Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Thx, Gwalt.  I had them in right.

My previous concern over the Red's deep bass has disappeared.  They sound great.  In fact, I begin channeling Gollum, wanting to hold onto my precious Reds.  Do I really want to send them back for the Blacks?  I have ten days to decide.  If there's not consensus that the Blacks are obviously better, I'm leaning towards holding at Red and getting two more for the DAC, but even that seems greedy based on how good things sound now.

Oregonpapa:

I am glad your fuse settled in and the music is really flowing. I think your description is quite good between the BLACK and RED fuse. In some rooms + systems the "added" noise of the RED maybe psychoacoustically more pleasing than the more accurate BLACK fuse. No different then a live music performance with a dead crowd, a noisy crowd, and an energized crowd.

almarg:

In my system that has had the pronounced improvement, the fuses are in an Antelope DAC that is never turned off and has a music source running 24/7. I certainly hope you will try the RED or BLACK fuses. I have found the changing of fuses to be a facinating and worthwhile project.

IT is certainly cheaper than comparing Psvane to Elrog tubes !

David Pritchard

Bravo! , the findings of the sr-black's are resulting in what I needed to confirm, very informative thread,  enjoyable as well.

It seems we should arrive at some conclusions based on our experiences with fuses:  Stock fuses provide overload protection but degrade the signal path.  They are necessary to meet safety standards and prevent costly damage, but they are detrimental to sound quality.  This degradation has been discovered and can be improved by inserting a better conductor.  Maggie owners who modify have gone even further, saying, "No fuse is the best fuse."  They remove the fuse bank that protects their midrange and tweeters and wire directly.  Maggies provide perhaps the best opportunity to show how these boutique fuses are far superior to stock fuses. The differences are unmistakable and leave no room for alternative explanations. With due respect to you, Al, those of us who are more "plug and play" audiophiles have sought out the easy tweaks of fuses, cords, cables, etc, and have been rewarded. In a funny way, knowledge has not been an obstruction for us.  The drawback to these fuses is how well do they protect?  It's buyer beware on that question.  A lot of us are getting such good sound, we don't seem to care.  I know I will not go back to stock fuses or power cords, not with the superior conduction materials on the DIY market. 

Huh? Are there really ANY cases where aftermarket fuses failed to protect the equipment? I haven’t heard of any, maybe you have an inside track. As for stock fuses degrading the sound they will, like aftermarket fuses, degrade the sound less when they are inserted in the correct direction. There are in fact a number of things one can do with stock fuses to improve their performance including addressing RFI/EMI, vibration and magnetic fields as well as employing a better fuse holder and employing contact enhancer on the fuse caps.