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
Unfortunately what we have here is just another situation where some folks just can’t hear the difference. It happens all the time. It happens with many tweaks, especially the more controversial or preposterous tweaks, you know the ones I’m talking about. Things like Mpingo disc, green pen, holographic foil, intelligent chip, tiny bowl resonators, you know, things that either don’t APPEAR to be in the audio path OR actually AREN'T IN THE AUDIO PATH. It's frequently a pretty obvious case of the Backfire Effect, I.e., the more you try to convince someone he’s wrong the more convinced he is that he’s right. Moreover, some folks have invested a lot of energy defending their position, years. Is that a self fulfilling prophecy or what?

+1, well said geoff !

"Expectation bias" works for the naysayers as well.
If you do not expect to hear a difference, you won't.

If I don't spend money on it, it cannot possibly work, for I am a genius!! ;^)
+1 Jim. They are certain to be 'unknowns geniuses but we al know for sure they are stupid and useless.

Years ago I was visiting my neighbor, the late Lars Friedel (friend of Stereophile’s Sam Tellig), and the Sun Mook dudes had recently installed a bunch of Mpingo disc things in his sound room (Lars reviewed gear for Euro mags). We both thought the whole thing was pretty strange, and after having them in his system for a while he was certain they were utterly useless. Geoffkait mentions a pile of silly "take it on faith" tweaks that have been deemed useless by many listeners who actually hear as well as anybody, but by simply repeating over and over that something illogical, unproven , and maybe dangerous (improperly rated fuses) that is designed to remove money from the pockets of "naive seekers" provides a path to better sound doesn’t make the tweak actually work. I’ve been delighted to hear differences I didn’t expect from various cables, tubes, active gear of all sorts, and designer recommended setup suggestions, and welcome all of that, but I will continue to question fraudulent imaginary nonsensical products as insulting to the professional designers who do the actual good work , and who don’t need to compromise their integrity with inexplicable pseudo tweaks to make a buck.
Wolfman, Gee, I thought you were the only one who can’t hear. You mean there’s a lot more?  

😎

One of the most appropriate comments I've read about the SR (Synergistic Research) Red Quantum Fuse and Black Quantum Fuse discussion (or should it be called blatant promotion?)--
" I will continue to question fraudulent imaginary nonsensical products as insulting to the professional designers who do the actual good work , and who don’t need to compromise their integrity with inexplicable pseudo tweaks to make a buck. "  from wolf_garcia. 
Honesty is so refreshing in this thread.