WHAT SHOULD BE MY NEXT SYSTEM UPGRADE?

@sameyers1 I encourage you to read Howard Kneller over at SoundStageUltra. He has detailed and explanatory write-ups as well as deep depth of experience with SR products. On this forum, in addition to @millercarbon who has already posted, @folkfreak and @davidpritchard come to mind (among others).

david_ten - Many thanks.

sanmeyers1 has some perfectly normal and common concerns, all too common in fact and still held by a lot of people with more than enough experience to know better by now!

millercarbon - Same question on the Blue Quantum fuses -   independent source that explains why product actually does improve sound

 

When you find that independent source do me a solid and let me know. In all my years studying high end audio, watches, cars, wine, and well pretty much everything, I have yet to find any. In fact the only one I can think of, Consumer Reports, when you actually happen to know a lot about the product you realize not only do you know more than CR, they are more often than not flat out wrong. Which is not to pick on CR but to show how thinking you can rely on anyone else is a fool's errand. You, and your ears, and your brain are the closest to an independent source you are ever gonna find. OR again, let me know!

Before I go through the process of reading manuals to identify proper fuse types, ordering the necessary fuses and then opening up relevant pieces of equipment to install them, I'd like to understand how they work.

Most components have the fuse readily accessible from the outside, often times even with the value marked right on the receptacle. Nowadays nobody needs a manual. The info is right there on-line.

A lot of us would like to understand how they work. And this runs counter to the conventional wisdom, but too bad its the truth: nobody understands how they work.

Not just fuses. All of it. You want proof? I got proof! Take a few things we know how they work: cars, airplanes. The principles are so well understood and so uniformly applied even people who don't understand the principles of aerodynamics can look at a try-plane and know its an anachronism, a jet and know its fast, a car and know from design alone its a sedan or a sports car. Contrast that with cables. If we know so much about why cables work then why are there flat ones, big fat round ones, skinny little round ones, ones that are passive and ones that are actively shielded? Or take amps. Audiophiles can't even agree on tubes vs solid state. If we know why then surely we would know a planar is better than a ribbon. 

Hey look, I get it. Everybody wants to believe. Well wish in one hand and hope in the other, etc. No. Not buying it. Best you can do, try and find designers with a long track record of making products you think sound good. Not anyone else. You. The independent source.

Also would like your feedback on how they behave in an environment with power spikes so significant that my Niagara power conditioner will turn off the system.  (We have a lot of nearby lightning strikes and also have an excessive number of virtually daily very short outages followed by peaks when service is restored, since we are at the end of the power company's service area and are served by only one circuit. 

This is another common misconception. Real common. Don't know why, except that hardly anyone understands even basic electronics. But the way a fuse works, too much current flow heats the wire enough to burn out breaking the circuit and stopping the flow of electricity. So there has to first be a circuit and a flow. Understand? Power spikes don't burn fuses, current draw burns fuses. Component turned off, no circuit, no fuse burn no matter how much spike. Component draws too much current, fuse burns out, spike or no spike. Component doesn't draw too much current, does not matter what voltage does.

Your Niagara conditioner is a whole different story. It is not a fuse. As you said it turns off the system. Whole different thing.

The very few really good designers, of which Ted Denney is definitely one, they probably have a pretty good idea what is going on. You can come up with one great idea and be random. You come up with a whole string and at some point you have to give the guy a little more credit. Ted has invented freaking PAINT that works acoustically. That is just over the top brilliant. 

Yet every time Ted does try and say a little the most common reaction is he's blowing New-Age smoke and/or snake oil and mirrors. Whatever. Does not matter to me. I'm the guy who knows nothing matters less than WHY. Only thing that matters is how it sounds. I leave it to others to explain why. 50 years of doing this has taught me nobody knows why. Heck hardly anyone even can hear a lot of this stuff. Not because its not there. Because they can't hear! Correction: they haven't learned how to listen! 

So for example Ted has mentioned somewhere, not sure if its on his site, that ECT, PHT, HFT, etc use dither. In general, dither is a randomized addition to a signal that for some reason having to do with us being humans creates a perception of higher resolution. Dither is totally used in video. They are very scientific about it, with dither tailored to each application. Well, the HFT, etc are basically the same thing with slight differences. Yet Ted says dither, people brush him off. I actually wrote a post about this when I reviewed these. As I recall nobody was interested and instead I was ridiculed. Its okay. I give as good as I get- and then some.

I keep coming back to Synergistic because in all that time I've seen nobody and nothing establish as good a track record for performance and value. Nobody in the industry has as good a buy-back program. Nearly everything they sell comes with a 30 day no-questions asked return guarantee. They stand behind their products so solid they even replaced a Blue Quantum Fuse that burned out on me!

If you ordered HFT you will know soon enough. My advice, don't just plaster them all up according to the diagrams. Start with just one. If your ears are any good you will hear and be surprised by what just one can do. Then before putting another one up move the first one. If you've got the chops you will notice the sound change from moving one even an inch or two. Its crazy but you will be able to tune the sound of things like cymbals. Not by a huge amount. But enough to notice. Enough to prefer one over the other. Only then when you are happy with that one move on to adding the next one or two. If you ordered the HFT Speaker Kit do the same with those. Only do them in pairs. But experiment with each one individually before adding more. Then when you have them all up go back and tweak again just to be sure.

Op here is our take on what direction you should take

Personally we would recommend that you try a high end ref integrated.

We know you tried a Luxman and it clipped there are better sounding and much more powerful integrated amplifiers.

Before clipping did you experience greater resolution?

A T+A  3100 hv is a 300 watt 8 ohm 500 watt 4 ohm integrated based on $40k seperates you would gain transparency with an improved sound stage. 

The Gryphon Diablo is another massively powerful unit. 

Both of these ref grade int will dramatically outperform your Ayre Proceed combo.

Next upgrade your old Aeriels with a modern set of speakers.

Then upgrade digital.

Then cables.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

@audiotroy the Luxman was a bit brighter sounding than my gear at lower listening levels, but not necessarily better.  Its bass response was inferior.  Overall resolution may have been a bit better on the high frequencies.  It was not tiring or electronic sounding.  (I owned an excellent Luxman receiver many years ago, and the Luxman was paired with Magico A3 speakers at a show we attended - a very good pairing.)

The Gryphon Diablo has been suggested by a local dealer.  But why purchase a new integrated before speakers?  

If new speakers require less power, wouldn't it make sense to start there?  Frankly, after auditioning Magico A3, B&W Diamond series, Wilson and others, I am less convinced that newer speakers will sound better, just different in some instances.  The Magico was the best in our view. A bit more accurate than our speakers, but with a bit less realistic bass response, particularly when listening to say a jazz piano trio and its acoustic bass, and a bit sterile sounding. After 30 minutes of listening, the B&W 800 and 801 were tiring (too bright and electronic sounding).  The Wilson Sophia and Sasha auditioned a number of years ago were similar to our Aerials and I didn't see any improvement in imaging or resolution even though that was suggested as their strong points.  What would you recommend for someone who prefers speakers that lack a lot of coloration, have great resolution, don't sound electronic and tiring, and have good full-range frequency response?

Thanks in advance for your input.