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.
SRs biggest bang for the buck are his blue fuses and black duplex outlets. They are equivalent to upgrading either the speakers or amps or both in my system. My audio system costs 8% of the finest system I've heard, the Von Schweikert $290K speakers w/$500K of VAC gear, basically a $1 million system yet yields about 50% of the sound-extremely enjoyable and missing some of the dynamics, 3D soundstage and openness of that system. The SR, Stillpoints and to a much lesser extent but cheap, Herbies products really are cost efficient in obtaining superior audio sound. Choosing the right tubes (can be expensive) and the Shakti Hallographs are more expensive tweaks but equally important as the cheaper tweaks. I thank Ted Denny for making the blue fuse sound great immediately so that I can enjoy my music without burning expensive tubes without benefit.
Ted Denney, Please. I am a believer in your products. I own your speaker cables. I own your digital interface. Galileo LE, all the way. Please. Explain the technology in your fuses. How do they work? You are talking to a believer. I own a Blue fuse. And a Black fuse. How do they work? We are interested.
wolf_garcia 3,321 posts 11-16-2017 10:19am Over 3,000 $130 fuses sold…I have to wonder what the cost of manufacturing those things actually is, and, although not in the literal sense, there's your boiling vat of snake oil right there!
Actually Garcia Blue Fuses retail for $149.95 and the video was shot two weeks ago. Orders now exceed 4,000 units. Do the math, we have LOTS of happy customers and SR dealers and to my SR fans a BIG thank you! I will always give you my very best, never stop innovating, and as always, build my products right here in the USA 🇺🇸
Yours in music, Ted Denney Lead Designer Synergistic Research Inc.
I am currently running Synergistic Research Galileo LE speaker cables. The MSRP on the pair when I bought them was $17,900. Expensive, Yes. But they are the best sounding cables in my system that I have heard. Makes $150 per fuse seem somewhat insignificant. Especially since I can hear the merits of the SR fuses.
Would I like to get what these fuses give me for a lower price? Yes, of course, I’m just not into complaining about the price of non-essential entertainment related items. If I think it’s worth it to me, I pay the price. If not, I go without it. In the case of these fuses, I even had the option of getting a refund if they didn’t live up to my expectations.
No thank you - did visit there in the old days, when my wife was doing libray research there on early manuscripts. We had to hunt for all the daily necessities. However, that is not what this is about. This is about the simple fact that in a market economy (and I am fan of the market in most circumstances) not all markets are as transparent as a full competition market.
The man is a very talented designer, thinker, innovator, marketer, salesman and communicator. I am impressed with the company and product lines he has formed. True American success story. As Audiophiles we should recognize here is one company that is cutting edge and world class. He has my great respect. Well done.
Developing a product, doing all of the research, taking the financial risk, making payroll, providing a manufacturing facility .... and then selling your product for whatever the market will bear is not morally wrong.
There are two sides to a sale. First, is the seller who sells his/her product for the maximum amount possible. Second, there is the buyer who pays the price if he/she perceives the overall benefit of the product to be worth it. If buyers won't buy at the predesignated price, the price will come down to the actual market value or the seller is going to go out of business. Its called the capitalistic system. In other words, the free market. Should we have a federal department of audiophile fuse pricing to control price levels, or should we continue to allow individuals, the sellers and buyers, to determine end prices? Which way sounds like liberty to you??
Considering the way the SR Blue fuses are selling, and considering how much each fuse does to improve one's system, it looks to me as though Ted Denney has correctly set the retail price at $150 per fuse.
Frank
PS: jafreeman says it exactly how it is: "
Expensive, yes.....but they work as claimed!"
Over 3,000 $130 fuses sold…I have to wonder what the cost of manufacturing those things actually is, and, although not in the literal sense, there's your boiling vat of snake oil right there!
Happy to see stalker no. 1 back in action. When did you get out? By the way, four dimensions are way better than two. Looks like you got short changed.
Can you believe the improvement the Blue fuses have brought to percussion instruments on your recordings? Kettle drums, snares, vibes, piano, bongos ... Wow!
"The higher in resolution your system becomes, the less you can hear the improvement afforded by any given tweak?" That seems to defy logic to me.
I’ve only heard a couple of systems ... very expensive systems ... that can place the musicians "in the room" in believable three dimensional relief. On my very best recordings, many of which have been recommended in this thread and the RED fuse thread as well, with lights out and eyes closed, my system, with all of its tweaks, place the musicians "in the room." And, I’ve done it for at least one tenth of the money those "very expensive" systems cost.
Some of the tweaks I’ve found successful are:
Room treatments. (tons of stuff) Vibration control. (tons of stuff) Herbie’s tube dampeners. Highly recommended. SR Blue fuses. (5 total) SR Power Cables. Highly recommended. (Level III) Von Gaylord Legend IC’s and speaker cables. (incredible tonal balance) The new, soon to be released secret tweak. (an absolute must!) I can’t wait for some of you to try it out.
The SR Blue fuses combined with the soon to be released "Super Tweak" have finally pushed the system down Alice’s rabbit hole into a surreal world where few audio systems have traveled. Imagine going from a stream with murky water where its difficult to see the bottom of the stream, and then looking down into a crystal clear stream where you can actually see the shapes, colors and textures of the rocks, weeds and boulders submerged 30 feet below.
Again, this phenomenon doesn’t occur on every recording, but on something transferred from a master tape onto a CD for example, it can be uncanny. Just like listening with a side kick known as The Cheshire Cat. I call him Robert. :-)
I sincerely hope your system gets this kind of resolution. If not, there is work to be done.
I want to say thanks! After reading this post and all of the responses, I replaced the SR Red fuses with the new Blue fuses. I only needed two for my Lumin A1 and Simaudio 600i. I've had them in for two weeks now and all of the good things that the members are saying are true for me too. The first thing that I noticed was the drop in the sound floor, bringing out more of the subtle things like string and drum vibrations and the longer decays. It's a great system addition for me.
These fuses do work to a point transform a system hardly . unless your system is lacking a lot to begin with . audioman58
Not sure where you came up with this claim. To many here, the fuses make the most differences when everything else is pretty much nailed down. Anyone care to comment?
I certainly like to thank the OP Frank for sharing his findings with these SR fuses. After reading his post I remembered that my son had Christmas presented me few years back a Red SR for my PS Audio P10. Out of laziness I installed the Red T5 small fuse and sure enough the Red fuse alone improved my listening pleasure. Replaced my Pre, PS P10s and Subs with Blacks and yes Mr Frank is truly correct about the SR fuses, really made a difference. Never thought a fuse can create this large improvement. Now I am feeling and hearing things like never before. Thank you again Mr Frank and I still have 15 fuses more to be upgraded.
I have found that the Blue fuses raise the level of enjoyment I get from all the music I listen to, whether the recording is good, or not-so-much. Yes, some recordings are much better than others, but a good system should bring out the best in whatever music you want to listen to, regardless of the recording quality. One should be able to say “This is not a great recording”, and then proceed to thoroughly enjoy the music.
These fuses do work to a point transform a system hardly . unless your system is lacking a lot to begin with . recordings by far dictate even the finest system in the world. 8 have heard systems approaching $300k and like Live on many records or cd ,but get an average recording imaging,as well as soundstaging collapses. The more complete or refined your system is the less impact a fuse will have .in some parts of your system you may want a very detailed but less rich . The Bees wax Audio magic some swear by them also.for a bit more richness. And only $200 each !! The pricing on fuses is getting a bit out of control in my opinion . With your money you decide what is best .personally I found a real good power cord on the Digital makes a much more Substantial improvement ,I hav3 tried a bunch .the new Verastarr Audio cords are exceptional to me that is $$ well spent.
"I shall not allow some charlatans and scoundrels to take advantage of young naive and gullible audiophiles. I shall not allow these pseudo scientists and tweakaphiles to besmirch and sully the good names of Ohm, Watt, Faraday, and the other Icons of Science and Electricity. Finally, I shall not allow any of the Laws of Science to be broken or otherwise injured." - your humble scribe
"Their" instead of "they're"…oops…I hate it when that happens, but thanks to oregonpapa for helping me out...and here is the point I was somewhat sarcastically (!) responding to which oregonpapa missed: From jafreeman, "The history of Magnepan users who have removed the fuse banks is long and well documented; they sound a lot better, and they sound a lot better even by keeping the fuse banks and just replacing the Buss variety with SR's, and that's a fact, a certainty, formed by myself from my experience that I stand by." See? It's a fact and a certainty formed by himself. And Magnapan should know better…somebody please bring it up at THEIR next tech meeting….also does Pass Labs know their amps are improved by Special Fuses? And exactly how does the teeny fuse do all that? There's that question again…
Another well thought of amp brand that responds beautifully to the Synergistic Research Blue fuse is Pass Labs. I have now had the Blue fuses in the two different Pass amps and both have experienced the sonic changes that Jafreeman so well described. Improved detail with greater texture and harmonics, a greater sense of alive music, and more emotionally involving. That is the response I get with the fuses in place. The Synergistic Research Blue fuse is such a fun and great experiment to do to ones audio system. If you do not like them send them back and get your money refunded.
Thank you for your recommendation on PC. Personally, I prefer pure silver metal over copper with Tube gear. Don’t see any any dealer or pricing info on their website, do they have direct sell business model?
I use the values called for in the owner's manual. Blew one Black fuse in the amp on turn-on about a year ago. Other than that, no problems at all. So far I haven't heard of any Blue fuses blowing.
Both of these components rated for Large (1.25”) 5A SLOW BLOW. My dealer recommended to purchase the next Amperage value on after market fuses. I end up blowing 5A fuse in my ARC amp so I went with 6.3A value.
Frank or anyone else using SR fuses with their ARC gear may chime in with their recommendation as well.
So much more detail coming out now, more separation of instruments, more definition---richer, fuller, sweeter, more listenable all around with the addition of the SR Blues to AC mains of ARC amps, REL subs and Wadia 861SE GNSC all-out mod. Interestingly, I found a HiFi Tuning fuse in my Wadia AC input as part of Steve Huntley's reference mod. The SR's 20, Red, Black and Blue each took it to successively higher levels, of course. The Wadia is treated to its own Richard Gray 1200C, a high-current power conditioner with 1400 watts available to the front end. The 1200C is backed by the RGPC 240V/120V isolation transformer with 4000 watts into my DIY, 9-gauge, OCC power cords with Furutech Alpha copper and rhodium plugs. Isolating the gear and speakers are my own footers of automotive-grade wool felt and walnut 3" x 3" square and 1 1/2" thick. These are some of the additions I have made to take my older system to around ten plateaus higher all told, and the SR Blues are right up there with anything I have done.
"somebody should tell the Magnapan people they're design sucks…I'm sure they'd like to know."
Yeah, right. One of the most successful speaker manufacturers on the planet and (( "THEY'RE" )) design sucks. What next Wolfie? Are you going to tell us about your perfect command of the English language and how you have it right and everyone else has it wrong? *LMAO*
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