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.
I'll plug my audio engineer manufacturer again. His retail site is
http://www.groverhuffman.com/home His cable design is patented and it is his 100% full-time profession to design and manufacture SOTA cabling.
So George, you are going to personally attack me as did Wolf_Garcia. Saying I'm a shill or am I just gullible (which is it)? I can see that you are now an unwanted commodity on this forum. Some of your technical posts have been interesting but now you are down and dirty just like Wolf.
I have a sneaking suspicion Wolfie is just on a roll thinking he’s invisible and invincible ever since he conned the mods into reinstating some of his deleted posts. Better to let sleeping dogs lie, my Grandady use to say. 🐶 If you feed the sharks you might get bit. 🦈
These are old fuses (first two links) that have seen their day, with too many switch-on surges, all you have to do is replace them with quality $2 fuses from the third/fourth links, forget spending $100’s on BS fuses.
Quality "LittleFuses" for $2 which were the chosen fuse for the NASA’s Gemini space program or you can pay a little more for the German "Schurter".
>>>>Whoa! What? The Gemini space program? That’s almost 60 years ago. Hel-loo! Hey, maybe those archaic fuses are what caused the fire that killed the 3 Apollo Program astronauts down in Cape Canaveral. Obvious NASA uses very advanced fuses now, have been for a long time, as I pointed out the other day, just like advanced audiophiles. Obviously no one can stop someone from using 60 year old technology if they are bound and determined.
thecarpathian, your post is very funny. Geoff’s response is on the dizzying side, never the less, with the proper rehab I do hope his little finger is going to be ok.
Apparently I have ESP. All I have to do is mention pseudo skeptic or superstitious witch hunter somewhere and jitter pops up. It’s uncanny! 😬 Did they lift the ban on stalking or something?
Hate to tell you, this proves nothing, this NOT the site of an Electronic Engineer. The guy has probably/maybe? done what my 16 year son did, in Australia, it's a 2 month course to give him the very basic licence (if he has one) to make up power cables and that's about it. If he doesn't have this basic licence they are illegal and very dangerous, and in Australia sue-able.
All the other stuff he makes and sells even you can do it with zero licencing and knowledge, all you need is know how to hold a soldering iron
Grover has a ream of testimonials which include Steve Hoffman's using his cables in one of his mastering rooms and some of Warner Bros. Records executives use a full supply of his cables for their home use. What testimonials and major recordings executives use your equipment?
Grover has designed amps, pre-amps, phono stages all using voltage regulation rather than triode or ultralinear transformer outputs. Not unique but rare. Also all manner of electronics including tubed phono step ups, high end power junction boxes, modifications to existing tube gear.
Georgelofi has infiltrated other forums I'm on such as
We Need A Separate Forum for Fuses and
I'm not dreaming - these are great CD copies, where he keeps repeating the same mantra with the same jpg.
You did Grover no favours using him to back up your BS, in fact you may have harmed him, he's just trying to make a quite buck on in his twilight years. It shows from his website you posted up as proof to your BS, that you have no idea what so ever what constitutes a qualified Electronic Engineer. So what if he applied for a patent in 2006 we did also, it means nothing credibility wise anyone can do it, maybe you'd have a little cred if it made him rich and famous like a Nelson Pass John Curl, D'Agostino ect.
Give up the fuse snake oil superlatives and direction wonderment you sprout forth with gay abandon. It's just not possible, it's an AC main fuse that has a change of direction going through it 60 times a second, so it can possibly be directional, IMPOSSIBLE!!!
I installed a new SR Blue fuse in my Grover CD player this morning. While I was playing music afterward, I noticed something was a little off. The sound was good, but I had lost that pinpoint imaging. I took the cover off of the player and reversed the fuse. Walla ... everything snapped into focus. It was more musical, more three dimensional, more organic and much more enjoyable.
To call the proper direction of a fuse BS, is in fact BS.
Again Georgie ... find another site. In case you've missed it, folks around here aren't laying down for your egotistical rants anymore. SCRAM!
"Snake oil" it’s impossible for an AC (alternating current 60 x a second) mains fuse to be directional. You were taught that in Basic Electronics, but then you probably weren't taught anything. Cheers George
Whoa! I just got a real bad feeling. George has been arguing til he’s blue in the face all this time without knowing what fhe word directionality even means. By his own words he obviously doesn’t know what it means. George, George, George of the Jungle, look out for that tree! 🌲 🦍
George Unfortunately I have zero respect for any of your posts on this subject simply because you have absolutely refused to try a SR fuse yourself. So EVERYTHING you say is based in , well nothing really. There is NO WAY you can state any high end aftermarket fuse cannot work when you have not tried them, and refuse to do so. And PLEASE stop with the EE crap all day every day, it means NOTHING. I am a fully qualified electrical engineer in the field of industrial electronics involving 1000hp plus motors/drives and all associated wiring etc, a field I have been resident in for more than 18 years now. Equipment we deal with on a daily basis runs 3 to 10 million dollars worth and has to perform 24/7/365 so you better believe I know what the hell I am doing with it!
But it has got absolutely diddley squat to do with this field of expertise and I fully understand that and do not waste my time being a blow hard on the matter.
Just put up or shut up.
Try an SR Blue fuse and then come back and spout, until then go away and take all your unfounded negativity with you.
Uberwaltz, I thought you had mentioned in an earlier post that you’re an electrical engineer. I believe that George brings up EE as a means of adding clout to his point of view just as he repeatedly invokes D’Agostino, Nelson Pass, John Curl etc. As has been accurately pointed out(Geoff) is an appeal to authority to boost his argument (and stature). Listening to an upgrade/premium fuse would be pointless for anyone so dogmatic. Their Negative outcome expectation bias would be overwhelming. Listening requires an open mind approach and no strong preconceived ideas stubbornly held. EE or not you have to be impartial and just listen to an audio product. Surely there will be varying degrees of listener results but this would apply to any audio product, and not exclusively limited to fuses. Charles
Charles. I would likely agree it would be a waste of time for George to actually listen, which is a real shame. Such dogmatic closed mind negativity is really not needed or indeed wanted in these forums I fear.
I see he has taken the same b.s. over to another fuse thread. Not quite sure just why he seems to have such huge angst over a simple matter. You either hear a difference or you do not, it is NOT rocket science....lol.
Grover Huffman knows more about electronics in his 68 years than an idiot named George. He has a patent on his cable, do you? He's so intelligent, he wrote the patent himself, without an attorney and is was granted after only minor revision from the patent office. Who are you anyway? What profession are you in? How many degrees from higher education do you have? Get off this forum you troll!!
Possibly unlike other "naysayers" I actually did an extensive test of a pile of SR fuses and found them to be both slightly dangerous (not rated properly, so a couple of them blew), and ineffective, providing not only none of the astonishing benefits described in the avalanche of hyperbole provided by the sales team, but, when they were in my system, my testing both directions over weeks, the sound wasn't even a micro dot better than my trusty Littelfuse (or whatever fuse was provided in the gear I own.) products. Also, the question remains: Why would a fuse have an effect on the performance of electronic components anywhere else in the circuit? It's a fuse…tiny wire designed to melt if necessary…Note that the advocates of these things have paid the money and are listening real hard to see if they've made a $150 mistake, then claiming astonishment at the sonic improvements, or they're simply big fans of left field pseudo tweaks and think, for example, that all of the SR stuff magically fixes what I can only guess are imagined issues. Obviously those claiming huge improvement from inexplicable tweaks need a support group so they don't regret joining the club, and that's only natural as many of us are insecure in some way, and I don't doubt their sincerity…I do however have some faith in the reasonable world of the more rational audio geek, as questionable tweaks prove their worth through years of being mostly ignored and shrugged off by those without a sales agenda or a propensity to fall for inexplicable hype. Geoffkait will gladly provide a laundry list of those tweaks so anybody can see how they've failed over time, and how clearly the market has responded by letting these things remain on the fringe instead of being universally accepted as something that actually works.
Wolf At least you tried them and I respect that and the fact that to your ears there was no sonic change. As I have previously stated in our little hobby $150 is not even chump change and with a 30 day return policy there really is zero monetary expectation bias. Of course we expect to hear something based on it being considered an upgrade and the reports of others here AND elsewhere. My last SR black fuse I was given by a fellow member after he upgraded to a SR Blue so even less monetary expectation bias there. And all I will say is that I know what I hear and trust me my hearing is still very good!
Now if we were talking about $5k upgrades your argument would likely carry more weight but $150 with a 30 day return policy? Lets get real here....
Even if my mind was being deceived by the horror of "wasting" $150, compared to some of the money I have really wasted in this hobby I would still be a very happy camper.
Uberwaltz, Remember from George’s point of view he’s on a noble mission to protect the gullible and ignorant from the money grubbing snake oil shysterswho have the temerity to advocate upgrade fuses. So I can see from his point of reference he is in fact doing the good deed.
Regarding EE background I know there are those such as you who despite formal EE education can however appreciate that there’re things heard that can’t always be fully explained. A recognition that science/engineering is ever evolving but can’t account for "every" human observation(At least not yet).
Others with your same degree/training seem to take the stance that if you can’t measure it, then it’s nonsense or nonexistent. Charles
Charles. Some salient points there my friend. I actually think it is because of my knowledge and training that I can and do keep an open mind regardless of what pure science tells me.
We often describe my area of industry as still being a "black art" as even to this day things occur that none of us(myself and my fellow engineers) can explain or at times truly understand.
37 years in the same trade and still learning every day.
I’m afraid these things never seem to work for the obstreperous “skeptics,”you know, like Wolfman, Moops and gdhal. My guess is they psyched themselves out, but I’m not a psychiatrist so who the heck knows.
150.00 is a lot of money "if" a 50 cent part provided the same level of performance. 150.00 is money very well spent if it provided a noticeable sonic improvement in one’s audio system. So for Wolf it’s the former and for me, uberwaltz, Frank, grannyring et al, its the latter.
Both outcomes are legitimate. The person who hears no difference is no more or less credible than those who can hear an improvement. I don’t understand why this is hard for some to accept. People of equal credibility can and will have different results with the same audio product.
Geoff I was referring to "my" industry( meaning my workplace) being a black art, not fuses, tweaks et al, although it does seem rather fitting...lol Or maybe now it should be referred to as a "blue art"?
Uberwaltz, Your attitude is actually a reflection of the scientific method in that there is a search for explanation and realizing that there is much we do not understand. I've noticed on audio forums that those who maintain a rigid objectionist position (I'm only about measurements/specifications) based on science. They ironically miss the essence and spirit of scientific curiosity and it's inevitable humbling effect. These particular types of objectivist like to portray themselves as the "smart" one's on the forum with their dogma. In reality it's often the opposite, rigidity is restrictive in my observation. Charles
After trying and keeping the SR Black Duplex and Blue Fuse, I gave a try to their HFT system. Since that worked based on a mix of 32 of them (and not on the speaker face), I tried their Blackbox and Atmosphere XL4. The Blackbox placed unlike where the instructions indicate "at least 3" from a wall) turned out to be great placed 6’ from the front wall in front of the plane of the speakers. The Atmosphere is the most expensive tweak of the above mentioned and does not add as much value as that as the other tweaks; however, it does add to all of them and I can afford it.
I recommend the duplex and fuse tweaks first unless you have an unruly acoustic room problem. Then the HFT system is very, very important. For me, it eliminated many acoustic panels and other room acoustic controls.
So, people are finally realising what a waste of time and space George is, as I've previously said. Uneducated does as uneducated is. Trust me, George is just the latest vindication of a well-trodden path of no-marks trying to be relevant. He won't be the last.
To wolf_garcia though, two things. I call BS on your claims of extensive testing. You know it's not true, we all do. By all means have your retort and claim this that or whatever, but YOU have not done extensive testing with SR Blue fuses, I don't care what you say. Just humour me if you need to respond on this particular point, but please don't try and vindicate the claims. Insult me if you have to, I really couldn't care less, but you are talking BS, plain and simple. Or to use posh language, projection.
On the point you *keep* making about a fuse's function though, can we just get one thing straight. Nobody here, as far as I know, is disputing a fuse's function. Nobody. Got that? Nobody. We all know it's supposed to - to use one of your favourite words - melt, to protect the circuit. We get that. Each time you say it again, myself and many others will be saying "we get that".
It's not a fuse's *function* we're analysing here. If you dogmatically keep saying that a fuse is a fuse is a fuse, then essentially you're saying that all metals are the same. A gold wired fuse is, to use your logic, the same as a zinc fuse. It's just protecting the circuit, right? Think about what you're saying. Really stop and think. A fuse has to be made from an electrical conductor. A paper fuse doesn't work. So to say that a fuse CANNOT make a difference is saying that gold is the same as silver is the same as graphene is the same as nickel is the same as zinc is the same as aluminium etc etc. And guess what, wolf, all metals ain't the same. I just don't get how this really basic, elementary fact seems to escape you. I just don't get it. Have you latched onto this "melting" thing to such an extent that you can't see the wider implication of the statement?
I do look forward to having my post dissected and humoured. But in amongst it, maybe try and see this from the converteds' point of view. The price of a fuse to me is inconsequential. If it didn't make any difference, I'd use the 30 day money back guarantee without a second thought, trust me. I've sent products back before and I'd do it again, in a heartbeat. An awful lot of us must be deluding ourselves according to you and a few others. Maybe they work better in some set-ups than others, who knows. But wolf, trust me, really trust me, they can and DO make the sound different in the right application. Cheers.
Hey, whaddya know? He’s your opposite. You’re the maximum poster with lightweight opinions and nearly every post having to do with these ”snake oil” fuses. See, it all evens out! 😳
I have chosen not to participate in this thread until now, aside from a single post some time ago in which I responded to a factual question, because I have not felt that I have had anything of a constructive nature to contribute. However I now feel compelled to respond to the following comment:
tel555 4-2-2018 To wolf_garcia though, two things. I call BS on your claims of extensive testing. You know it’s not true, we all do. By all means have your retort and claim this that or whatever, but YOU have not done extensive testing with SR Blue fuses, I don’t care what you say.
First, to set the record straight, Wolf has never claimed to have done any testing with Blue fuses. The lengthy report he provided about his testing some time ago, in another thread, involved SR Black fuses.
More significantly, having read and participated in countless discussions over the years in which Wolf has provided inputs that have been informative, useful, and uniquely and enjoyably humorous, I for one have no doubt whatsoever as to the sincerity or honesty of his posts regarding fuses. Or regarding anything else for that matter. And, frankly, regardless of one’s beliefs about the efficacy of fuse upgrades, I consider it to be the height of arrogance for a member who has been here for only three months, and has a very minimal posting history, to provide such an insulting comment about a long-time member whose lengthy history of posts about non-fuse subjects has been widely respected and appreciated.
When the law is on your side, you argue the law. When the facts are on your side, you argue the facts. When neither are on your side, you pound the table.
I consider it to be the height of arrogance for a member who has been here for only three months, and has a very minimal posting history, to provide such an insulting comment about a long-time member whose lengthy history of posts about non-fuse subjects has been widely respected and appreciated.
Regards, -- Al
+1 Al And there are a few of them like this, if you look.
Insults are a sign of respect for older members. They should not be taken lightly. When I insult someone think of it as a show of respect. The greater the insult the greater the respect. I would complain too much if you thanked me for insulting you. I further submit we divide inmates into two groups, Chronics and Acutes, you know, like in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
definitions
The Chronics are made up of patients who are considered incurable and will probably be in the ward for the rest of their lives. Chief is included in this category. The Chronics are further subdivided into the Walking Chronics, the Wheelers (those in wheelchairs), and the Vegetables (those who are essentially brain dead).
The Acutes are made up of patients who are seen to be "curable." These men include McMurphy, Harding, Cheswick, Billy, and others. ... It is this group, led by McMurphy, that challenges Nurse Ratched’s authority.
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