studying in London I purchased a used 5 watt mono tube amp with a single EL34 tube. I built a large speaker enclosure  and mounted a 8" full range concentric Wharfedale loudspeaker speaker in it. Unbelievable sound levels !!!.

I decided to upgrade to stereo so I built a Heathkit 9 watts per channel tube amp. I also build a pair of very efficient loudspeakers. I did not have skills (nor the space) to make folded horns horns so I built something very close to a horn, but using the principle of pipes. Not as good as a folding horn but a very similar method of moving air. Drivers were ELACS. I was in audio heaven.

Nyame,
I understand your assumption. Many SET amplifier aficionados are also  analog source users as well. I was in fact a hard core turntable user/advocate for many years. I discovered a relatively obscure Japanese DAC (Yamamoto YDA-1) that conveyed the emotion and essence of music as convincingly as my TT did  playing records. Its been about 6 years and I’ve not looked back.

I still enjoy good vinyl listening very much and a friend has an excellent Basis table and their top level tonearm and Miyajima cartridge. Despite this ongoing exposure I’m thoroughly happy and musically content with my Redbook source. The most impactful event in my music system development was acquiring a SET amplifier.

Charles

nyname ...

"For Duke" is a wonderful record. I had two copies that I bought new, kept them for years, then about three years ago gave one to a friend. Someone here should take you up on the offer. 

Al ... if you don't have it, your ART-9 will put the Duke Ellington orchestra in your room.

I was reading onThe Fuses purpose ,and upgrade .

first off when a piece of electronics is designed there is built in at very minimum 
on Any Quality piece of at least 20% overhead in electrical draw. To cover brown outs ,power surges. Your Fuse say 3 Amp I a standard steel fuse can vary over 15% before it pops. This is why Boutique Hiend fuses  sometimes pop .
reason being they are Very accurate typically within 1%.this is why rule of thumb
you get next size up 3.25,3.5 amp and make sure your U get correct Size
Fast blow, or T- timed = slowblow  .Big difference  between the two  it says on 
the fuse cap ,get a magnifier if need be . Very expensive fuse to blow.

My Dad was a Clemson grad, and although I spent a year at Bama myself, I was raised to be a Clemson fan before I was old enough to know what football was. Go Tigers! Beat the best!

Charles 1 dad

I really do not know what a SET amplifier is and was never really sufficiently interested in finding out. Until now. Your description of what it did for you "conveyed the emotion and essence of music as convincingly as my TT" has got my attention. I will do some research to learn more about this fascinating technology.

Thanks

Charles,
Urban Meyer is a great coach, no doubt. He just didn't have the horses this year, after losing so much talent to the NFL draft last year. 3 of the top 10 picks, and 5 picks in the 1st round were OSU players. You just don't replace players like Ezekiel Elliot and Joey Bosa so easily.

Rose Bowl saved an otherwise boring bowl season. Unfortunately, my team, PSU, lost. 

Cheers,
John

Hi Nyame,
The comparison to the my turntable's attributes was with the Yamamoto DAC which was so Intrinsically organic.  The addition of a 300b SET amplifier is the "single"  most significant and impactful change to my system. I will say that the DAC and SET are cut from the same natural musical fabric. Probably not surprising since Yamamoto earned their reputation building low power SET amplifiers for 15 years prior to introducing the DAC. Both DAC and my SET are built on simple circuits, avoid negative feedback  (NFB) and have strong power supplies.
Charles 

Robert came over to hear what 2 fuses & a duplex has done to my system.  He thought it never sounded so rich and detailed; however, he used his critical ear and heard a slight closed in sound and lower mid suck out.  He told me that the.side wall center hallographs had to be moved further apart as they were set up for the old fuse sound (like electronic distortion-the new fuses sound distortionless with a black backround).  

After he left, I spent an hour testing various depths and 9" back to side walls sounded best with a zero array setting. It had a soustaging and immediacy problem though.  So I moved the rear hallographs inward first 2 notches then 1 notch. Voila!  Great success. The tremendous fuse&duplex sound was surrounding me with a continuous soundstage in front of me from beyond my speakers, I have a dynamic and tonally rich, detailed sound. I found I could enjoy music at low listening levels and as loud as I can tolerate.  

Previous to the fuses, I could not enjoy low listening levels, the sound was just not rich and dynamic.  I am going to buy fuses for my tv system and CD players.  The fuses are transformative.  I've spent most of the weekend listening (my wife had a cold so I wasn't interrupting any engagements).  When I opened the door, she heard the music flow into the adjacent bedroom and commented on how warm and lifelike the music sounded (the Klezmorim was playing a dynamic and colorful ensemble closely miked).  That's the first time she had no negative comment in decades.  The cost for this upgrade is nominal (as long as the fuses don't blow).

Thank you Frank and David as well for your support. 

Very happy to read that you achieved success, fleschler.

Not at all surprised that you had to make some changes in your room acoustics. I put the Blacks in my REL subs about a week ago and had to cut the output levels back at a good bit. Some re-positioning work yet to be done.

"Previous to the fuses, I could not enjoy low listening levels, the sound was just not rich and dynamic."

I think you hit on the most unique and amazing effect of the Black fuses with that statement. Not sure that this has been brought to light before on this thread. Usually only major component changes generate that response IME.

Congrats and enjoy!
Dave

I just spoke with one of thd designers at Synergistic.  He said these black fuses 
Just yo get 85%vit takes about 100 hours ,dacs evrn more ,thr more current draw 
The faster the runin. Up to 300 hours to fully runjn ,mainly because the Graphene 
Is 1,000s of times more densemble yhen Copper or Silver. These are facts 
As usual trickle down technology Nasa has been using for years .
Originally developed in its basic stste in the U.K late 1940s as technology allows 
3d printing ,and  world's most lightest But super strong substance Super computers are now using its ultra speed capabilities.  I started with the dac
then whole system well worth the money spent.

"As usual trickle down technology Nasa has been using for years."


Yeah, right.

"Super computers are now using its ultra speed capabilities."

Name one. How can they use it? It's only one molecule thick. How do they handle it, with tiny little tweezers?

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but has anyone run into a situation where the stock fuses (end points) in your equipment were soldered to the circuit board? My fuses are inside the normal fuse holders but there are additional connectors - like how resistors are mounted on a board, connected at their ends. I'd need to cut these connectors in order to remove the fuse. Not sure what purpose this serves but a little concerning if the unit ever needs warranty work

What happened to Bama's offense? I know Scarbrough got hurt, but???

Leading up to this game it was discussed on this thread that Clemson has the athletic ability to be competitive with mighty Bamaand that's how it played out. Given how Clemson dominated Ohio State you'd have to realize they could give Bama a legitimate battle.  These are clearly the 2 best teams in college football. Speed and talent vs speed and talent. 
Charles 

Scarbrough WAS Bama's offense. Once he left the game it was up to the defense to hold on. Give Clemson credit, that is one hell of a defense to come back on and win, and they did it.
Great game, even though, as with the Rose Bowl, the team I was rooting for lost again.

No doubt that Clemson/Alabama matched up the two best teams in the country!

It was a great game. Being a dyed-in-the-wool SEC fan, I was also rooting for Bama. Clemson proved twice (OSU first) that they are for real. They deserve it.

Dave

Another shout out for Herbie's Audio Lab. I recently "Herbieized" my Audio Note AN-E/L speakers. I used the Square Fat Dots to isolate them from their stands, and I replaced the original spikes on the stands with Threaded Stud Gliders. Talk about clarity, transparency and natural sounding detail! If you are interested in affordable, cost effective vibration control for your entire system, I highly recommend HAL.

^^^ Agreed, tommylion. Herbie's has a lot of interesting looking tweaks. After I finish with the tube dampeners, I think I'll try their little Black Hole carbon fiber CD mat. Nice reviews on that item.

I have Herbie's products throughout my system. Outstanding and very reasonably priced for the performance improvement they deliver. Customer service is amazing too!

Does anyone here besides me like the sound of steel guitars??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo3c70X_WGU

Love that sound......

Steel guitars have a unique sound and are said to be among the hardest instruments to play. Check out some of Ry Cooder's stuff.

Dave

^^^ I don't know if any of you guys have ever made the connection between country & western guitar playing and Hawaiian music. My friend Robert pointed the connection out to me a couple of years ago. Could it have been the influence of Hawaiian music on our young military boys when they served in Hawaii during WWII? Check it out:
 
Hawaiian ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5do5FtHPv0

Country ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97svDuqFctI&list=PLX7X_fX17YaWyYWEBBhL3aMI9Ptia4b-w

Also, there's a definite connection between Irish/Scottish music and our own Appalachian mountain music.

Traditional Irish /Scottish music:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ftHXYJZt5s&list=PL7A4C7651B1C4A113

Appalachian mountain music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqcTf-zkkI#t=4.415748

A great CD with original and traditional American music is violinist Mark O’ Connor’s "Liberty!". It’s the soundtrack from the PBS miniseries of the same name about the American Revolution.

The track "Brave Wolfe", a duet for violin and trumpet with Wynton Marsalis, is particularly amazing.

Joshua Bell & Edgar Meyer's "Short Trip Home" is another great one.

Hello,  I am thinking of trying one of these black fuses.  I see some people are recommending that you go one size up on the fuse,  just wondering if this is always safe to do?  thanks