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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
tommylion
874 posts
 
Got the black fuse for my transport yesterday  morning. I installed it, and have had quite a parade of guests through my living room:

Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto
Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic
John Coltrane and friends
Johnny Cash
The Killers
Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic
U2
Talking Heads
Supertramp

I had really been enjoying the CEC with the stock fuse. I was hoping for a nice improvement with the black, but am rather stunned at what I hear. I was expecting to go through the 100 hour break in period before getting a clear idea of what it does. Instead, after warming it up for an hour, the "magic" was there right from the beginning. I’m still going to do the full break in; maybe it will improve even more?


charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Tommy,
Regarding break-in of the Black fuses, it varied among my components. In my DAC the placement of an upgraded fuse resulted in an immediate improvement that progressed further with additional hours.

On the other hand my amplifiers and Line Stage actually took a step backwards when going from a broken-in Red fuse to a new Black fuse. It required roughly 60-70 hours before the Black fuse overall sounded better and then improvement continued as the hours accumulated. The upgrade fuse was more impactful with the Line Stage compared with the power amplifiers.

For whatever the reason may be the break-in process wasn’t uniform across the board with my particular components. The common ground factor with  them was the end result of improved sound quality.
Tommy I’m happy for your positive outcome with the CEC transport.
Charles,
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Tommylion wrote,

"I had really been enjoying the CEC with the stock fuse. I was hoping for a nice improvement with the black, but am rather stunned at what I hear. I was expecting to go through the 100 hour break in period before getting a clear idea of what it does. Instead, after warming it up for an hour, the "magic" was there right from the beginning. I’m still going to do the full break in; maybe it will improve even more?"

I suppose we can assume the fuse was installed in the correct direction.

;-)

tommylion
874 posts
 
With a 50/50 chance, I got it the direction right the first time once out of 3.

tommylion
874 posts
 
There's a line where what you're listening to stops being a recording, and becomes a musical event. That line is not always clearly marked or defined, but you know when you've crossed it. For me, that's what this hobby is all about; turning recordings into musical events.

Adding the black fuses to my system, especially the latest one in my CD transport, has made it much easier to cross that line.

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