2. amps-preamps
  3. 1448317474

Synergistic Red Fuse ...

I installed a SR RED Quantum fuse in my ARC REF-3 preamp a few days ago, replacing an older high end fuse. Uhh ... for a hundred bucks, this little baby is well worth the cost. There was an immediate improvement upon installation, but now that its broken in (yes, no kidding), its quite remarkable. A tightening of the focus, a more solid image, and most important of all for my tastes, a deeper appreciation for the organic sound of the instruments. Damn! ... cellos sound great! Much improved attack on pianos. More humanistic on vocals. Bowed bass goes down forever. Next move? .... I'm doing the entire system with these fuses. One at a time though just to gauge the improvement in each piece of equipment. The REF-75se comes next. I'll report the results as the progression takes place. Stay tuned ...

Any comments from anyone else who has tried these fuses?
128x128oregonpapa
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,235 posts
 

Hi Bill (Brownsfan),

Thanks for reporting your findings. My moment of truth occurred at the 60 hour point and Frank's(Oregonpapa) around 70 hours with the Black fuses. It will be interesting to see if additional hours make a difference in your case. As always you have to call it as you hear it. I appreciate your input.

Curious to see where you find the greater impact between your Sony digital  or the Frankenstein.

Charles,

oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
^^^  What's surprising to me, Charles, is that with all of the terrific results garnered by most of us here with the SR Red and then the Black fuses, that there are the few who hear no positive results at all. I wonder what the cause of that could be? Are they system dependent ... working in most systems but not in all? 
benzman's avatar
benzman
385 posts
 

Talk about giving a mouse a cookie!!

 I started by placing a Red in a 9.9 Modwright power supply. Nice bump but wasn't really realized until my buddy brought over his 9.9 and it was a significant improvement when comparing side by side.

Then a couple Reds in in a Aurender N100s music player. Slight improvement, nothing earth shattering. 

Then the blacks were introduced so I put one in a Mccormack pre and right around the magic 100 hr mark everything kicked in. So much more body to the music and defined bass.

The Kismet Monos have a total of 8 rail fuses so that wasn't going to happen. I tried to score the HiFi  Silverstar but they were all sold out so picked up the Golds for 9.95 each. Definite improvement but then one of our fellow Audiogoner's was upgrading his Kismets from the Reds to the  Blacks..... I  should have his Reds in a few days and all broken in.

I got a new Odyssey Candela pre tonight so installed a Black in that, figured may as well break in everything together.

Before I took the McCormack out of the chain, I switched the fuse around. I must of had the proper orientation the first time as it took all of 3 minutes to switch it back. You will definitely know when you have it right!!  

  These little tweaks is what makes this hobby so exciting and keeps it fresh. I don't even want to tell you about USB clean up and LPS power supplies..... that's for another day.

Enjoy your night,

Russ   

        

brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Charles,  I will be out of town for a few days and hiking this weekend. Its likely to be sometime next week when I hit 60-100 hours.  I do hope I will see additional improvement with more hours, but right out of the box I would have called this a good return on investment.  Still, its not hard to do better for the money with the right tube, or as I said, a good set of feet.  If I realize a similar improvement with each new fuse or pair of fuses, the total improvement would be significant for a $700 investment. That would be money well spent.  We will see.  I really like what the fuse did qualitatively, but I'd like to see a bit more quantitatively.  It is a happy coincidence (no pun intended) that the Franks and Sony both take a pair of the same fuse. I will be surprised if I hear an insufficient improvement to warrant keeping the fuses. 

Frank, your question to Charles is an excellent one.  There is some variability in the reports.  Is the variability attributable to variations in equipment, incoming AC quality, ambient EMI/RFI, listener acuity or preference, fuse to fuse differences, or some combination of all of these variables?  SR does a good thing by offering a generous return policy, which allows us all to reduce this tweak to an experimental question. 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,235 posts
 

Hi Frank,

If you take into account "all" the responses on this ever growing thread, the positive outcomes have been overwhelming. The negative or minimal improvement outcomes are very small. No audio product/component no matter how highly praised ever gets an 100% positive from everyone, it just never happens. I belie
ve Bill has a good chance of further sonic gains with additional hours placed on his Black fuses. If not, then so be it, I trust Bill's impressions in the context of his own system. Even though he and I use the same Coincident Line Stage and SET amplifiers, sometimes results are just different for whatever reason. I honestly believe my Black fuses continued to improve up to the 150 hour mark. They really click in my system.

Charles,

More to discover