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
Neither Decware or PS Audio endorsed any one brand ( actually PS Audio did mention a specific brand in their literature but I don't remember which one) but advocate trying differant brands to obtain the sound you like best. Paul McGowan wrote an article specifically about fuses and how they effect sound quality. I don't have the necessary knowledge to know if or why they work, but I'm willing to put my faith with the many here that love them and more importantly the men who designed my equipment endorsing their use. 

My intention wasn't to belittle ptss's response, my response was in jest. My apologies if it came across negatively. I agree that fuses are put in a device only for safety reasons. Pauls article mentions how when designing one of their amps the prototype didn't have a fuse and when one was added for production the sound quality diminished to the point they had to make some design changes to get the prototype sound quality with the fuse. I checked with both manufacturers about fuse values and both said moving up one value wasn't a problem but going higher than the 1 amp for the Perfectwaves wasn't necessary, so I didn't higher values for them.
"My apologies if it came across negatively."

mac, that's like apologizing to the school bully because your face hurt his fist.

Dave

64 pages... this must be a record...I (obviously) haven't read every single post on every single page, but has anyone asked why not ALL manufacturers use these fuses in their components if they make their units sound better? If it were me, I would definitely signed a volume purchase contract with SR just to get some advantage over my competition. Sounds stupid?

^^^  
Let's say it costs $2500 to manfacture an amp. The factory sells it to the dealer for $5000. The dealer then sells it at retail for $10,000. 

If you were the manufacturer, you would have to double the price of the fuse to the dealer and, the dealer in turn, would have to double the price of the fuse when selling the piece of equipment to the end consumer.


Now then, in the case of the high end fuse: The factory buys the fuse for $50.00 ... 50% of retail.  The factory increases the price to the dealer by $100.  The dealer then turns around an sells the piece of equipment marked up by another $200 to cover the new fuse.  

As an end consumer, I would rather pay retail of $100 for the after market fuse than pay $200 for it placed in my new piece of equipment for me at the factory.