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.
Have I insisted at any point that it is impossible that anyone can hear the difference between fuses?
No. Of course not.
And yet my posts have come under invective, emotional replies, strawmen claims of absolutism and religiosity, etc.
So, no, I don't have it the wrong way around. Simply suggesting that the pro-fuse crowd's perception *could* be in error (based on well known science about human bias) is enough for many in that crowd to double down and cast aspersions at the temerity in questioning their experience.
Thanks nonoise, same to you. I'm not trying to tell you or anyone what to buy or why. I wouldn't care for someone else telling me what to buy. To each his own. I'm simply explaining my own position and rational for adjudicating what gear will get my interest or not.
I hate quoting people as certain others here have habits of "selectively quoting" that changes the context entirely but....
"I find it no problem to admit my fallibility, and when I really don’t have a high level of evidence and confidence in something. But should it be suggested to other people "hey, maybe you could be wrong...not ARE wrong...but could be wrong, like I’ve been before, and like science tells us to look out for..." then their reaction is to get upset, cast aspersions at anyone daring to challenge their experience as the Final Arbiter Of Truth!"
That to me says that you have the feeling that the pro fuse section are spitting their dummies out when it is suggested they may be wrong and absolutely cannot be hearing what they are hearing, which is not the case imho. I think it is possible some of the reactions you have encountered from some members could have been over the top for sure. And not once did I say that you were of the opinion that it was impossible for some people to hear a difference with a fuse change. Unless I misunderstood of course in which case I am sure you will swiftly correct me........
Prof It is all good I have no desire to get into deep debates or online arguements with you or anybody here. At the end of the day it is all about the music and our perception and enjoyment of the same.
Now to wit, my brand new Oppo UDP-205 has arrived so time to set it up and see what all the fuss is about if anything.
Admittedly being a bit of a philosophy junkie I'm used to extensively defending a position - not a claim of any competence on my part! - so best you don't get dragged in to that :-)
I've had both the Oppo UHD player and the Panasonic UHD player in their box for the last year, still trying to decide which one to use! (For my home theater, which will require effort to re-wire for UHD signals...hence my laziness).
By the way nobody is saying expectation bias, placebo effect or other related psychological phenomena don’t exist. But it’s extemely unlikely they explain all 75,000 positive results. Even the most obstreperous skeptic would agree with that. So that argument is probably best put to bed.
How is it hearsay? The truth is you just want them here to explain exactly how it works. I put the cookie crumb trail out for you to figure it out way back in the Black fuse thread. Ted is probably laughing that you guys still haven't figured it out.
geoffkait"By the way nobody is saying expectation bias, placebo effect or other related psychological phenomena don’t exist"
This is very true as has been shown here on multiple threads over time and in fact those who suffer the greatest from expectation bias are those who insist there is no difference and so there is no reason to test their belief! They are paralyzed against taking action, study or testing based on their closely held faith based convictions!
If you have no intention of trying the product, why bother to spend your time here? The others have mostly been proven to be pseudo-skeptics, that do not believe there is any chance of a fuse making a difference. They seem to take joy in arguing.
Those that have tried audiophile fuses and like them are happy. The responsibility for tests are solely on the skeptics and pseudo-skeptics, if they care so much about the tests. You have the tools to test Audioquest's Garth Powell's assertion that you can measure the difference of audio items by recording both, and inverting the phase on one.
The explanations of how audiophile fuses work are scattered through multiple threads, but the pseudo-skeptics disregard it all. They just want to argue and act as if they're right.
And I feel for the projects you do post-production on.
uberwaltz, I remain appreciative of your gentlemanly like demeanor, despite the fact that we are at opposite sides of the "fuse" (pun intended).
I'm happy to extend a free music download to you, available as flac or shn via download URL I would provide you via PM. No obligation, only if you find something interesting and to your liking.
If deep purple is your preference (again, pun intended), I have many more shows not even listed.
What’s with the "pseudo-skeptic" talk? Did Geoffkait mind-meld or teleport tweak you or something? One is either skeptical or not. What makes one a pseudo skeptic? Skeptical about being skeptical?
Prof=".so I don’t see any reason to spend time on this tweak vs any other. " So get off this site and stop harrassing audiophiles who like better sound through better fusing. We don't need your kind here!!
information received from other people that one cannot adequately substantiate; rumor.
I think it’s finally gotten to me when certain people here bandy about the word, hearsay. If a "fuser" (as one particular person loves to say) reports that he’s heard a difference with fuses, it’s not hearsay. If someone else were to say it without benefit of trying it, it would be hearsay, just like if someone were to say it simply can’t be, without trying it for themselves.
Sometimes, the biggest offenders are the most pious of us all.
@jay23 @jay23. I can't speak for prof but the reason I am here is to provide some balance and sanity in a thread that is sorely lacking. I remember when I was a newbie and I actually believed in all this nonsense. I would've loved to save the money that I spent on it. Yes I have tried audiophile fuses and no I did not hear any difference. If there was any difference it was so small that it could not be heard or measured.
jetter I enjoy Prof’s well thought out reasoning, regardless of any stance on fuses.
>>>It makes a lot of sense you would enjoy his posts as he comes across as if might have been high up the food chain at the James Randi Education Foundation or perhaps a disciple of Peter Aczel and Roger Modjeski. Perhaps he was an over-poster at Skeptics.com. Who knows? A colorful blend of Uber skepticism, anti tweaking, really really good grammar and home spun philosophy. 😀
analogluvr @jay23 @jay23. I can’t speak for prof but the reason I am here is to provide some balance and sanity in a thread that is sorely lacking. I remember when I was a newbie and I actually believed in all this nonsense. I would’ve loved to save the money that I spent on it. Yes I have tried audiophile fuses and no I did not hear any difference. If there was any difference it was so small that it could not be heard or measured.
>>>>>Oh, brother! They’re starting to come out of the woodwork. You know, there are some perfectly valid reasons why some audiophiles have a proclivity for getting bad results with audiophile tweaks. Shall we review those reasons? Has anyone ever heard the expression, “all thumbs?” No offense, audiogluvr.
“People would generally be much better off if they believed in too much rather than too little.” - PT Barnum
“An ordinary man has no means of deliverance.” - old audiophile axiom
“No matter how much you have in the end you would have had even more if you had started out with more.” - old audiophile axiom
It’s not really a matter of piousness per se, I’m supposing...or maybe it is, except of course that the piety is false...as it always is with these kinds of skeptics - regardless of the topic du-jour...cables, fuses, whatever.
I’m going for quite a different take here rather than confine my response to the narrowest of terms that the skeptics present...not their technical or scientific concerns - that at this point is not the problem.
The problem for me is that they are simply DEMANDING that they be helped. This for any number of reasons is quite childish behavior. I’m not concerned personally or offended by this development, nor am I in any way threatened by it, I’m just stating my overall reason for my own POV.
I happen to be a Christian by faith. That does not mean of course that fuses are my god, or that science is not real to me or any other such inane thought. As a Christian, I’m just as open to seeking the truth (the Relative truth...not the Absolute truth - which I am generally content to leave to God) as anyone else, be they atheist, agnostic or otherwise.
Arguments with the most steadfast of skeptics always bog down for the same reason.
As a Christian, and certainly among many non-Christians, the usual tendency is to try to help whenever someone asks for it...maybe especially if we feel we can see how that person can need help and/or we can see how it is that what we know may be of some use to that person. You can predict a certain amount of reciprocated good feelings when you initiate on that level.
But, when the skeptics bog down it’s because the underlying rules of engagement have changed. Again, they utterly DEMAND to understand something. They demand "proof" yet reject all proposals of it. I have simply decided to stop giving these people the time of day in such an argument.
I’ve learned by this stage in the game, that when someone crosses that line and makes the demand known, it’s always best to let them stew in their own lack of cooperation until they ultimately have no choice but to resume their own course. And when I say ’course’, I mean the larger philosophical course we are all on...that of someone actively engaged in the process of seeking answers...any answers in life, large or small. But, along that particular road, and it actually can be quite a spiritual road, if you ask me, you find two types of travelers: those are already well on their way and those who have been run into the ditch. These people in the ditch may look like they need help, but in fact they don’t. They don’t because the moment they DEMAND to be helped is the moment they take themselves off the road of being a seeker and, whether actively or inadvertently (it makes no difference which), they run Themselves into the ditch.
You will find they are more than content, adamant even, to stay there. In their minds they may think that it was somehow someone else’s fault they are in the ditch. To pass the time they may take to throwing stones at passers by, especially when they may resemble those whom they feel drove them into the ditch. But their ’Demand for help’ is, I say, actually their supreme dissatisfaction with God being acted out. Their own trek on the road of seekers has left them tired and impatient to have the universe open up to them and make enough things finally understood to them. But, they have decided in their rage and frustration to take things out on others as a deliberate protest to God himself - to hold anyone who may venture close enough to help as a kind of spiritual hostage. But, of course, God does not play this game. God is infinitely willing to allow us to stay in the ditch...for the rest of our lives if we so choose...or...for us to come to the realization, that maybe, just maybe, that judgment of God’s lack of virtue in our mind was...well, maybe just a little..uh...premature. Once the desire to be actively on the road again finally outweighs the rage, then and only then, will we be able to resume our own course, but note that it’s the return to the road of seekers itself that is the necessary act of humility before God. It is the one toll we all must pay. God does Not grant us the Right to travel on this road - He grants us the Privilege...and it’s up to each of us to remember the difference.
I have driven myself into the ditch many a time before. So have you. So has everyone else and there can be no exceptions to that. That’s just life. But, what I’m saying, as a Christian anyway, is that it is plainly not God’s intent to come to our aide when we are angry at Him (always epically wrong anyway) and that we should try to take our que from that. When people ask for help then we can help them. When they Demand it, we cannot. And besides, I have better things to do with my time. And we cannot be truly responsible for someone else’s conscience against their will, as we all each ultimately have our own judgment day to reckon with, as it should be.
Sorry for the obnoxiously long post....but there. I’ve ranted a bit.
ivan_nosnibor"It’s not really a matter of piousness per se, I’m supposing...or maybe it is...The problem for me is that they are simply DEMANDING that they be helped...I happen to be a Christian by faith. That does not mean of course that fuses are my god, or that science is not real to me or any other such inane thought. As a Christian, I’m just as open to seeking the truth (the Relative truth...not the Absolute truth - which I am generally content to leave to God) as anyone else, be they atheist, agnostic or otherwise. Arguments with the most steadfast of skeptics always bog down for the same reason...when the skeptics bog down it’s because the underlying rules of engagement have changed. Again, they utterly DEMAND to understand something. They demand "proof" yet reject all proposals of it. I have simply decided to stop giving these people the time of day in such an argument...the moment they DEMAND to be helped is the moment they take themselves off the road of being a seeker...they have decided in their rage and frustration to take things out on others as a deliberate protest to God himself...
This is a very beautifully crafted and substantially heart-felt expression of faith and belief and stands as a testimony to real faith, which needs no confirmation, substantiation or proof from anyone else that is the very basis of genuine faith. The words ivan expresses here honestly and frankly reveal a person of true and genuine faith, as opposed to the naysayers here who relatively speaking have invented they’re own faith that they cloak in their own exclusive unique and distinct interpretation of a clouded, murky, fuzzy version of "science."
That was indeed a passionate paean to faith over seeking knowledge. Clearthink's endorsement certainly makes sense, given the character of his previous replies.
That was beautifully expressed, indeed. I only meant that last line as a bit of snark, along the same lines as you expressed, as in: those with the least (or shaken) faith tend to proselytize the most, as if to make up for something lost, or lacking, in themselves.
It is very nice to see that others here also quickly recognize the great beauty in a simple expression of faith absent any proselytizing what so ever and it is may hope that perhaps some of the other members of this forum with deeply held faith may see in Ivan's proclomation an opportunity at last to express they're own faith such as, "I believe that fuses make no audible difference in a Music Reproduction System and because of this faith I see no need to test the veracity of my faith or to challenge, expect or demand that others believe as I do."
"I believe that fuses make no audible difference in a Music Reproduction System and because of this faith I see no need to test the veracity of my faith or to challenge, expect or demand that others believe as I do."
Not sure that is quite how Ivan expected his post to be interpreted but whatever.
I was wondering if you had compared the SR blue fuses to the Furutech fuses, and I guess we are talking internal fuses as in the US you dont have fuses in the wall plug like we do in the UK.
"I believe that fuses make no audible difference in a Music Reproduction System and because of this faith I see no need to test the veracity of my faith or to challenge, expect or demand that others believe as I do."
It’s pretty easy to interpret that attitude/feeling/belief/faith whatever as unsupported and unapologetic denial. I actually *believe* that denial plays a big role in many attitudes here. “You can’t prove it!” 😡 maybe it’s time for an...intervention. Deprogramming. You know, like the Branch Davidians. Whatever. 😳
So any production that works with me must be suffering.
A trajectory of reasoning only an audiophile truly passionate about fuses could muster. Thanks for that. ;-)
It has nothing to do with your thoughts on fuses. It has everything to do with the statements you have made, revealing your listening acumen. This statement does display your illogical thought process.
Do you work on commercials, games, and/or indie projects?
What’s with the "pseudo-skeptic" talk? Did Geoffkait mind-meld or teleport tweak you or something? One is either skeptical or not. What makes one a pseudo skeptic? Skeptical about being skeptical?
Geoff already explained it, and it works suitably. When someone pretends to be a skeptic, but they really have no interest in said item/subject, as they've already made up their absolute decision in their mind.
@jay23. I can't speak for prof but the reason I am here is to provide some balance and sanity in a thread that is sorely lacking. I remember when I was a newbie and I actually believed in all this nonsense. I would've loved to save the money that I spent on it. Yes I have tried audiophile fuses and no I did not hear any difference. If there was any difference it was so small that it could not be heard or measured.
So you've tried and measured the Blue fuse? If not, that makes as much sense as someone trying a fast food burger, and claiming they don't like all hamburgers.
Hello all - I think I was fully prepared to walk into a buzz saw when I checked back in here. Pleasantly shocked to see positive responses....(although I suppose those blades are being sharpened as we speak!).
Thanks for all the kind words all around!
Normally I don't go in to play the 'religion card', lol, but it seemed like I didn't hardly have any other choice in this case. My post was just really my form of push back on the most adamant forms of denial. Less virulent skepticism I might try to entertain, of course.
@nonoise
I suspected what you meant by your 'pious' comment, but everything clicked in my head just so and just seemed to give me the in I was looking for so I didn't question it too awful much.
@Clearthink,
I **think** I understand now what you mean and, yeah...that might work. I would say that leaving such an out as that for others who might not wish to follow quite so blindly might very likely be the right tone to set.
Geoff already explained it, and it works suitably. When someone pretends to be a skeptic, but they really have no interest in said item/subject, as they’ve already made up their absolute decision in their mind.
Ah I see. A clever label it would seem for one who can apparently read other’s minds to place on others if they do not drink their kool aid! I see how that works! No wonder GK loves that term so much! I did not know we had mind reader’s in these parts! Very mystical! Much like fancy fuses themselves.
Thanks for posting. Nope, I haven't tried the Furutech fuses. My first SR fuse was the Red fuse. It replaced an older HiFi Tuning fuse. That swap is what led to both fuse threads, ending here in the Blue Fuse thread.
This thread is now in its death throes, and probably not before time. At the point religion gets mentioned, a swathe of people turn off, understandably, even in Ooo Ess Aay. Seen it before. Plus too many people crying to moderators. Again, familiar pattern.
It's like this. Most, if not all, users of blue fuses report an improvement. That's either the biggest placebo con trick in the history of hi-fi, or there really is something to it. You decide. But how about trying the damn product before commenting? You know who you are.
I would not dream of stating something did not or could not work unless I had actually tried it for myself and that applies to anything not just fuses.
Now what you can do is state why you THINK they might not work based on some logic but you still cannot state they absolutely cannot work, as certain members insist , WITHOUT actually trying them.
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