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.
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.
George---the guy was impressed with the SR Blue fuse, and he went to the trouble of posting an A/B, which is more than anyone else has ever done that I can recall. And---did YOU hear the difference? That should be your first comment, but you decided to discredit the poster by casting doubt.
Yeah, I'm sure there was no "accidental" misrepresentation--any reasonably forgiving person could see this, but not you--no.
Accident or not, it’s taken even more credibility away from the notion that >$100 boutique fuses have a major impact on sound, unless it was a crusty old $2 fuse that was taken out that had seen "too many switch-on surges" and was due for replacement with the same "new" anyway.
Here we go again with the aging fuse routine, and with an added photo! If what you say is true, there'd be fuses blowing all the time with enough anecdotal accounts here to back it up, but, of course, there isn't, is there?
A fuse is like a light globe too many switch-on’s and it will bend, harden, and carbon up the filament, and then one day it will blow, always on turn on. Ever noticed how much brighter the new light globe is compared to the same old one before it blew even though they were the same wattage?? That should tell you fusers something!!
Fuses, as long as they are working, don't have an influence of the items upstream…they just don't…they're part of a protection circuit, and that's it. I'm sorry if this fact ends this discussion , but hey…we'll all be fine.
roberjerman"To paraphrase the estimable Gertrude Stein: A fuse is a fuse is a fuse ..."
It is clear from the assertion presented here in the absence of any facts or supporting material that you are what some have called here in this forum a "measurementalist" so please provide information about the double blinded testing that you have undertaken to arrive at this steadfast conclusion. Do not forget to include all the details on the test so that it can be independently verified by your fellow "measurementalists."
Thanks for the comments. Even through youtube, your comments are correct. I'd also like to add that there is more air around the instruments and voice.
I do not go here often, so I did not know there were other posts. I also do not have measuring equipment. I just turn the volume knob to the level I usually listen. Beside changing fuses, no other difference in my system. Both fuses are relatively new and have the same value. One is Bussmann, and the other Blue.
So your saying it was an accidental that the two channels weren’t recorded at the same levels, and nothing else was different? fair enough.
As you said " I do not go here often " as your minimal amount of postings show. Can I suggest then if your going to go to this sort of trouble of changing fuses, then recording, and making video’s to do an A/B to get the "gullible" to be swayed one way or another that you do so using proper test equipment to get things spot on. So then there’s no suggestion that the video is a fraudulent A/B and that then be only misconstrued as maybe shilling for SR.
George, you'll hate this, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you don't know the difference between your and you're, then in my book your opinion doesn't count at this level of debate. That's an opinion based on years' worth of online observation. Yeah that's harsh, I'm sure there will be the professionally offended along soon enough to shoot me down this way, that way or another way, but in that succinct misspelling, you told me everything I ever needed to know. You'll never get this stuff, mark my words. Genuinely no offense intended.
I love my blue fuses. In the UK, they've temporarily sold out. We're all wrong, George. You're (sp) correct. :)
I have been very happy with the black fuses, with a new amp it is going to be high time to try out a blue fuse in it. expecting good things only from prior black fuse experience.
George, please just TRY a Blue fuse for once instead of just decrying them all the time. By your own admittance many posts ago you have never actually tried one, unless this has now changed and you are basing your arguements of actual listening experience?
I have found in my audio journey throughout the years that there are PLENTY of things that defy any scientific explanation!
tel55511 posts03-14-2018 11:08amGeorge, you'll hate this, but I'm going to say it anyway. If you don't know the difference between your and you're, then in my book your opinion doesn't count at this level of debate.
Really!!, just for interest you got just 11 posts and nearly all are on fuses, your opinion and motive is in question not mine
sunshine
.
George, please just TRY a Blue fuse for once instead of just decrying them all the time.
All you guys have heard is this, nothing more nothing less.
A fuse is like a light globe too many switch-on’s and it will bend, harden, and carbon up the filament, and then one day it will blow, always on turn on. Ever noticed how much brighter the new light globe is compared to the same old one before it blew even though they were the same wattage?? That should tell you fusers something!!
Again, I will post that the most conservative, non-tweaking audio engineer/equipment manufacturer who heard the difference between "new" Littlefuses and my SR Blue fuses, immediately went home and installed circuit breakers where his fuses were located at (we have the same amps). He has no tweaks in his audio system which sounds superb. He hates any liquid treatment on contacts including TC although he will never try it. I thought the circuit breakers made a tremendous difference from the Littlefuses he previously had installed.
So, if the difference between fuse quality and circuit breakers were not so obvious, an expert in audio engineering would not have changed his equipment. But he heard it and he did it.
A definition of an expert. Someone who who used to be a squirt under pressure. Another definition of expert. Someone fifty mikes from home in a cheap suit and carrying a suitcase. 😃
Most "experts" in audio engineering I know don't give a hoot about silly magical tweaks with no basis in reality, and if you can find one who does, well, so what. All are welcome in Wonderland…I remain a believer in Littelfuse stuff because since I'm a wealthy man (!), I can afford the 2 bucks. I can say there's a lot of evidence that breakers "sound" better than fuses, but there isn't, so I won't.
The ’blowtorch’ thread over at DIY audio was and is full of audio designers. Fuses and circuit breakers were and are topics of discussion.
Circuit breakers are preferred due to their ’least’ level of sonic interference.
Fuses end up being the item of choice due to the manufacturers, not the designers. Fuses and fuse holders are much less expensive than circuit breakers.
Since one has never heard the amplifier they own with circuit breakers instead of fuses..the question remains...but as a question that is non existent, unrealized, unasked.
Thus the manufacturer saves the money or costs of 4/5/etc circuit breakers of optimum quality, per standard amplifier, as they only have to buy and install fuses and fuse holders. Fuses...which don’t have failure modes like circuit breakers might....and any circuit breaker problems (ie, unknowns, and we don't want unknowns) stay off the manufacturer's plate of after sale issues.
Gosh, one can’t help wondering what kind of reception fuse directionality gets over on the illustrious Blowtorch thread. Assuming it even comes up. 🤡 Uh, what’s it up to, 3 Million posts?
Fuses are functioning bi-directional things when they (generally) deal with an alternating current…I suppose they could pass current more aptly in one direction, but it's still a half inch teeny wire so it seems like (because it is) an irrelevant thing…2 bucks or 150 bucks…teeny…both directions…AC…so to respond to Kaity's wonderment, it really doesn't matter much if at all.
Just installed the Blues in my Atma-Sphere MP-1 mk111.3 pre-amp. There is now no noise floor. It's gone.
I did put them in backwards (not my fault). As low as the noise floor was, the base (bass) diminished slightly. I just switched them around, and wowee, fabulous clean base. Now the bad news; I need 6 more for my MA-1 amplifiers! Ouch.
And now we wait for all the science majors to tell us we are wrong and obviously tone deaf...... Way too many people hear a difference even with directionality for it to be snake oil surely even the naysayers must accept that.
uberwaltz912 posts03-15-2018 10:13am And now we wait for all the science majors to tell us we are wrong and obviously tone deaf...... Way too many people hear a difference even with directionality for it to be snake oil surely even the naysayers must accept that.
hifiman51,101 posts03-15-2018 10:47am@uberwaltz Yea, you would think so, but science is their religion and measurements their gospels. Tough to deny your deity! 😇
Every piece of hifi gear all of you own is designed using science, EE laws and measurements, then it’s listen to and any adjustments made are done again using science, EE laws and measurements!!!!
Is anybody making a graphene hat yet? Also, following the Magical tweak path is far more like religion than otherwise… some just don't care… "If people say it's fabulous but nobody can explain it with any logic that's FINE with me""…or "I don't know how it works but it makes me "feel" better"...sound familiar? George is only wrong in the sense that there are a lot of "magical" tweaks that people pay for and use that are designed with zero science…just ask the question, "How and why do Special fuses supposedly make things sound so great?" No answer has ever been coughed up by anybody. You just have to believe...
“George is only wrong in the sense that there are a lot of "magical" tweaks that people pay for and use that are designed with zero science…just ask the question, "How and why do Special fuses supposedly make things sound so great?" No answer has ever been coughed up by anybody. You just have to believe...”
>>>>Isn’t that special? The man with severe memory disorder, who knows, perhaps an injury, checks in to ask the same fake question again, for the umpty umpth time, hoping to squeeze just a little some more juice out of that used up lemon. 🍋 I place the blame squarely on the education system. Or on whatever person smashed Wolf in the head.
Georgehifi Every piece of hifi gear all of you own is designed using science, EE laws and measurements, then it’s listen to and any adjustments made are done again using science, EE laws and measurements!!!!
None are done using voodoo!!!!
>>>>>>But tweaks aren’t voodo, they use science. That’s why they work. Duh? If they didn’t work then you might make that argument. And, you can’t prove they don’t work. See? That’s the beauty of it. It’s just a lot of cheap talk.
People Do you seriously think that our little audio hobby is the ONLY area in the world where science cannot explain away everything or be followed faithfully? You really need to get out a bit........
Fake question? I expect a more reasoned response even from pseudo experts like Kaitty…head injury indeed. What I don't expect at this point after repeatedly asking about it is one of the manufacturers of "special" fuses mentioning anywhere what they were after even at the early stages of design…before implementing whatever they were planning to do with a half inch of tiny wire, they must have been thinking about how and why this might help the resolution of a system…although marketing (A fuse for 150 bucks! 30 day return policy…YEAH THAT'S IT) is likely to have come first…so my "fake" question remains unanswered regardless of Kaitty's silly unhinged and unsophisticated responses.
In these discussions it's been shown that there are engineers who've tried fuses and though they can't explain why they make an improvement, they accept it. They know more than the naysayers here, make better products than just tinkering with junk at home, read the same manuals, are better educated, and still have the ability to keep an open mind. I think that's what differentiates them from the naysaying, self described experts here.
Give me a break. Every real engineer knows extactly why these fancy fuses work. It’s the pretend engineers who don’t me the English majors. It’s not rocket science, people. Hel-loo! 🚀
"it's been shown that there are engineers who've tried fuses and though they can't explain why they make an improvement, they accept it. They know more than the naysayers here, make better products than just tinkering with junk at home, read the same manuals, are better educated, and still have the ability to keep an open mind."
So, because somebody accepts something they can't explain, they "know more" are "better educated" and have an "open mind" compared to people who either don't perceive a difference or who don't buy into the level of difference reported by others here? Give me a break....I doubt you know who is or is not "better educated" and blanket disparaging statements like that are what start the fireworks around here.
I'd say that the engineers behind PS Audio and Wyred4Sound fit that descriptor to an engineered "T".
I find it funny that when one side comes up with a better argument than the other side (who can be shown to be downright nasty), or fighting fire with fire, as it's termed, that other side gets their panties up in an uproar.
Oops, I didn't see Geoff's post about how to determine the real engineers from the pretend (?) engineers, by finding out who knows "exactly why these fancy fuses work." Sort of a present-day variation on finding out who the witches are by holding them under water.
Changing a fuse is not a tweak, if it needs to be changed, it's either one blown or two so aged because of switch on surges it’s bent up and carbonized. And just needs to be changed with the same $2 one, not a voodoo >$100 one.
For those who still refuse to "know" how an aftermarket fuse works:
HRC Fuse consists of highly heat resistant material (such as ceramic) body having metal-end caps, which is welded by silver current carrying element. The fuse body internal space is completely packed with a filling powder. The material, which has filled the insider space, may be plaster of Paris, quartz, chalk, marble, dust and cooling mediums etc. That’s why it carries normal current without overheating. The heat being produced vaporizes the silver melted element. Chemical reaction taking place between silver vapor and filling powder results in high resistance substance, which helps in quenching the arc in fuse.
and,
It clears high as well as low fault currents.
Do not deteriorate with age.
Having high-speed operation.
Provides reliable discrimination.
Require no maintenance.
Cheaper than other circuit interrupting devices with same rating.
Permit consistent performance
Fusing operation is fast without Noise and Smoke
This is from a normal site on fuses, based on years old knowledge, and available to anyone who would care to look at it. But that would be akin to actually trying it, wouldn't it?
You really are professed non technical audiophile, this has nothing whatsoever to do with audio and it's sound, it's more to do with longevity and resistance to corroding, caused by age and many switch on surges just like this.
mitch2 Oops, I didn’t see Geoff’s post about how to determine the real engineers from the pretend (?) engineers, by finding out who knows "exactly why these fancy fuses work." Sort of a present-day variation on finding out who the witches are by holding them under water.
>>>>A man should be judged by his actions not his words. But since pseudo skeptics never actionally DO anything, we’re left to judge them by their words, and I paraphrase, “Golly, I don’t know how these fancy fuses work.”
this has nothing whatsoever to do with audio and it’s sound, it’s more to do with longevity and resistance to corroding, caused by age and many switch on surges just like this
Oh, but it does, Georgie. Just think of all the money you can save by getting something like a Bussman fuse. I know that $4 is pretty heady stuff, to be sure, but it would cost less than what you’re accustomed to paying, considering how many times you’ve told us you replace those cheaper fuses.
And, you wouldn’t have the ability to show how it doesn’t age due to it’s ceramic body, but at least we’d be spared that same, boring slideshow you keep linking to. 👍
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