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?
Ah-Ha, just as I suspected ... you haven't heard what the SR Black fuses can do. :-)
I agree exactly with your observation on the tonality of the unbroken in fuses. After swapping out the two SR Red fuses in the CD player and installing the SR Black fuses I did hear more transparency but not the overall musicality of the broken in Red fuses. But after the SR Blacks burned in, there was no comparison. The Blacks win hands down. No contest. I'm amazed. My audiophile friends who've heard the system with both the Reds and the Blacks are amazed at the improvements afforded by the Blacks over the Reds.
Give the SR Black fuse at least 70 hours break in. I think you'll be pleased and rewarded with the effort.
I believe that the Telos,SR Black and the Beeswax are all upper tier level fuses. As with all competing top quality products the ranking hierarchy will vary due to different components and systems as well as listener taste. The Black fuses are fabulous in my system. Yet curiosity tempts me to try the Telos or a Beeswax fuse in my Line Stage just for fun of comparison. I'd likely find all three to be excellent while each one sonically different from each other.
The cost of these fuses makes such experimentation feasible as compared to power cables, interconnects and obviously components. As so many contributors to this thread have verified, these premium quality fuses make a considerable impact on an audio system.
I consider myself a very strong advocate for the use of these premier fuses for their performance improvement and high value proposition. Charles,
Lucky day for you! I also have a Marantz SA11-S1 player. It uses 5 fuses for the various rail circuits. The print on the circuit board says 1 amp small slow blow 250 volt. I have blown a fuse (middle one) of the five fuses. This went to the CD drive- laser mechanism. I talked to Marantz repair and put in 1.6 amp fuses in these 5 locations. No more blown fuses. The main power fuse is also located inside the unit and can not be replaced by the customer ! The best you can do for this fuse location is put a WA Quantum Chip (for small fuse $6.00 ) on top of the soldered in place main power fuse. I think you can get both fuses and the WA Chip from High_End Electronics, Apple Valley, California.
The cover comes off but it takes courage not a Marantz tech. After the screws (3) along the top of the back are removed, you need muscle. The top slides towards the back 1/2 inch and then lifts straight up and off. There are two places along the top back cover to insert a long flat head screw driver and pull the cover towards the back. You can also put a thin flat head screwdriver along the front seam to help move the cover backwards. The covers are really on tight but do come off. I do have a few tiny mar marks from removing the cover. I got over that and now pop the lid more frequently than on my Honda mini van!
Tsushima, contact berniceskaudio at gmail.com to order the Telos Quantum X2.
Oregonpapa, I didn't run the Black fuse for 70 hours. I just didn't like the tonality. I may put it back in, but I like the Telos at the moment.
Gwalt's Beeswax impressions are spot on. Voices and instruments are beautiful. I had many wow educational moments with it. But it's just too aggressive in my DAC for extended listening.
A very interesting thread. You guys have really perked my ears up.
Davidpritchard- I would like to follow your lead as I have a SA11-s1 player, a step below yours, that I purchased as a trade in. The problem I'm having is that I can't get the top lid off to see exactly what size and type fuses I have. I've removed the three screws at the rear, but the top seems to be glued on and I don't want to bend it out of shape. So, unfortunately I will have to leave it to a Marantz tech. But I would like to have the fuses in hand before I take that step. Could you please inform me as to the size and value of the 6 fuses that are in your player as they should be the same since they are similar. Much appreciated.
On the topic of break in or burn in. When it comes to the preamp...can you have your source playing music through the dac to the preamp but have the preamp on mute to the amps and still get any benefit of burn in on the preamp?
How long of a break-in time did you allow the SR Black fuse? Reason I ask is that in my experience, the Black fuses took about three times times as long ti break in over the SR Red fuses. The Black fuses took at least 70 hours to really start opening up and sounding good. At the 70 hour mark, things just snapped into place. After the 70 hour mark, additional benefits were to be had through hour 100.
tsushima1, same thing happened to me. On the same page they have an email address off to the left that I just tried and it sent so I'll see what they say.
I'm thinking of trying one in my preamp to see how it complements the SR black fuses in my dac and amps. But I'll order a black for the pre as well and see which one works better...
macdude.....could you advise me/us as to the email address that you are using to contact Telos please, the contact form on the Telos website keeps 404 error-ing.
Wig: That is a good description you wrote of the sound depending on how the fuse is orientated. I absolutely agree with giving them a lot of break in especially with SACD players. Maybe a couple of on - off cycles over the next 5 days. That's an unscientific observation of my CD player responding to some on - off cycles.
I should have gotten the Sony, the Marantz SA11-S2 has 5 fuses !
My last shipment of fuses has a note in the box. It points out the BLACK fuses have a small circle of UEF material at the middle of the fuse barrel. Be careful not to scrape that off putting fuses in and out.
Do not forget any sub woofers in your systems. They really respond to the Black fuse.
As I type I am listening to Grammy winning classical celloist Zuill Bailey playing duets with guitarist David Leisner. The album is "Arpeggione". I have been fortunate to hear Mr. Bailey multiple times including in the recording studio. The Black fuses are really bringing out the bite of the bow across the cello strings and the wonderful low and complex harmonics. At the same time the delicate overtones are there with David Leisner's guitar work.
I do hope all reading this thread will consider trying the Black fuse. I think they are worth the effort to audition and they can be returned if they do not work in your system.
Have over 70 hours on my SRB 800Ma (2) fuses in my ModWright Sony 5400 and it's no doubt that they are transparent and capable of retrieving low level detail but I still feel they need WAY more time to sound their best. While the sound is open and detailed, it's still forward and a little hard in the upper region...
I spent about 40 minutes flipping them to discern the correct orientation; one side of the fuse is fuller with less detail and the other side is much more dynamic, better channel separation and more vibrant sounding.
I've read that they can take up to 200 hours to fully burn-in, so I'll give them another 5 days of continuous use and my lets them rest 24 hours before continuing burn-in.
Hi gwalt, I suspected that the Beeswax fuse is an exceptional product and it's good to know that they're a fine fit in your system. I believe both it and the Black fuses will be genuine assets in virtually any good audio system. Please keep us posted as you progress further with your fuses. Charles,
From some of the comments I am happy for all of your success with the SR Black fuses. The RED did not work for me and thus it was sold.....this was based on the VAC preamp. I will have to see what the new owner has to say when it arrives for him.
I now have the AM Beeswax fuse in the VAC preamp. and it is by far the best I have heard but I have only heard the SR RED, HIFI Tuning Supreme, Isoclean, and stock. I now have right at 125 hours on the fuse and it is wonderful in tonality and soundstage....actually it seems magic as it gets everything just right with that piece of gear. Overall I would agree that the fuse sounds organic but still very natural. Human voice and instruments just sound very right and they have weight. I am told that it can and does get better out to settling at 300 hours. I will find out as my VAC is on 24/7.
For me I will be ordering more with one piece of gear at a time. The caveat is that there is no trial period to try before you buy. These are hand made for the values ordered and involve some labor intensity to apply the beeswax into the fuse. As with anything YMMV but for me I am just proceeding one step at a time. PS: If considering I would recommend buying direct to save from the retail. Best to all of you.
The SR Blacks have been in the CDP and pre since Saturday, with a total of maybe 30 hours use on them (the CDP is left on all the time while the pre is not), so semi-broken-in at this point.
I'm waiting for the last bit of stridency in the upper mids to chill out, but other than that I'm a very happy camper and they are doing for my system pretty much everything oregonpapa says they do for his.
What size/type of fuse does it take, and is it power cord socket?
Mribob, It's a 15 Amp slow-blo. It's a miniature fuse holder that requires a screw drive to open and close. Mine was loose so the cover spins when taking it off or on. I replaced it with a high quality Bussmann panel fuse holder but accidently bought a larger size. I'm very meticulous so no idea how it happened ... When Hegel tech returned the amp, I thought he installed a different fuse holder so ask and it was mine.
Sometimes things have ways of working out ... turns of SR RED offers a large size 15A Slo-blo but not smaller size.
The $64K question - are no fuses better than Black fuses?
Yes, Reason ARC and CAT use resistors and NOT fuse to protect power tube failures. People always criticizing ARC and CAT but especially ARC so maybe now they understand.
Gents, If your speaking about a fuse that has 2 blades like a car fuse I feel that such a design is less of a compromise of performance when compared to a standard glass fuse. Tom
Hi Charles1dad, thankyou for the feedback on the sr-black's, I do have a question, my digital front end has fuse chips instead of glass fuses, is it worth converting to a fuse holder and inserting the sr-black's? , now my modified krell 700cx amplifier has 4 big glass fuses, I remember krell told me they were fast blowing fuses, however, I cannot read what value is written on the fuses, can anyone here specify the value of the fuses for the krell 700cx?
Oregonpapa, I'm listening to a lot of Roy Hargrove tonight. I'll assume that you appreciate his jazz trumpet mastery as well. Here are three recommendations. Excellent music. 1, "Jazz In The Key Of Blue" 2, "Approaching Standards" 3, "Parker's Mood" A tribute to Charlie Parker. Enjoy, Charles,
I've been listening to the Black fuses the past 4 days. I've installed them in my DAC, Line Stage and amplifier mono blocks. I won't bother being redundant, Oregonpapa so thoroughly described their qualities so well. Àll I can say unequivocally is amen! Brother Oregonpapa told it like it is ☺ Just wonderful sound and music reproduction. The Reds are excellent. In my system, the Black fuses extend the performance level yet further. They are a musical delight and I would recommend them to all music lovers interested in extracting the full hidden potential of their respective components. Stock fuses are a bottleneck without question based on my listening sessions. The music opens up and breathes with increased life and emotion with superior fuses. Superb tonality and reach out and touch realism. Charles,
Tom, are the N52 with mu-metal collar around its center off Ebay? Any pointers are appreciated.
Jerry, so no fuse and no power cords......are you suggesting you are listening from a hand turned gramophone? You know it doesn't have to be stereo all the time... On a more serious note, do your Romex wires go from the panel goesintoeach device, no plugs? Sounds a bit scary like "Look, no hands, ma!"
As for the tunneling and the magnets, I think the closer we can get to the state of superconductivity w/o a billion dollar lab, the lower the distortion can be.
Just got the BeeWax for my DAC, Jerry of AM told me to put 125h in so that is now cooking in another device.
A fuse, just like wire, specially treated or plated over a bronze base over one with nasty steel and tin plated all add a colouring, more so than a straight wire or even a solid silver rod.
These mysterious fueses all impart their own sonic character, maybe even better than just a wire bypass. Well, im sure even the earlier sr20 fuse has some characteristic of tunneling process.
So why woud a same but tunneled outlet sound different?
The $64K question - are no fuses better than Black fuses? Well, I reckon so. I haven't had fuses for a couple years since I bypassed the fuse in my Oppo with copper. Since then I went totally fuse-less. No fuses, no house AC no power cords. I'm out there and lovin' it, Jerry.
I originally had stock fuses (of course) in my ARC gear. I replaced all of the stock fuses with HiFi Tuning fuses and thought I was done. That's what I compared the SR RED fuses with. Results? Night and day. Then, I replaced the two SR RED fuses in the CD player with two SR BLACK fuses. Again, a night and day improvement. The rest of the SR RED fuses in the system will be replaced with the BLACK fuses as well. To say that I'm a fan is an understatement.
Nope, I haven't tried them all ... and I don't feel the need to at this point. One of the folks posting in this thread was going to try a Bees wax fuse. Unless I missed it, he hasn't posted the results yet.
On the solid copper rods in place of fuses: Be sure the fire insurance on your house is up to day. Just sayin' ...
Don't know how long. I know to discern the difference on sound quality takes only an instant. I use one of the two I mentioned but both are very good. Don't try this at home or in a tree house in the sky. On one the direction is innate. I have not tried silver. The affects from cryo are permanent (ask NASA) and can be seen under an electron microscope.. each additional treatment further enhances the alignment. Is the tunneling permanent and can the affects of this treatment be seen as to how it affects the material structure? Tom
One can’t help wondering, Tom, how long it would take for a solid copper rod to break in, 600 hours? One assumes you're going to have the solid copper rod quantum tunneled, no? If it were me is probably use a solid silver rod and wrap it in 3M anti EMI/RFI stuff.
I'll do that and be happy to compare any of the contenders to a N52 cryo'd magnet that has a mu-metal collar around its center. Even add to the lineup a cryo'd copper rod cut and polished to size. And your right that shouldn't take long. Tom
Must be the Snowball Effect. HiFi Tuning and Isoclean fuses ( the ones with the little arrows on them) have been around what at least 12 years. Probably closer to 20. I propose some enterprising person perform a proper review of the "top five" aftermarket fuses. That shouldn’t take long.
I'm using SR RED in my H30 and it's a nice improvement over stock. Improvement not as dramatic as in ARC but still an improvement. I installed the fuse direction rear to front.
I think you need to add one more SR BLACK to your order. :-)
^^^ Hey thanks Bob. I enjoyed the listening session and your company as well. By the way, the Scotch was awesome! Nothing like wonderful tasting rocket fuel to accompany the music.
I'm looking forward to hearing your system again once your new fuses are broken in. It was fantastic before ... like Venture speakers aren't totally amazing already!
I had a pleasant listening session at Frank's place over the weekend. I have heard his rig before installing the SR fuses, and I must concur with Frank's assessment of their improved impact on his sound. His sound stage and depth was fabulous before, now it fills the room with sonic bliss of open highs, deep bass, and clear but not etched resolution. Overall, a nice improvement...perhaps I would not claim it to be a component level upgrade, but it does make for significant improvement to make it worth the cost of time and money to utilize. I placed my order for 3 SR blacks for my DAC and pre afterwards. More on my experience once they are installed and broken in. Thanks Frank for your outstanding hospitality, and introducing me to your amazing music collection. Enjoy, Bob
Of course everything can be improved. Cryogenically treated fuses are a step in the right direction as is the use of a contact enhancer on the end caps, e.g., Quicksilver Gold, which unfortunately is out of production. Exposure of the fuse to magnetic fields can be limited by the prudent use of mu metal around Mr. Fuse. Not to mention replacing the fuse holder with something along the lines of Acme's Silver Plated Fuse Holder.
I see you were a proponent of Audio Horizons fuses but are planning to try SR-Black fuses. I too am using AH fuses in both my amp and dac and very pleased over the stock fuses. My system is dramatically better in every aspect. I'm very curious of your opinion comparing these newer fuses since you preferred the AH fuses over the SR-Reds.
Its alchemy I tells ya ... downright alchemy! Where's the Wizard?
The most amazing thing. Who would have ever imagined that stock fuses were degrading the sound to such a degree? The only drawback I can see at this point is the long break-in period and having to listen to ordinary HiFi until the fuses break in.
I was just on the phone with a good friend and fellow audiophile who lives out of state trying to describe what these little buggers do. I just wish he were here to hear is for himself. Hope he jumps on the SR black fuse bandwagon.
Today I added a Synergistic Research Black fuse to the dedicated headphone system's amp. The SACD player's main fuse already has a Black fuse installed. I double checked the sound of the original Red fuse (switching directions to make sure the sound was optimised).
I then put in the Black fuse (already broken in with a 100 hrs of use). Again I listened with the fuse in both directions and one direction was better to me.
I then compared the direction optimised RED to the Black.
The Black did a lot of thing better but...
I then realized there was a degree of dryness to the sound. Especially critical to get this right when listening to headphones. I moved my front footer (Synergistic Research MIG's) that is under the SACD player towards the front of the player 1/4 inch! I did not adjust the back two footers. BAM ! The sound now had the emotion, flow, and detail that I so much value. So in my opinion the Black fuse is a more developed fuse than the Red, and the Red fuse makes an ordinary fuse sound terrible.
The change in sound is of a magnitude that one may need to readjust component footers, or change a system's sub woofer settings.
I found today's time and effort was rewarded in a jump in my system's ability to generate musical bliss.
I received my Black fuses today and will place them later this afternoon. I'll be patient and let the burn-in progress as recommended by David and Frank (Oregonpapa). If they're only a modest improvement of the Red fuses I'll be very pleased given the excellence of the Red's in my system. Charles,
Wig: If you have the time and patience, put the Black fuse in the CD player first, and put it on continuous replay. After 75 hours, change the direction of the fuse. You may hear a significant difference- I did. One direction just sounds "more right". Then replace your other fuses. Does your CD player only have one fuse? My Marantz SACD player has one main power fuse and also 5 rail fuses! Currently it has one BLACK (main circuit) and five RED (rail circuits) fuses installed.
I think you will get a great deal of insight in what changes these fuses evoke by placing them in the system in stages.
Another nice benefit of the Synergistic Research 30 day trial.
i just bought this amp & had it shipped to my US address, but it needs to be forwarded overseas. Hence no access to it right now. if I don't find an answer from an owner here, I'll try contacting a service ctr.,last time though they were not of any help for voltage conversion as they said Levinson won't allow a conversion unless it's done in that country, trouble is we don't have an authorized ctr. Within a few thousand miles... I'll see if an owner pops out over here.
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