The Synergistic Research fuses arrived yesterday (but UPS put them in the garage. It's only 20 degrees out, so that shouldn't affect them much, right?? :-(
I put one SR fuse in, replacing a HiFi Supreme fuse (with the WA Quantum fuse on it). I heard differences, but, having had no experience with the SR, I neither responded to the change, nor rejected it. It just didn't change the sound so I could tell.
An hour ago, I put the other SR into the system, this one with the WA Quantum fuse chip on it (and it sticks far better than the HiFi Supreme fuses. Who knew?!), so now both SR fuses have the WA Quantum fuse chip on them, and the fuses are in my Hurricane amps (which show ANY change in the system - unfortunately, because sometimes, I don't like what I hear, but then...dark though they are, they are certainly capable of revealing upstream changes).
This was pretty eye-opening. I was even reading an old issue of TAS when the first notes of Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony blasted into the room. And I DO mean, "blasted." It seemed as thought the system was turbo-charged. So, thought I, must be a trumped up midbass-to-lower-midrange effect. Nope. The upper midrange is equally powerful.
Of course, I may be wrong, but the SRs with the WA Quantum chips are a better combination than sticking the HiFi Supremes with WA Quantum chips. I immediately noticed the inner detail on oboes, male voice is more vivid (baritone) and the soundstage seems closer. Bass is unquestionably more forceful, and interesting, because I sold my Arcam FMJ 23 CD player, but still have the FMJ DVD 27 (which I like less: something about the Ring DAC is just astounding in a way that the Wolfson 8740s (or what model it is) are not. The Wolfson's are a bit hard-sounding and I wasn't like the bass, despite the fact that one of the other TAS reviewers said it had great "brute force." I sure didn't hear it. Well, not until I put in the SR fuses with the Quantum chips. Now I hear it. Now, given that the fuses are in the Hurricanes (which always had extremely powerful midbass, part of what made the image solidity so spectacular to my non-audiophile opera singer former boyfriend), it would seem to be saying that the HiFi Supremes weren't great in the bass, and it WAS something I'd noticed before, but blamed it on the new CJ preamp I had gotten. I thought the CJ just didn't have cojones, but now I see that the HiFi Supremes are responsible for the lightness in the bass, and the lack of soliditt of image. Now, before anyone protests that THEIR HiFi fuses have great image density, very few amps have the solidity of the Hurricanes, and I've had - and reviewed many amps for mags. The Hurricanes allow/project exceedingly solid images, which contributes to that realism HP so loved about them, so this is a matter of the rest of the system as well as the amps. All I can say is the HiFi Supremes remove some mid-bass power, because it's back there in spades as of the second I put that second SR fuse w/WA fuse chip into the amp and turned it on. I purposely ignored the sound, knowing I'd pick up some elements of impreovement immediately, without "trying" to hear them. The noise floor is lower, so the soundstage has a blacker background, which means instruments stand out in bas relief more easily. The one part of the frequency range that hasn't improved (yet)is the treble, but I'll let it sit overnight and listen again in the morning (it's 12:40 a.m. Friday morning, Feb. 22, EST).
I'm impressed and I was prepared to just have a good time experimenting with them for 30 days and then - back to the retailer(meaning, I expected the HiFi Supremes to make mincemeat of them, even though I DO have an SR outlet as well).
Hunh, the joke's on me - so far.
I think I wanna keep 'em, Lucy. I know: I promised I wouldn't have any more affairs with new pieces...of equipment. But I can' help myself, honey. Just this once? Please? Please, honey? You know you're the only woman for me, but those quantum electron thingies...MAMMA MIA!!!!!
