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?
Well, Friday Night Lights are burning once again. Yep, I'm talkin' high school football. Our local team is the real deal this year. Two games down and we have outscored our opponents 98 - 28 ... and their scores have come in the fourth quarter when we have the second string guys in there. Our quarterback, in his senior year, is playing at the college level. The guy throws rockets and his long ball is dead on the money. The stands are jammed with standing room only if you don't get there early. If you haven't been to a high school game for years, try to go. These kids are playing at the college level of 20 years ago. I think I've only missed about five games over the past 20 years or so. Such fun. We have a group of old codgers like myself who meet up at the games. We carpool to the "away" games as well. Hey ... Seniors get in free too. Cheapest show in town. :-)
Frank: Friday night football is great. Night games, open stadiums, and fun food to eat. It is serious stuff here in Las Cruces New Mexico ! If I can't make it to a game, I listen to it on a restored 1935 big Philco AM radio. For me High School Football sounds best on the static filled AM waves.
Just bought a wonderful used Mactone push pull 300B tube amp. With the original fuse replaced with a Synergistic Research Black fuse, the soundstage is competing nicely with my Art Audio PX-25 amp. David Pritchard
Nice to see you posting here again. Hopefully it will be on a regular basis now. Your input is way to valuable to be lost to us.Hope all is well with your Mom.
Hi Frank, sounds like you are doing well now. Didn't you say a couple months ago you were auditioning a top-secret tweak that you were going to reveal someday? I just updated my REL Strata III's with 4A SR Blacks in the mains, a bit over the stock 3.15A. Right out of the box, the entire system is more relaxed. RELs are known to lift the whole presentation because they take the entire signal right off the speaker terminals. Sound crazy? I like the sound of these fuses--now have nine spread around the system.
The auditioning is finished and its fantastic. Still can't reveal anything though. Not until its released. Its coming with an instructional DVD and that's in the works now.
Ear cups to place on your ears greatly improving the listening experience. Try cupping your hand behind your ears and listen. Oh my! Imagine if we were to make a well engineered ear appendage that is perfected for stereo listening. This is big folks.
We need to spend far more time on the ears. If not a cup of sorts, then another ear innovation device to aid in listening. Sure our gear is important. No doubt our room acoustics are important. However, most important of all is our ears. Innovation here will make a $3000 system sound like $30,000 system.
Not hearing aids as much as listening aids. This is surely the product you are testing.
Whoa! Hey! Guess what? Would you believe that was going to be my first product? Ortho Ears. I was going to use Mr. Spock ears that would fit over the ears. That was 25 years ago. But it turns out the cupping of hands around the ears only really works for average systems with limited dynamic range, such as ones without room treatment or whatever. And perhaps for older gents whose frequency response has fallen off. What were those things they used to advertise a hundred years ago for older dudes? Ear horns? The cupping of ears also subtly changes the frequency response, not for the better I’d opine. For systems with very good dynamic range it doesn’t do much of anything. No offense to anyone intended by that statement. 😀
A foil hat works also (bend it around you ears…there ya go), and it has the added benefit of stopping those crazy messages from space: "geoffkait…bags of pebbles…follow the rubber line…turn the fuse around…"
Had a most wonderful listening session with Frank last week, its been a while since I had this pleasure, waiting for Frank to feel better. Glad to report he's well on his way, just a bit thin, but his ears are just fine. Well, it was like a completely different system, huge deep soundstage, much more realistic low end and bass, filled the room, much better 'meat on bones' with even better sonic density. Before I thought his rig was good, not great...now with whatever tweaks and changes hie has made, it really is quite amazing. His hospitality is always warm and welcoming, and played some great Scottish female vocals, blew me away. Frank remained true to his ND/NC agreement, and wouldn't share with me what has made these huge improvements in his room....but whatever he has, I'll be buying when released. Looking forward to try to translate what he has accomplished into my own room. While Frank completes his recovery, he has the pleasure of enjoying the music in an awesome integrated room/component/tweak environment. I left very impressed. Congrats again to pushing the envelope, and being willing to share the journey. Best, Bob
^^^ Thank you Bob. Its always a pleasure having you over. Last night Robert and I finished off the Scotch you brought ... yummy!
Robert brought over a CD of Arthur Lyman’s "Taboo" for our listening pleasure. Wowie! I’ll bring it over to your place to "test" your subs. The CD is amazing. I have the LP but it never sounded like this CD.
Did you order the Carol Kidd CD? Unfortunately, it looks like its become a collector item. Either that or this seller suffers from delusion of grandeur.
Just bought 4 Black Fuses 2 months. Not cool. They need to have a trade up program with proof of purchase. Not goin throw 1/2 grand again anytime soon. Very annoying.
Pop Quiz! Spot the discrepancies (errors) in the write up for the Blue Fuse on SR web site. Put to use what you’ve learned here on Audiogon this year. I give partial credit.
Today physicists understand electrons don’t flow at all but rather propagate in a wave of energy that moves along a conductor with a multitude of factors that alters this wave at the quantum level. To understand how electricity travels without electrons ever leaving their respective atoms it is helpful to consider the spectator ‘wave’ at a football match. Even though you can clearly see a wave pattern moving from spectator to spectator as fans raise and then lower their hands (without hands jumping from one person to the next), so too does electricity ‘move’ without electrons ever leaving their atoms. At Synergistic Research we’ve isolated key factors that affect how electricity propagates by changing the behavior of electrons through Inductive Quantum Coupling methods we collectively call UEF Tech. In fact, UEF Tech is so powerful even an electrical chain several miles long is fundimentally improved with nothing more than a single fuse engineered with our patented UEF Technology.
The fuse marketing expertise of Ted Denny et al is brilliant. Get a product out there that is very cheap to manufacture in China (and save some bucks by not testing the things for accurate ratings), sell it for 50 times what other competent fuses cost (Litelfuse…reliable, well made, a couple of bucks), and replace it frequently with upgraded versions marketed to the faithful (It's new so it HAS to be better!). My sympathies to Aniwolfe…sorry man.
Wolf_Garcia 9-21-2017 Anybody able to locate the above mentioned "UEF Tech" patent? I'd be interested in whatever the heck THAT says.
Wolfie, I did a search at the U.S. Patent Office website (uspto.gov) of both granted patents and patent applications that have been filed, using a great many relevant search terms. I found nothing relevant to SR or any of its products, or to UEF (Uniform Energy Field) technology specifically.
Best regards, -- Al (Licensed but non-practicing patent attorney)
It’s never a perfect time to buy technology, it’s constantly changing/evolving. Don’t feel too blue for those millions who bough iPhone 7s recently or whatever. Don’t feel blue. Get it? 😰 Besides, it should have been a tip off when SR had a special sale on Black Fuses several months ago. Hel-loo!
Good point Geoffkait. Somehow the constant change in fuse models seems different and, well, excessive. Marketing is at play and the real risk to brand new Black owners was surely discussed. I bet they work with brand new owners if the owner asks.
Feel bad for Tom and new Black owners. New owners.
Well many new Black owners have taken advantage of discount pricing recently. Many dealers have been selling the Black fuses at discounts for the last couple of months. Hence, I am not surprised by this "update". Many dealers, of any product, will sell at discount before a new revision is released.
Happens all the time with gear and no way around it. However, this particular fuse maker is rather interesting. Is it really game changing innovation happening on a regular basis with a fuse? If so, they need to do this and deal with the risk of upset customers. This is the "cost" of ongoing innovation minded companies. If marketing hype, then it is a bit much.
^^^ If one is a "brand new owner" of the Black fuses, one could take advantage of the 30 day return policy and get credit for the money spent on the Black fuses. This is exactly what I did with two of my "new" RED fuses when the Blacks first came out. I was well within the 30 day policy. No questions asked at Highend Electronics. Alfred and Betty are great to do business with.
For "seasoned" owners of the Black fuses, use them as spares or sell them on Ebay or A’gon. Same thing one would do with any component being replaced because of an equipment upgrade.
It's funny to me though, that you'd be upset that there's a new fuse. If the blacks are that great, then they still are. It's ok to not have the newest and 'best' of everything. Take a deep breath..
@geoffkait not sure if this is what you caught, but the electrons in a metal involved in metallic bonding are nonlocalized and don't 'stay' with an individual atom, even if they aren't flowing to propogate the signal.
And are the end caps really nickel plated? I thought that was a big no no as well.
Well in about 10 or so months they will probably come out with the Purple fuse with UEF Treatment 3.0. I am not mad at SR, just a little butt hurt at the timing of my purchase. I won’t let it get to me too much. Lots of good things coming my way.
@geoffkait, not sure if this is what you caught, but the electrons in a metal involved in metallic bonding are nonlocalized and don't 'stay' with an individual atom, even if they aren't flowing to propogate the signal.
Bingo! Yes, that's one! They are free electrons. They are not stationary. There are other errors in the paragraph. Any takers?
Fuses are the new components. If anyone wants to replace his Black Fuses with Blue Fuses, list the Black ones on Audiogon. Just like any audio component he would wish to upgrade. Problem solved. Well, except for the break in. Ha ha!
This is wonderful timing for me. My Mother's type 45 tube amp lost a channel recently and I have not been able to get hold of the builder Fred Voltz of Emotive Audio to diagnose the problem. Thank goodness for the spare 300B tube amp that got installed the next day. Charles1dad to thank for inspiring me to have one handy. But a problem arose that the on off switch is in the back of the amp. Reaching behind a hot tubed amp to turn it off is a burned arm waiting to happen. Get frustrated - NO. Instead I now have a reason to get a Pass Labs First Watt F7 Amp. It is a leave it on all the time amplifier. Nelson Pass designed this 14 watt amp for the SET type audio systems. And it is designed to be left on all the time.
The amp already sounds wonderful with the 100 db efficient Teresonic speakers. It has a ordinary spiral wound fuse. It is going to be fun to compare the ordinary fuse with the Synergistic Blue fuse- and of course in both directions.
Remember that Samsung is spending Three Billion dollars this year alone on Graphene research. I would hope the rate of product improvement accelerates rather than slows.
Synergistic Research launched the Black Fuse two years ago and since that time we have been working to build a *much* better fuse that outperforms all other fuses on the market regardless of cost, and without establishing a new highest priced fuse on the market- currently there are fuses that are far more expensive with less performance than our new Blue fuse. Our breakthrough came last month and we are now launching the Blue fuse in time for RMAF. In no way does the existence of the new Blue fuse take away from the performance of the Black fuse which is every bit as good today as it was when it was when first launched two years ago.
SR is a technology company and unlike many other brands that offer ’new’ products that are little more than a rebadge of existing products, we actually work to perfect our technologies over time. This is why our product cycles typically run between 2 to 5 years -or- longer between major advancements; far longer than most other leading high end accessory and cable manufacturers. If this is a problem, there are companies whose products are as obsolete today as they were last year, and will be next year, and the year after that ;)
Yours in music, Ted Denney Lead Designer, Synergistic Research Inc.
Thanks to Alfred, owner of Highend Electronics, I had the good fortune to have the chance to try a set of the new BLUE fuses prior to their release date (lucky me). I’ve been auditioning them for a couple of weeks now. Here are my conclusions so far:
First, lets cover the negatives:
Okay, now that the negatives have been covered, lets talk about what these new fuse offerings from SR can do for our systems.
First, instead of doing one component at a time like I did with the SR BLACK fuses, I put the five BLUE fuses in the system all at once. Two in the CD player and one each in the amp, preamp and phono stage. Right off the bat they sounded great. So good in fact that the brand new set, cold out of the boxes and not broken in, sounded better than the set of fully broken in SR BLACK fuses they replaced. A lot better.
The Blue fuses allow for improvements that are much more significant than that of going from the SR RED fuses to the SR BLACKS. There is a break -in period with the new BLUE fuses, but quite unlike the break-in period of the BLACK fuses. The BLACKS seemed to take forever to completely break in with "jumps" of improvement in between ... and even a few backward moves. With the BLUES its a smooth transition. It seems the sound gets better each time I turn the system on even after extensive listening sessions over the period that the BLUES have been in the system. How good they are going to get when fully broken in is anyone’s guess. So far, fantastic.
1. Noise floor.
I didn’t think it possible after living with the BLACK fuses all these months, but sure enough there’s even less grain and a more pure presentation. This allows for hearing so much more into the music and harvesting that minute detail that adds so much to the realism of a music play-back system. Can you hear in which direction a drummer’s brush work is moving across the snare drum; left to right or right to left? These BLUE fuses will allow you to do that providing you have a highly resolving system in the first place.
2. Better bass extension.
I use the now discontinued Legacy Signature III speakers. The next speaker up the Legacy line is the larger Legacy "Focus" speakers. I love the Focus’ ... they play BIG. Well, the SR BLUE fuses have turned the Signature III’s into a pair of Focus.’ I have never gotten such low and undistorted bass in any system I’ve put together over the 40 some years in the hobby. With my raised wood floor this is a real blessing. From top to bottom the speakers are totally seamless now.
Articulation of vocals.
The new fuses have provided a more "see through" presentation allowing one to hear not only the voice of a singer but allows the listener to get a handle on the singer’s personality. Carole Kidd never sounded so good before. With each vocal recording I throw on, the performer is in the room.
With the new BLUE fuses installed, the system reminds me of the huge sound I used to get when I had the Accoustat 4’s in the system. The Legacy Signature III’s sound enormous at this point .... without losing any inner detail or any of the natural and organic tones I was getting with the SR BLACKS. In fact, gaining improvements in both areas.
At this point the system totally disappears. What’s left is a musical performance in Three-D relief behind the speakers and from considerably beyond the outside edges of the speakers. For the first time, with certain recordings, the performer, or soloist, seems to image a few feet in front of the speakers out into the room toward the listening position. As either Gordon Holt or HP used to say (I can’t remember which) "No cardboard cutouts here." Nope, just real performers dancing in the room.
Improved Dynamics.
Swap out your fuses for these new SR BLUE fuses and play Arthur Lyman’s "Taboo," both volume I and volume II. Prepare to be shocked. The drums and jungle noises are amazing. I’ve listened to these recordings a zillion times and really only heard them for the very first time after the SR BLUE fuses were installed in the system. Zowie ... fun stuff!
This is the most important area that I want to get right in my system. I want a piano to sound like a piano, a cello to sound like a cello, a tenor sax to sound like a tenor sax and a soprano sax to sound like a soprano sax. Everything else in a home system comes in at second place to proper tonality of the instruments in my opinion. Its what we love about the Harbeth speakers, especially their new 40.2’s. Here’s another speaker that gets the tones right:
The tonality of instruments with the SR BLUE fuses is at least as good as it was with the SR BLACKS .... and that’s saying something. Instruments just sound right. So I now have a larger, more articulate and more 3-D presentation with the correct tonality still intact. Nice!
Bottom Line
My understanding is that the SR BLUE fuses will be selling for $149.95 each. Based upon what they’ve done for my system, I highly recommend them and wouldn’t want to live without them. I just don’t know how to get this kind of improvement for such a small investment. I don’t mean to sound like an audio snob here, but we are talking about high end audio where the price of entry could choke a horse.
If you’ve just bought some SR Blacks and are still within the 30 day return policy, return them for credit toward the new Blue fuses. You’ll be glad you did. This is exactly what I did with my last two RED fuses that went into the CD Player. Alfred gave me credit for the RED fuses toward two new BLACK fuses. I came up with the remaining cash. I was well within the 30 day return offer though. Alfred and Betty are wonderful people to do business with ... and a credit to Synergistic Research as one of their dealers.
A resounding Thank You to Ted Denny and to all of the folks at Synergistic Research for developing these new BLUE fuses. Its a winning product for sure! My system is sounding better than ever. Way better than I thought it ever would.
Thanks for your review of the new SR Blues, Frank. Had just purchased some SR Blacks via the three-for-two sale. I put a 4A in each of my Strata III subs (stock = 3.15A), paired with Maggie 3.6Rs. These SR Blacks replaced the SR 20's. At first listen, I had to lower the 30hz roll offs to 26hz and turn the volumes down by a third. As they break in, the bass just bubbles forth in warm, extended waves of depth. I also helped the ARC 210's with SR Blacks by pushing the AC mains up a few amps from stock--also an amazing increase in soundstage, quieter background and better bottom end. It must seem crazy and reckless to some of you, but over many trials of fuse brands in the same system over many years, these SR's are the real deal in extending the quality of sound in older systems. I will eventually add the Blues to my Maggies at 8A and 16A values, another reckless value over stock, but this is where the most dramatic results have always occurred. Anyone with Maggies--you should jump on board with the SR Black/Blue.
I agree with Oregonpapa: try the fuses and return them within 30 days if they don’t improve your system. I have no qualms whatsoever about doing this. Not that I was thrilled at the increase in price (is anyone????), but given that I can get my money back without question, I see this as a win-win situation. I’ve returned fuses to VH Audio and not heard a whimper out of the owner. At least Synergistic is smart enough to put their money where their mouth is, and say, if you don’t like it, return it. I WILL say that I did NOT like their Black outlet. Not.At. All. And I returned it. It started out sounding good, but then lapsed into a rather generic sound. Of course, it can be that the outlet surpassed my test system, which is inexpensive, but I’m under the belief that if it takes a 10k amp, 10k preamp, 5k CD player, 3k interconnects, 3k speaker cable, 4k equipment rack, and an army of other accoutrements to demonstrate the improvement, then I that’s pathetic. I mean, I don’t expect a Best Buy integrated to show off the fuses, but NAD, Arcam, and Hegels are plenty good enough to show off if the fuses work.
So, as far as my preference with SR’s outlets, I preferred the 2nd generation Red, even though it had a "bite" in the lower treble. It also had a magnificence on voices that was hard to beat, as well superb rhythm and the ability to stop-on-a-dime - when the music stopped on a dime!
However, I was not pleased when, a year ago, I asked a straightforward question of SR about the new Black outlet, and about whether the "bite" (of the Red one) had been resolved in the Black version, and received a marketing person’s emailed response that I had to "hear it to believe it." (I worked in PR for the mayor of San Francisco, and I know a non-answer when I hear one). Fine. I bought it and I heard it. On MY system, it stunk. Fortunately, the fuses never do, although I would say - and quite LOUDLY - that not every new fuse works best in each piece of equipment. For example, in my PS Audio Power Plant, The Red outperformed the Black (and another user on here came to the exact same conclusion, independent of me. In fact, I didn’t even know him until I happened across his thread and saw that he had written exactly what I had written in an entirely separate thread). So, I’m going to order a Blue or two (not for the Power Plant, though. I came across an Audio Horizon fuse I’d lost (things get lost around my place: it’s like the Bermuda Triangle) and put it in the Power Plant and expected exactly nothing. But I got a beautiful tone.Not euphonic, since Burt Bacharach’s solo ’70s albums still sound awful (Casino Royale was a ’60s album, for the sharp-eyed). It sounded that way last night, as a matter of fact!
So, either the Reds and the Blacks are voiced for certain components remains to be seen. (They seem to like Audio Research’s electronics). And I wasn’t keen on SR’s upper level interconnects, either. One was lean, and the other was clearly "rich."
Anyway. The Audio Horizon put the Red fuse to shame. Now, someone on another thread posited that it could be how slowly the circuit "discharges" or something technical - and he could easily be right. I don’t care. I tried it in 3 different systems and I could hear its sonic character. Which is fine: everything has at least a slight character. As long as I can identify it objectively, then I can subjectively decide if I want to keep it. But I want to be able to identify it objectively first.
So, tomorrow - oh, it’s ALREADY tomorrow - I’ll get a Blue. Well, I’ll get two, because after all, I want to make sure one component is not hiding back the Blue’s effect. And I’ll report it. By the way, the "cheap" system is an NAD C325BEE ( I have friends with the 326 and 356, so I can try the fuses in their setup, too ). A CJ ET3SE and a Classic Sixty sitting around with my Hurricanes. Nordost Frey 2 and Nola Contenders (and, let me tell you: the Nolas are one of the ONLY speakers I’ve EVER had that tell you instantly if your azimuth is off, or VTA needs tweaking). And for a $3500 pair of speakers to do that...well, the only other ones I’ve had that do that are the little Sound Dynamics RTS-3s. My WATT/Puppies/Convergent/Goldmund Memesis 9/Versa Dynamics 2.3/Goldmund Accurate/Transparent Reference/MIT (whichever speaker cable I had in 2005) didn’t even do it that easily. So, either I was lousy with room setup (sure, sure) or it was something else, I’ll never know now. Oh, did I mention I’ve given RTS-3s to three friends??? For $150 used, THEY will also immediately show a dirty needle, as a friend of mine with the NAD 326 discovered two weeks ago, when I brought over the Townshend Audio Seismic Isolation Platform for him to hear his (inexpensive) Denon turntable on. (It was eye-opening how "human" singers’ voices sounded. You could hear the nasality in Paul Simon’s voice on "I Am A Rock" as well as his bitterness (and bitterness is - in my opinion - hard to hear clearly on an audio system). So, the Blues will get around in the 30 days I have them. I hope I hate them, because I don’t want to spend the money. But if they work in these inexpensive systems, I’ll let you know. FAST. And then I’ll move them to the better system, whose provenance I ain’t sayin’. But maybe it takes a system like Frank’s to make ’em shine. And so, if it takes a $50k system to make ’em shine, then we should all know that, right? Let The Games Begin! It’ll either cost me nothin’ (by the time 30 days is up) or it’ll cost $750 for 5 of ’em. Hey, I’ll be sellin’ the old ones at really good prices. I believe we should ALL be able to enjoy music without it costing us an arm and a leg, so keep an eye out. I’ll put ’em on Audiogon for fun prices!
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