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
I’m going to go out on a limb a little bit here and just a wild guess, but is Graphene by any chance, uh, black?
:-)

idle question: anyone know where I can pick up some Graphene hookup wire?

sidebar: Mapman, I can’t see you buying an aftermarket fuse. Sorry. No way, no how. Not a red one, white, black one. It’s not in your nature. Too much angst.

;-)
I will buy anything possibly if the value proposition is there.

$100 fuse? Maybe. It all depends on the detailed facts which with high end tweaks are often murky at best. Individuals proclaiming better sound are always useful data points. A somewhat large consensus over time is even better.

In general I shy away from things shrouded in secrecy and murky facts because the value proposition is not clear.

I have no problem conceiving that a fuse could be a performance bottleneck in some cases so I think it is a topic worth understanding better. Certainly a fuse that is blown does not sound at all and fuses are not strict binary devices so all intermediate states of sound quality from properly functioning fuse to blown fuse are surely possible. So I have no doubt each fuse can sound different and often might even.

Also I am guessing if graphene is used, its the conductive filament on the inside out of view.

If one of these suckers ever blows and becomes useless and gets replaced like can happen to any fuse worth their salt, maybe someone will open it up and check out the magic sauce inside and report? That would be interesting.

If in fact its 8000000 times as conductive as alternatives, graphene or otherwise, I might be convinced to bite the bullet and try. That would be a good indicator that this is truly an innovative product that might push some boundaries. Like magnetic wires but only $100, a bargain by audiophile standards for a tweak that works.

if not its just false advertising by the high end audio guys distributing Synergistic and others. Not good....

BTW I see at least one other product listed on Synergistic site indicating use of graphene, so apparently its something SR deals with. I just did not see anything indicating graphene used specifically in the SR fuses. It would impress the heck out of me personally if true, FBOFW.




Mapman, I feel your angst. The Polaroid Land camera produced the same sensation in that remote island in the middle of nowhere when it was demonstrated to the natives.

If it had not been for personal accounts, the marketing of Synergistic Research would have pushed me away from trying their fuses.
Mapman 02-08-2016 1:48pm
These kinds of wild claims from high end companies really set off my BS meter.

Glad they sound and work well according to the users in any case.
+1 on both counts.

I for one would be much more inclined to try a tweak that is seemingly inexplicable, or one whose degree of efficacy seems inexplicable, if the manufacturer simply stated that they do not really know how it works, but that they have empirically found that it does. Rather than providing explanations that strike me as some combination of marketing-ese and techno-babble (to coin a couple of expressions).

BTW, for anyone who may be interested Wikipedia has what appears to be a good writeup on quantum tunneling. Also BTW, I see no mention in the writeup of ultra-high voltages, such as two million volts.

That said, I do respect and value the fairly overwhelming acclamations of these fuses that have been offered in this thread, especially taking into account the credibility many of the posters have clearly earned here over the years. And I wouldn't rule out the possibility that I may just try one. Although not before I get through the breakin and fine-tuning of tonearm adjustments for my recently acquired AT-ART9 phono cartridge, which I decided to go for based largely on acclamations provided by some of these same posters :-)

Regards,
-- Al