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
Hello oregonpapa,

thank you for your great thread here at audiogon.
Since 2 weeks i am using the SR RED Fuse, which brought a big change in my system. Since yesterday my order for the Black Fuses arrived. You menschend it needs some time to settle. Therefor i have a few question concerning your experience with the black fuse.
At first it seams that its not as good as the red fuse. I started with my power conditioner, which has 3 fuses and the sound wall was huge. Changed direction of the fuse and the size of instruments and voices  was right again. It is more dynamic than the red ones.
Today we are gonna change the red in the cd player and the amp against the blacks. 
I remember that, when you placed the new blacks against the reds you where not happy at all. How long did it take till there was a change and how did the change happened. From the beginning to the state you are in now? Does the chip on top of the fuse, interfere with shaktis, or other chips used in a system? Did you change all components? 
Thanks for the rundown on the outlets.

Outlets are also a very large contributor to the sound, but find they, like plugs can cause a bigger change and improvements which need carefully synergies with the equipment and cables unlike the fuses. Any aftermarket fuse is likely to give an overall improvement over a stock standard fuse.

Like the wall outlets, i still like the old Teslaplex (non SE) in front of the SE version. It has some hardness and dynamics which the SE verion leaves behind for a more musical presentation, which for Rock music give a calmness which at times seem wanting.

Afraid an added GTX-D may add too much detail and spotlighting effect which a nonplated outlet will never give.. So may swing for the black.
Seriously, I've never seen a more substantial boatload of nonsense on any thread. Now outlets are supplying a sort of passive tone manipulation? Outlets with good grip on plugs make sense…hospital grade or whatever ( I use PS Audio power ports because of that) but they simply have zero effect on any aspect of tone. To think otherwise is really strange. Does anybody think about this stuff rationally as it applies to AC or is rationality simply swept aside when discussing imaginary fuse direction symptoms or dynamic tone changes from magical sources? Overpriced fuses pushed hard by smarmy agenda driven "experts" can ensnare the gullible into thinking they see clothing on the emperor (overused cliche' but valid in this case)…and encouraging others to waste their cash on placebos installed well outside of the active circuitry of power supplies and complex tone shaping components is sketchy behavior at best, unethical at worst.
Goldencutt ...

Changing from the Reds to the Blacks was the right thing to do. You are eventually in for a real treat. By "eventually," I mean that the magic comes into its own at around 70 hours and continues to improve past 100  hours.

 What you're experiencing is normal. You can hear some improvements over the Red fuses, but there's a hard edge that's annoying, right?  Once broken in (100 hours) all of that hard edge will be gone and there will be a new light shining on your sound stage with the instruments and vocals really coming into focus like never before.  There will be a  new sense of lack of grain, a grain that you didn't even realize was there. Its quite an amazing transition, really.

 When the fuse in your CD player is finally broken in, you won't believe the improvement in your digital playback. I'm mostly a vinyl guy ... but I have to say, these fuses have  brought my digital to way beyond where I ever thought digital could go. Totally enjoyable now, and I find myself listening to digital more and more. Good thing too ... I have over 2000 CD's in my collection. Sick, I know. *lol*

Please give us an update as your Black fuses start to break in. This is interesting stuff. 

Take care ...