Photons, charged particles, and light....what's not to like?
This stuff is more fun than finding a Higgs boson
No wonder fuses cost so much...
This stuff is more fun than finding a Higgs boson
No wonder fuses cost so much...
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
2,978 responses
Quantum is a trigger word. Yet there are audio tweaks based on quantum mechanics, especially if you count all the PWB Electronics stuff, you know, the Quantum Clip, the Silver Rainbow Foil, the Red X Pen, etc. Heck, even the CD laser is a quantum mechanical device. Hel-loo! I have 5 or 6 quantum mechanical devices in my line up. If more people understood quantum mechanics there wouldn’t be so much hate in the world. The only thing to fear is fear itself. 🤡 |
Typical sales jargon when selling to audiophiles, first be sure to include the word “quantum” in any context whatsoever, and then dumb things down with an analogy to some unrelated physical phenomenon....like water in a pipe, a dirty pane of glass wiped clean or, indeed, the wave at a football game - that certainly reassures me that my $160 would be well spent. At least they stuck to the game plan.....if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. |
Someone should probably help SR out on the how electricity works portion of their description of the new Orange fuse. To whit, “Today physicists understand electrons don’t flow at all but rather propagate in a wave of energy that moves along a conductor with a multitude of factors that alters this wave at the quantum level. To understand how electricity travels without electrons ever leaving their respective atoms it is helpful to consider the spectator ‘wave’ at a football match. Even though you can clearly see a wave pattern moving from spectator to spectator as fans raise and then lower their hands (without hands jumping from one person to the next), so too does electricity ‘move’ without electrons ever leaving their atoms.“ |
Well they are here, Orange is the new Blue. Available for $159.95. https://www.synergisticresearch.com/fuses/orange-fuse/ |
To all of the SR Blue Fuse guys ... After two years of using the SR Blue fuses, I've been trying something much better. The prototype fuses currently under testing are now fully broken in. They are the best yet by far. So, heads up ... this is your advance notification. They should be on the market sometime around the middle of this month. Price and manufacturer to be announced. Frank |
I wanted to thank those that read, and responded, to my unfortunate amplifier / fuse story. I did not want to change the direction of this thread, which is a positive one, indicating that a superior built fuse, as small and simple as it might seem, can, and does, make starling improvements in sq, in every device they are installed in. Enjoy ! MrD. |
Thanks, uber.....This ADA thing happened a few months back, but thought I would bring it up now. Unlike speaker fuses and their holders, which I admittedly, bypass often on some older gear, I will never bypass the mains fuse ( fire, danger, etc ). The amp weighs 70 lbs, and I am just not looking forward to lifting it again, at this point. The holder is above the board, and this board is not easy to get to ( at least, not easy for me ). The holder, although loose, is still somehow connected to the board. This is better left to a local ( central FL ), capable technician, who has a strong back, with proper lifting techniques, lol. For an amplifier that retailed at $4K, and is built extremely well, imo, it is a stupid thing to have happened. Enjoy ! MrD. |
Please read to the end. Changing a fuse, not a happy ending. So, I wanted to go another level in my fuse upgrade, on a particular amplifier of mine ( I have many amplifiers ). In this particular case, an ADA PF 2501. Has been working fine for months now, but decided to upgrade to a new, better fuse. Anyway, pushing in slightly, and turning the rear fuse holder 1/4 turn, counter clockwise ( generally all that is needed ), the actual fuse holder appeared loose, and it now had play. Did not think anything of it, as I have upgraded the fuse once before, many years ago. Plugged the amp back in, and nothing. Put the prior fuse in, and nothing. Disconnected the amp, moved the amp to my table ( not easy for me anymore ), opened her up, and noticed the fuse holder was directly mounted to the power supply circuit board, and was now broken loose from it. Too much for me to handle. Called a few local shops in my area, but no one wants to work on it, as I had explained to them the situation. So, this upgradetitus I seem to have ( I am in good company here ), has giving me a very good boat anchor. These ADA amplifiers bring very little money, and when I had gotten it, I got it at a deal, from a customer upgrading his entire system ( a wealthy New Yorker ). Unit was like new, as I had originally installed it. It still is like new. Not a terrible loss. Anyway, I have a question. I have opened many amplifiers throughout my time, to do mods, upgrades, and such. This is the 1st amplifier I ever opened, to my recollection, that has the main power fuse holder, mounted directly to a circuit board, instead of the rear, front, or an internal chassis panel. Anyone have experience with other designs such as this ? Based on my experience here, I think it to be a stupid design, although I understand the " shorter signal path " thing. BTW, I have opened this amp before, as I isolated the HUGE toroidal from the chassis, and never gave this fuse holder design, a 2nd thought. Thank you very much, and...Enjoy ! MrD. |
@sorlowski Your findings are pretty much in line with mines. Actually, I have first installed a Blue one for the main fuse (the one you can change at the back of the amplifier) about 4 months ago and it made a change very similar to what you experienced. See my earlier posts. Ever since I became a believer that not only a fuse can change to sonic character of a given component, but that furthermore it can make it sound even better. Now convinced that my amplifier still can be improved, I decided to slowly change the fuses one by one as funds allow. I have 2 pre-amp board on my integrated and both of them use 2 fuses each. Do the maths, it's costly. But still, I installed another blue in one of the socket and it made a surprising difference. I was skeptical that by changing only one out of four would bring positive results, but hey, it did. The change it brought by inserting a first fuse was a better bass response, sounds is less bloated and cleaner, and the highs are more lifelike. I just can't wait to hear the difference when I insert the remaining 3. |
Hello
there,
I have just discovered this extremely lengthy thread about SR fuses. Took me days to read it, but it was interesting read. Some peoples claim that fuses do improve sound, that they are directional, some are bushing whole concept. I’m very skeptical, not leaving in USA, SR dealer in my home country do not offer 30 day money back guarantee, so all risk is mine. And I’m not fun of their products, I used to have (5 years ago) some their IC cable ( I do prefer Tara labs cables ) I used to have their PC cable I do prefer Shunyata. Once dealer of SR tried on audition to convince me that Galileo MPC was better than usual one, in system he changed 4 MPC’s to Galileo MPC’s. I could not hear any difference.
So I’m very skeptical. I do not believe that fuse can be directional.
But few days ago friend called, he is season audiophile and he is running high-end service , in some integrated amplifier of his client there are 2 SR black fuses 1.6A (been used for long time so they are burned) , do I want to try them ? Why not, nothing to lose just 2 hours of time. They are too small for my preamp or poweramp, so we have put them in my AudioAero CDP which needs 2 fuses (500mAx2). In my CDP I already have some 5-6 years old Create Audio fuses ( do not know exact model) and never have compared them to stock one. Just bought them cheaply from some guy.
So we have run 6 tests.
Our conclusions, fuses do change sound consistently (big surprise to me) SR fuses are directional (huge surprise to me) !
In wrong direction SR do degrade sound (nuances, air is lost, music is lifeless) in right direction there is more air , sound is more smooth, cleaner then with Create Audio. But Create Audio x 2 sound more alive there is better PRAT, more energy. But it is matter of taste some peoples can prefer 5) some 6). It would be great if strengths of Create Audio (PRAT) and strengths of SR black (air, smoothness, quietness) could be combined. That would be a winner. Personally I’m very sensitive to music drive, so I’m not upgrading to SR black. But now I’m convinced that fuses are directional and they do influence sound in not so small degree. It is easy audible.
I can summarize that 100USD for fuse is outrageous rip off, but 100USD for such change in sound for better is really a good deal. Now I’m thinking about comparing verictum X-fuse and SR blue fuse in my preamp.
Regards
|
Thank you for the clarification Mr. Denney. This is coherent with what I was thinking in the beginning. I starting installing the Blue fuse in the pre-amplifier portion of my integrated and they are rated 5A 250V. I have read that it is better to install a fuse with a notch above the rated value (this was told by my tech with its AudioLink fuses) but I am not sure about the Blue. So I have installed one 6.3A 500V in one of the sockets (I have four to populate). I wonder if this is safe or should I stick with the original rating of 5A. This is a vintage Yamaha CA-1000 circa 1974. |
At Synergistic Research we absolutely keep track of signal directionality in our fuses, it goes in the direction of the letter flow on the fuse. Left to right. But we can’t however predict how this directionality will interact with any given circuit, we simply do not have the resources to evaluate directionality for all components on the market today. No company does. But as for directionality in the fuse, it funs in the direction of the lettering on the fuse and is 100% consistent from Fuse to Fuse. Yours in music, Ted Denney Lead Designer Synergistic Research Inc. |
+1 AFAIK the one aftermarket fuse company that keeps track of the wire direction during the whole manufacturing process and puts directional arrows 🔜 on the finished fuse to show how the fuse should be inserted in the circuit is Isoclean. Now, that’s not the same as saying only one fuse company believes in fuse directionality. At this point in time they probably all agree that direction makes a difference in the sound, though perhaps grudgingly. One reason arrows sometimes aren’t helpful is that in some cases it’s not obvious which direction of the fuse holder is the correct direction. For example, when the fuse is located where the power cord enters the component. Since keeping track of wire direction requires extra attention most audiophile fuse companies suggest trying the fuse both ways. So, even the diode symbol 🔚 on HiFi Tuning fuses that looks a lot like an arrow isn’t supposed to indicate correct fuse direct. It’s only there so you can keep track of which way thecfuse was facing when you reverse direction. |
Quick question here. I know that the blue are directional, but, are they the same direction in regard to the label on the fuse? I mean, do SR slaps the sticker on the fuse in any direction regardless of the audible direction? Sounds silly but I will have to install 7 more on my amplifier. It will be one hell of a puzzle to install them all correctly if SR didn't pay attention how they label their fuses and only telling people to "reverse" them if they don't sound quite right. |
@oregonpapa
Thanks! Yes, that is part of the plan now that I had a taste of what the Blue can do. I only have one installed yet (7 remaining) and yet the improvements it brings are substantial enough for me to swing for an home run. Can't wait to hear with all of them installed. |
edsky ... Thanks for the update ... Okay, so now we know that the direction wasn’t the problem. These fuses need time to break in. In the SR fuse line, the Blue fuses have the shortest break-in time. Maybe 50 hours or so. Have you taken the lid off of your combo streamer to see if the fuse is in there? I know that’s what I had to do in order to get to the fuse in my CD player. Frank |
Oregonpapa & Parabellum, So I tried reversing the direction of the fuse and the definition of instruments on the sound stage noticeably reduced. I think I had the fuse in the right way originally. On the plus side, thinks seem to be settling nicely and the bass is better. I wish I could replace the fuse in my combo streamer/DAC/preamp but I just can’t find it. I think it’s hidden away deep within the circuitry (yet the manual provides specification for the replacement fuse) |
Oregonpapa & davidpritchard, In your experience, which component would benefit the most from the SR Blue, my Bryston BDA-3 DAC or my Bryston BDA-2 digital player, if I have to choose one to upgrade first? Both have 2 small fuses 5x20 in each. My assumption would be the component closest to the source but I am not sure. |
Well I do have Pass Lab amplifiers. The INT-60 integrated amp, the Headphone amp HP-1, and a First Watt F7. Three systems and all sounding quite good. All have Synergistic Research Blue fuses and I have had zero problems. All benefited significantly from the installation of Blue fuses. I have discussed fuses with team Pass Labs but not directly with Nelson. No aftermarket fuse warning were given to me. I would not take a sonic step backward and put the original fuses back in. David Pritchard |
Nelson Pass in his XP-22 pre-amp's owner's manual: "We can't guarantee that your audiophile grade fuse won't blow at a completely different in-rush current threshold than your stock commercial fuse. Use of other than approved fuses may invalidate your product warranty and result in product damage." 1- Make of that what you will. 2- Don't blame the messenger. |