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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
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
Buying brand new schurter, littlefuse or cooper/bussman fuses also works in experimenting to see what is going on. . one can get the correct type but also, importantly, change the breaking current to various values. Higher breakage values sound more linear to the ear. Less distorted. For example, you can get a 10 amp time lag fuse that pops at 200A peak, or 400a peak or even over 1000A peak. I think the highest I’ve seen is 1400A peak transient before breakage. Each material in use has different peak transient breakage values, and different aspects of transient linearity. Digikey and Mouser is the place to look.

Each will ’sound’ different. The vast majority of the fuses from the companies mentioned are non-magnetic brass/copper/etc designs.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
 Have any of you fuse proponents looked up "expectation bias"
probably makes more sense to believe in the Easter bunny

Sure, have you fuse opponents looked up "expectation bias"?
It works both ways you know. If you do not expect to hear differences, you won't.

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,840 posts
 
teo_audio, nice take on the sound of "ordinary" fuses and how they differ as well. I've linked to this site before where the reviewer mentioned the same thing along with his take on the boutique fuses. He says even the $2.00 fuses offer an improvement over the cheap ones.

All the best,
Nonoise
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
These fuses are quite a bit more expensive. If you have not tried them then you don’t have an opinion. Logically this must be 1000’s of times better than the very small but quite effective SR fuses.

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/scientist-holding-large-fuse-11471106.jpg

Notice that the audiophile in the photo has mounted his speaker wires on cable elevators - this guy is clearly an authority to be highly regarded.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Love it!!!  shadorne

Cheers george
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