I have replaced 6 Blacks with Blues so far and all sounded best in the same direction as the Blacks did.
Dave
Dave
The new Synergistic Research BLUE fuses ....
New SR BLUE fuse thread ...
I’ve replaced all 5 of the SR BLACK fuses in my system with the new SR BLUE fuses. Cold, out of the box, the BLUE fuses stomped the fully broken-in SR BLACKS in a big way. As good as the SR BLACK fuses were/are, especially in comparison with the SR RED fuses, SR has found another break-through in fuses.
1. Musicality ... The system is totally seamless at this point. Its as if there is no system in the room, only a wall to wall, front to back and floor to ceiling music presentation with true to life tonality from the various instruments.
2. Extension ... I’ve seemed to gain about an octave in low bass response. This has the effect of putting more meat on the bones of the instruments. Highs are very extended, breathing new life into my magic percussion recordings. Vibes, chimes, bells, and triangles positioned in the rear of the orchestra all have improved. I’ve experienced no roll-off of the highs what so ever with the new BLUE fuses. Just a more relaxed natural presentation.
3. Dynamics ... This is a huge improvement over the BLACK fuses. Piano and vibes fans ... this is fantastic.
I have a Japanese audiophile CD of Flamenco music ... the foot stomps on the stage, the hand clapping and the castanets are present like never before. Want to hear natural sounding castanets? Get the BLUE fuses.
4. Mid range ... Ha! Put on your favorite Ben Webster album ... and a pair of adult diapers. Play Chris Connor singing "All About Ronnie," its to die for.
Quick .... someone here HAS to buy this double album. Its a bargain at this price. Audiophile sound, excellent performance by the one and only Chris Connor. Yes, its mono ... but so what? Its so good you won’t miss the stereo effects. If you’re the lucky person who scores this album, please post your results here.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRASONIC-CLEAN-The-Finest-Of-CHRIS-CONNOR-Bethlehem-Jazz-1975-NM-UNPLAYED-...
Overall impressions:
Where the RED fuses took about 20 hours to sound their best, and the BLACK fuses took upwards of 200 hours of total break-in, the BLUE fuses sounded really good right out of the box ... and that’s without doing anything about proper directional positioning. Not that the BLUE fuses don’t need breaking in, they do. The improvement continues through week three. Its a gradual break-in thing where each listening session is better than the last.
Everything I described above continues to break new ground in my system as the fuses continue breaking in. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to tear myself away from the system in order to get things done. Its truly been transformed into a magical music machine. With the expenditure of $150.00 and a 30 day return policy there’s really nothing to lose. In my system, its like upgrading to a better pre amp, amp, CD player or phono stage. Highly recommended.
Kudos to Ted Denney and the entire staff at SR. Amazing stuff, guys. :-)
Frank
PS: If you try the SR BLUE fuses, please post your results here. Seems the naysayers, the Debbie Downers and Negative Nellie’s have hijacked the original RED fuse thread. A pox on their houses and their Pioneer receivers.
Frank
I’ve replaced all 5 of the SR BLACK fuses in my system with the new SR BLUE fuses. Cold, out of the box, the BLUE fuses stomped the fully broken-in SR BLACKS in a big way. As good as the SR BLACK fuses were/are, especially in comparison with the SR RED fuses, SR has found another break-through in fuses.
1. Musicality ... The system is totally seamless at this point. Its as if there is no system in the room, only a wall to wall, front to back and floor to ceiling music presentation with true to life tonality from the various instruments.
2. Extension ... I’ve seemed to gain about an octave in low bass response. This has the effect of putting more meat on the bones of the instruments. Highs are very extended, breathing new life into my magic percussion recordings. Vibes, chimes, bells, and triangles positioned in the rear of the orchestra all have improved. I’ve experienced no roll-off of the highs what so ever with the new BLUE fuses. Just a more relaxed natural presentation.
3. Dynamics ... This is a huge improvement over the BLACK fuses. Piano and vibes fans ... this is fantastic.
I have a Japanese audiophile CD of Flamenco music ... the foot stomps on the stage, the hand clapping and the castanets are present like never before. Want to hear natural sounding castanets? Get the BLUE fuses.
4. Mid range ... Ha! Put on your favorite Ben Webster album ... and a pair of adult diapers. Play Chris Connor singing "All About Ronnie," its to die for.
Quick .... someone here HAS to buy this double album. Its a bargain at this price. Audiophile sound, excellent performance by the one and only Chris Connor. Yes, its mono ... but so what? Its so good you won’t miss the stereo effects. If you’re the lucky person who scores this album, please post your results here.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRASONIC-CLEAN-The-Finest-Of-CHRIS-CONNOR-Bethlehem-Jazz-1975-NM-UNPLAYED-...
Overall impressions:
Where the RED fuses took about 20 hours to sound their best, and the BLACK fuses took upwards of 200 hours of total break-in, the BLUE fuses sounded really good right out of the box ... and that’s without doing anything about proper directional positioning. Not that the BLUE fuses don’t need breaking in, they do. The improvement continues through week three. Its a gradual break-in thing where each listening session is better than the last.
Everything I described above continues to break new ground in my system as the fuses continue breaking in. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to tear myself away from the system in order to get things done. Its truly been transformed into a magical music machine. With the expenditure of $150.00 and a 30 day return policy there’s really nothing to lose. In my system, its like upgrading to a better pre amp, amp, CD player or phono stage. Highly recommended.
Kudos to Ted Denney and the entire staff at SR. Amazing stuff, guys. :-)
Frank
PS: If you try the SR BLUE fuses, please post your results here. Seems the naysayers, the Debbie Downers and Negative Nellie’s have hijacked the original RED fuse thread. A pox on their houses and their Pioneer receivers.
Frank
Showing 27 responses by dlcockrum
Hi Frank, I just replaced the SR Black fuse with a Blue in my Ayre preamp’s external power supply and agree with your description of the differences in sound character between the two. Another level of transparency and perhaps a bit more tonally balanced in the mids. Biggest difference to me is the bass, especially acoustic bass. Always felt the Black to be a tad loose in the bass and the Blue trues that up while adding much more air. Bass seems to have audibly better lower extension with the Blue. Dave |
Thanks Frank. I will get that set on order. :) If you are doing hi-rez downloads, Tony Overwater’s acoustic bass on this album is pretty awesome: https://soundliaison.com/studio-showcase-series/139-impromtu-all 33% off right now if you use coupon code: Indian Summer on the checkout page. I did not intend to cast dispersions on the Black Fuse as I always found it to be excellent (and still do). The improvement in bass quality is remarkable with the Blue fuse as you say and invites such criticisms in comparison. I, like you, have spent countless hours optimizing speaker/listener placement, room acoustics, cabling, vibration elimination, component matching, RF/EMI reduction, and started with a very good room so it is easy to hear exactly the sound characteristics of each fuse. I do believe that combining SR fuses with SR's power cords results in a synergy that may not be as pronounced with other power cords. Your thoughts? I replaced the Black fuse in my DAC’s external power supply with a second Blue fuse a couple of hours ago and there is further improvement in transparency, razor sharp dynamic response, and a distinct lowering of the noise floor. Brass has that illusive live energy rarely experienced with an audio system. Awesome. Dave |
Agree with you tools re: the amp being the least benefited by boutique fuses. My theory is that the current is less constrained in an amp that uses, say, an 8 amp fuse than source and preamp which typically draw 1 to 3 amps max so the latter benefits more from whatever it is that these fuses do to the AC signal. Kinda like the magnitude of sound character differences often found between top phono sections vs top preamps due to the minute signal involved in the former.Only a theory and no I don’t have a clue how to measure it. I also find it easy to believe that some find other brands of fuses to better suit their component, system, preferences. My experience is that while the SR products in general can approach sonic magic, they share a tonal lean-ness in the mids that can exacerbate the same tendency in a system. If the system has an over-wrought midrange warmth or tubbiness in the mid-to-lower midrange, the SR stuff is helpful to balance it out. I don’t see the SR Black or Blue fuses doing a lean/bright system any favors musically compared to say HiFi Tuning, Audio Horizons, Beeswax or other proven audio-grade fuses. I truly wish that there was more discussion on the contrast of sound character between brands instead of the intentionally unwinnable and emotional mass media-style arguments regarding their efficacy. The next big craze should be mixing and matching... Dave |
Frank, I do remember the Magnan IV ICs. Stereophile A rated for many years back when that actually meant something :) I am slowly but surely moving on past my SR active Tesla ICs and speaker cables (recently replaced my 7 year old Tesla Precision Reference speaker cables with Cerious Graphene Extremes and am very pleased - thanks ozzy and wig), but have yet to hear better power cords than the SRs in my system. Even the older X2 and Tesla SE active power cords are quite good and the Element CTS Digital power cable is superb, all improved significantly by Michael Spallone’s MPC upgrades. From what I have read and heard from owner friends, the Atmosphere Level 3 cord you have is among the very best two or three out there, adding a dose of refinement and musicality never offered by SR’s previous power cords, good as they are IMO. Hoping to get the Atmosphere Level 3 as the feeder AC cord when I upgrade my Powercell 10 UEF/FEQ to the 12 UEF... Dave |
Thanks Frank. I will check that one out.This one is pretty incredible on Audioquest: https://www.amazon.com/Old-Songs-Bennie-Wallace/dp/B000N0LIUI I have the LP and can vouch for it sonically. Haven’t heard the CD but Audioquest recordings are always top drawer. Dave |
Frank, Interesting thing about the Conte Condoli All Stars album. Tidal has two versions: one with cover art that has the "Crown Records" emblem on the lower left hand corner and another with cover art showing "Masters of Jazz" and "The Ultimate Jazz Collection" which I assume to be a remaster (released in 2011). The latter sounds cleaner with more detail and air compared to the former. Great music either way. :) Here’s another Conte Candoli remaster that sounds really good if a wee bit too warm on the bottom, but no extreme panning of instruments to the left and right on this stereo version: http://us.napster.com/artist/conte-candoli/album/toots-sweet-remastered-2014 I think this one is also a gem of 1960 "West Coast" jazz: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/art-pepper-presents-west-coast-sessions-vol-6-shelly-manne-cd/33402341.p?skuId=33402341 Dave |
After replacing the Blacks with the Blues in my preamp’s and DAC’s external power supplies two days ago, I completely agree with folkfreak’s description of the sound character differences between the two and also with Frank that the Blues require time to settle before sounding their best (mine may not be completely there yet) yet the Blues did not go through the wild ups and downs that I experienced for several days after initially installing the Blacks. The sonic differences between the Black and the Blue remind me in many ways of the differences between the better copper cables vs the better silver cables, respectively. Dave |
bdp24, I’m not equating the two in any other way, but the sonic effect of effective room treatment on bass response has a very similar result of creating the perception of new ultra-low frequency bass response. That latter was, of course, there before, just masked by over-wrought mid-bass frequencies in the untreated room. The Blue is voiced differently than the Black in the bass and creates a similar perception. And I completely agree with jkuc that the weakness of the SR fuses is timbre, thus the earlier suggestion to experiment with mixing and matching brands to achieve the best balance of benefits from the different voicing/sound character of each. Dave |
Nonoise, Other than being a genuinely nice guy yourself, what duty of courtesy or respect is due someone that intentionally interjects the same old inflammatory insults to others’ judgement and sensibilities despite being asked Frankly (pun intended) in the OP to refrain from exactly that activity? Dave |
Lak, I found it best to start at the preamp with both the Black and the Blue fuses. The source may give more pronounced results from that one source, but the preamp is in the signal path of all sources and these fuses make a substantial difference there (more than the amplifier IME) in order to judge whether or not the change is your preference for all sources before proliferating the change to other components. Dave |
Hey Frank, Here is one of my all-time favorites for late-night listening: https://www.amazon.com/Plays-Debussy-Jacques-Loussier/dp/B00004Y6SM Fantastic acoustic bass performance IMO and the sound quality is spectacular throughout. A must have. Dave |
Tommylion, I have replaced all Blacks with Blues and, as folkfreak predicted, the Blues are not better than the Blacks in some components IME. Can be too laid back in the highs depending on the component, or just that mixing them gives a better overall result. Try replacing one at a time as you are doing, listen, and be objective before deciding on a victor. Dave |
The Blue did not work well at all in my ModWright 9.9 power supply. Lost all sparkle in the highs with a reduction in dynamics in the upper mids compared to the Black. HiFi Tuning Supreme Copper (Cu) is an amazing fuse as lalitk has stated. Ridiculously good in the MW power supply and better than the Blacks in my Aurender. Higher energy fuse that adds real-life rhythm, pace, and dynamics and moves the soundstage forward without losing depth and layering when used in combination with the Blacks and/or Blues. The Blues are the clear victor over the Blacks in my SS DAC, pre, and amp. Have not yet tried the HFT Copper there. Mixing and matching baby, that’s where it’s at! Dave |
+1 csmgolf. Good to see that others are wise to his know-it-all/know-nothing nonsense. shadorne has spent the whole year pissing on others’ equipment and ridiculing everything he has never heard. Let’s all hope the new year brings some humility and enlightenment his way. One Julian Hirsch was more than enough. Dave |