I have 15 blacks in my system so the thought of changing them all out is a bit challenging. I did bite the bullet however and swap in 3, two in my VTL monoblocks and one in my pre-amp. Definitely an improvement. The Blues make the Blacks sound "blousy" (i.e. rather blown out and romanticized). At first you might think bass is diminished and there's less sparkle but what it seems to me is that there is a more even and natural presentation -- if your system tends towards the "laid back" the Blacks may be a better fit. Overall a worthwhile change and in the context of tweaks very cost effective. I'm simultaneously upgrading all the shelves in my system to Marigo composites away from acrylic and while this has a greater impact then these fuse changes the cost is many times more.
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 9 responses by folkfreak
Just wanted to add some more comments now I have a good week on my Blue fuses. Further to my first impressions I wanted to expand on what I think the Blues do that is quite distinct and unexpected. This is in the context of using 3 Blues in my pre-amp and power amps, all other fuses are SR Blacks As I previously noted the Blues at first listen seem more reserved, more polite, more laid back then the Blacks. Bass seems less dynamic and treble less crisp. But spend some time and listen in and what you realize is that the frequency range is still there and what is really happening is that the individual notes and sounds are not leaping out and drawing attention to one another as they were before but are much more part of the whole. The Blues seem to excel in an area of reproduction that is getting very important to me — that of “continousness” by which I mean the natural ease in which a vocal line, or violin passage, flows from one note, from one breath, from one bow movement, to the next without interruption or glitch. I’m hearing the same profound change in introducing a step up into my LP system and once you start listening to it it’s something that’s very addictive. As the Blues are the only change on my digital side I have to think they are playing to this aspect of reproduction. Now I’m not able to know why a fuse might do this — maybe it’s removing some minute chokes in the ebb and flow of power — whatever, I just wouldn’t go back. To some extent it’s the antithesis of “hi-fi” (i.e. flashy, attention getting etc) but if this sort of flow (which seems very Csikszentmihalyi) is appealing to you then give the Blues a try — you might learn to love them |
@oregonpapa yes “seamlessness” could equally well describe it @tommylion my system is primarily tubes but while this may help I suspect achieving this level of overall continuity may be less down to one component and more down to removing smear and micro dynamic limitations at every stage of the system |
@imgoodwithtools quick question -- which tuning bullets do you prefer with your Galileo LE speaker cables? If you are running the grey bullets the blacks will probably be a better match as the grey's have less sparkle and HF extension, the combination with the Blue fuse may then be too much. Arguably the silvers are more true to life, but can in many systems sound etched. This was certainly my experience until I dealt with a lot of other noise and vibration issues in my system -- I started off with the grey bullets and then over time moved to the silver. All in all the tonal shifts we are experiencing are all well within the envelope of historic SR products Now Ted if only you could be consistent in aligning the colors of SR products with the tonal shifts they produce 😇 ! |
Regarding measuring the impact of fuses directly it strikes me that this method may be worth trying -- taken from an interview with the designer of AQ power cords and conditioners
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@prof the link to testing methodology is in this post of mine https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/the-new-synergistic-research-blue-fuses/post?postid=1545319#1... |