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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
andynotadam's avatar
andynotadam
160 posts
 
Gonna try a Black fuse in my REL R-328. Arrives Friday. Last place to try one in my current setup. We shall see...
nyame
198 posts
 
Andynotadam
I am looking forward to reading your experience with the black fuse in your REL sub. When reporting please mention the crossover frequency.
I have a REL B2. Thanks

andynotadam's avatar
andynotadam
160 posts
 
The Black fuse for my REL arrived a day early! Gotta love highend-electronics teamed with the good ol' post office. I installed it into my R-328 and noted the crossover level (30Hz) and level (about 9:30), levels which have remained stable over a number of system changes (excluding speakers of course). 

Honestly, the first thing I noticed after the change was that the sound stage was better organized, more articulate and seemed to have a greater degree of dimensionality (properly set up RELs can do this, and the Black fuse enhanced this effect in  my system). This was obvious right away on the first cut from Patricia Barber's "Companion," an album, with which I am very familiar.  The first cut, "The Beat Goes On" has congas and syncopated hand-claps for percussion. Michael Arnopol's bass on "Use Me" digs deep but also has a great deal of texture and overtone structure, and this was further enhanced with the Black over the stock fuse.  Bass weight and control were clearly improved.

My system is a 2 channel setup is for both music and video. What was kind shocking was that the sound of TV show themes and familiar commercials took on a noticeably different and improved character. They have more and better bass and the noise floor seems to have dropped, revealing greater detail! I noticed the same thing when I upgraded my DAC. How crazy is that? (And some of you will no doubt say, seriously dude you are very crazy.)

BTW, my REL is fed by a Synergistic AC Master-Coupler Subwoofer Active AC cord and the high-level Speakon cable is a Kimber CU.
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
^^^

Andynotadam ... 

 Nice. Very nice.  I looked into my bucket for the list ... and lo and behold, a REL subwoofer is on the list.   

I'd be interested t  hear about the changes, if any, as the fuse in the sub breaks in. 

OP
nyame
198 posts
 
Andynotadam

Thanks for sharing your experience using the black fuse in your REL-328
with such clarity. It is a pleasure to read your post. Your results are precisely what I hope to achieve in my system.  Many audiophiles, unfortunately, do not fully understand the real benefits of a properly set-up REL sub-woofer. There are many subs with "more" BASS but REL is not about more bass. It is more about revealing ultra low frequency information
relating to the scale and acoustics of the musical venue. 

The input to my REL is the same output my amplifier sends to the loudspeakers. I use the excellent Synergistic Research REL SPEC sub-woofer cable with the Speakon connection. For power I use the Audience Power Chord. (Not the best performer but it is good enough).


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