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
Labtec   7.13.2016

"Synergistic Research use great actual electronic devices from companies like Berkeley, Soulution, and Magico...then throw in their tweaks to make it seems like they are somehow the reason for great sound."

 Now Mr. Labtech, it seems reasonable to me that Synergistic Research would wish to display their products with high quality equipment. I don,t see
anything wrong with that. Did you expect them to display their tweaks with a BOSE RADIO?

Well, as a matter of fact, they did use a BOSE RADIO to display their tweaks at RMAF 2013. Here is what Stereophile magazine had to say:

"My initial impression, with everything in the system, was that despite the radio's glaring limitations, the room-filling size and depth of the soundstage were pretty amazing. As Denny (President of Synergistic Research)
progressively removed the HFTs he had positioned around the room (including two at the front and back of the radio)  xxxxxxxxx the sound stage shrank, bass lost impact, and music became localized in the radio, and most important, the listening experience became less compelling. Having that I wish I could have heard this experiment on a far more refined system."

Labtec you had a great opportunity at Newport to hear the Synergistic Research tweaks in some of the most refined equipment in existence.  BUT YOU BLEW THE OPPORTUNITY.

Here is a very different take at what happened at Newport. This review is by one of my favorite and most trusted reviewer. 

"SR was demonstrating in a HUGE room, the largest at the SHOW. The holographic imaging was spectacular. When they moved the SR products out of the room, and disconnected others, the image became small flat movie screen like you'd see at the smaller movie theaters. When the products were moved back into the room and everything reconnected, it became like a huge, 3-D presentation at a good IMAX theater"

This latter review was written, not for gain or money, but as a note to some of his friends who were unable to attend the show. This man is a  real gentleman, who is very respectful of other people, even those with opinions that differ from his.  Ladies and Gentlemen give it up for OREGONPAPA. 

Here is some good advice. This thread has been read by thousands of
people who have now read all the palpable nonsense you have written in two separate posts. You stand naked under bright lights for all to see. Your unprovoked derogatory personal remarks directed at Oregonpapa is disgraceful, crude, mean, and WRONG.

The only good thing to come out of this wretched affair is that several hundred thousand people now know, not who you are, but what you are.


^^^ nyame ...

Thanks for coming to the defense.  Its much appreciated. 

I've spent some time this morning trying to analyse what would motivate someone with "labtec's' pristine qualifications (audiologist, psychologist, sales trainer and financial planner) to make such a convoluted attack on not only me, but Ted Denny, SR in general and upon others posting here. 

What is it about little black fuses that disturbs Mr. "labtec" so? For him to take the time to write twelve paragraphs attacking this thread leads me to believe that he's suffering from something serious such as schizophrenia ... but of course if I did that, he'd most likely deny it and accuse me of addressing "the wrong guy." :-) 

Here's a guy (labtec) who owns a pair of mega-buck Wisdom speakers attacking me for buying an SR Black fuse for the grand sum of $120.00. Here's a guy with the great Wisdom speakers who has them jammed up against the wall, sitting on a hardwood floor, with a huge, reflective flat screen TV between them, and then accuses me and others of not being able to hear ... or of hearing things that are not there.

Obviously, the Wisdom speakers have not imparted any "wisdom" into the psyche of Mr. "labtec."   I used to sell Wisdom speakers when I was selling high end audio equipment, therefore, I can attest to how good they are. Mr. "labtec" is actually wasting the speakers. A shame, really. 

As for my 78 year old "Xman level hearing;" I can hear a lightly struck triangle at the rear of the orchestra. I can hear the metallic shimmer on the very edges of Shelley Mann's cymbals. I can hear the uvula vibrating in the back of Dean Martin's throat when playing "Dream With Dean."  (well maybe I was exaggerating slightly with the uvula thingie.)

But then, I ask the question ... how can anyone who "knows Steve McCormack" be wrong about anything? As we all know, just "knowing" someone makes one an expert in all the fields Mr. labtec claims to be an expert in (audiologist, psychologist, sales trainer and financial planner). 

Just a quick personal note for Mr. labtec:  Surely you have a playground somewhere near your abode, do you not? If so, contained in that playground you will find a sandbox. Please seek out the sandbox, sit in it ... and pound sand. 

OP


Note to Oregonpapa regarding Taj Mahal's mystery guitar player…Jesse Ed Davis became a friend of mine when he was hanging out in Honolulu in the early 80s, borrowed a 60s Vibrolux from me and produced some stuff for a band I knew...a true guitar genius and cool dude who had more soul and technique than nearly anyone I've heard perform anywhere (he used to sit in here and there in Honolulu clubs)...left us way before his time…look him up.

I have a friend who is an owner of a well regarded hifi "salon" who had a pile of SR Black fuses hanging around from some show or something, and after noting my suspicion about SR's inexplicable technology, he leant me a half dozen or so of the things about a month ago (he refuses to use them as he says they "blow too easily"…his words). I stuck them in my tube amp, my preamp, and the power supplies for my dac and phono preamp, reversed them after a couple of weeks per mythological theory (2 blew in my amp…I guess you actually do need to ignore SRs ratings). I even had them switched out by a friend without my knowing for sure that they were in or out so I could sort of "double blind" them. During this exercise I tried hard to be as objective as my previously described "Bully and Coward" demeanor will allow, and the results were as follows: These things don't provide any audible improvement over whatever fuses I had in my gear (my original Littlefuses and other nameless fuses are all back in their former places), and they're sort of dangerous (they blow, literally). I even recorded my system with my digital recording stuff using a great mic, to see if the same recording at the same level with and without the SR mojo in play could reveal anything (asked some well regarded audio pro friends to suffer through these recordings with similar head scratching non-results…many thanks)…I tried man…I gave the things a shot…my conclusion is SR fuses are fooling many into paying 500% of what non "quantum" fuses cost for a placebo that provides membership in the I Think I Can Hear Things Club, which may actually be worth it to the SR fanboy base. Sorry kids…I tried.
There are quite a few perfectly good reasons why some people don’t get good results or the results they’re looking for with some audiophile tweaks. Now, I’m willing to list those reasons. Are you sure you want to go there? ;-)
wolf_garcia ...

Thanks for the info on Ed Davis. Much appreciated. Over the years, I've had the good fortune to meet some really great guitarists, Ted Greene being one of them. Kudos to you if you know who Ted Greene is. He actually played for me and a large group of my friends at my home several times. We lost a great one with Ted's passing. Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDuee6blvj8

On your system and the SR fuses: I have no way of knowing why they are so effective in the majority of the audio systems of folks posting in this thread and why they have no effect in your system or mapman's system either. All I can say is, I have posted nothing but the truth as I see it and hear it.

Why did the fuses fail (blow) in your system, and so far (knock on wood) have not failed at all in mine? I did my system completely with SR RED fuses before switching them out for SR BLACK fuses with no failures at all. That's a total of ten fuses, all of which worked perfectly. 

geoffkait ...

I, for one, would be interested in your assessment as to why some folks get good results and others don't.  I don't think its the quality of the equipment being used, as we have posters here with really high end stuff .. to wit, labtec's Wisdom speakers. Could it be the room?

One thing I have noticed with several of the fuse naysayers, is that they have not payed attention to speaker placement. That leads me to believe that perhaps they haven't paid much attention to the rest of their setup as well.

 As we crazy audiophiles have discovered, everything .... everything makes a difference one way or another. A good example was a guy on another audiophile site who said I was crazy for thinking fuses could make a difference. I asked  him to post a picture of his system and he did. It consisted of an old Pioneer receiver and he had his speakers jammed right up against the wall. Go figure.  

OP