The New Synergistic Research Purple Fuses

Thanks for the feedback ball-wheel! I’ll consider the SR Purple receptical. Currently I'm burning-in two new Shunyata Research power cables. One Delta XC v2 and the new Venom X EF. The Venom X EF is a keeper ! it’s the Delta that I’m not quite sure of yet.

I have 5 SR Purple fuses in my system, definitely worth it!

As usual, late to the party. Not the Synergistic fuses in general, just the Purple  (People Eater) fuse.

I decided to go with a Purple fuse first and change some other things later. The fuse, like all the earlier generations does the job terrifically well, although I didn’t like the Black all that much (too lean), and got a Blue (found the box today while cleaning up, so it’s around here somewhere!), didn’t cotton to the orange much. But the Purple has a tremendous sense of musicality, while earlier versions were more of the "detailed "and perhaps audiophile virtues in contrast to musical ones.

What was most striking is that, when bringing my ARC amp out of mute, I realized I had the volume 3 clicks down (at a 4 instead of a 7) and yet, I could hear the piccolo playing softly and the air in the flute without any strain (and for someone having hearing loss, that’s quite a feat!). Violins in a section are no longer congealed (any Mercury Living Presence CD show show it, but I used the Boxed Set, Volume 1 and was taken aback at how the violins no longer sounded like one big violin, but many smaller ones. The sounding boards of the violins can be heard, as well as the rest of the orchestra. If one were to send say, a small missile, one could hit the clarinetest quite easily, having found its exact placement. And the low level detail extends to all instruments (acoustic ones),so the entire performance sounds ’played by humans’ instead of just the sound without the people making the sounds. It’s impressive.

As far as directionality, I had one in the right direction, and then, somehow, reinserted in the wrong direction. Now, THAT, I could hear clearly. So, if you put the fuse in one way and listen for a day, go back and listen two days later after your’ve reversed direction. It will have to burn in again for a few hours when you change direction, isn’t that right, Ted?

And voices are quite magical. Separated from each other by the low noise floor, they sound like people doing a duet or a group, without one singer in the group’s contribution being left out while you hear the other three clearly. No, with this fuse, you hear them all!

Excellent!

@gbmcleod What direction do you have the fuse for ARC amps? 

@audiosens I just replaced my pre-amp with an EAR 864. It used to sound rather forward and lacked good depth. Also, some recordings sounded great but so many others had that congealed sound. I replaced the cheap ass glass fuse with an SR blue I had lying around but was told by a friend, sounded mediocre (he didn’t use it more than10 minutes).

Immediately, it sounded superior. A little dark but oh, what separation of instruments and big tonality. It got better over 15 hours. Then it became too bright from 15 to 20 hours. I just let the pre-amp stay on for 48 hours more. That was it. Just like in my amps with the SR Black (took 72 hours to sound good), the fuse just needs on-time with no signal and steadily improves/stabilizes. Sounds fantastic.

I intend to replace my EAR 890 amp with the SR purple now. It already sounds great with a cheap ass glass fuse. How much better will it sound with an SR purple (or even a $25 audiophile ceramic fuse like an Acme or Gustard). That’s rhetorical.

Without this fuse upgrade, I was ready to chuck the pre-amp and try an EAR 912.  Wow! what a great improvement from this fuse.