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
Charles1dad, 

My black fuse should FINALLY be here tomorrow and I will experiment, however, I assume that if you are a previous red owner like myself and already know the direction you prefer with the red, that one could save the time by simply using the same direction with the black.  Would I be correct in deducing this? I mean,  I would imagine they are produced in the same way. 
Brownsfan,
Thanks! 
The front panel of my Oppo 105 power supply is 9.0. I thought it was a 9.0, after reading your message I looked once more 9.0 on the front panel 9.9 on the back! So its a 9.9.

Later this week I will put the stock fuse in and listen. Then put the BLACK in as I had it then rotate it 180 and listen. I'll get back here and let you know.
Dan told me the power cord to the power supply is much more important than the Oppo spinner.

My VAC with the RED fuse is a major upgrade. Amazing sound Oppo, VAC and Harbeth.
I saw Dave Pritchard’s comments about wall outlets. I have most of the same as he does; Oyaide R-1, Teslaplex, Teslaplex SE, Furutech GTD-X (rhodium), FIM 880s, (blue and white: I like the blue better, but the FIMs sound a bit soft) PS Audio Classic and Premier outlets and the Maestro. Unlike David, I do like the Teslaplex SE (although it IS a little forward in the upper midrange). And the Oyaide is rich, but it has a definite sound: it moves the soundstage forward on EVERYTHING, so it’s a permanent in-your-face soundstage, but with the consequence of foreshortened depth. I liked the forwardness of the soundstage when I got it years ago (it was like moving from Row K to Row F), until I realized EVERYthing sounded up front, even RCA Living Stereos, which are certainly not  recorded to be forward-sounding. RCA placed their microphones much further back than Mercury, so you get more  of the hall ambience than direct sound on RCAs. An equally nice sound, just not quite as "immediate." But just as grainless as some Mercurys.

I found the  Quantum Black as Dave describes it, although I’d say the noise floor, my Arcam FMJ CD player, is light years ahead of the SR20 model that was previously in it. In fact, the difference between an SR20 and a Red, to me, is good, but not the proverbial "order of magnitude" (the late HP's favorite phrase) better.
And I can see how Siddh’s would see what he observed. One thing about the Stillpoints, I found: as you move up from the Ultra Minis to the SS (I never got 5s: against my religion to pay that much, not to mention, against my wallet!), the midbass becomes "leaner." Tight and harmonically great, with terrific impact, but leaner. I remember clearly that Robert Harley pointed this out in his review of the 5s in TAS when he reviewed them. I would conclude - although I’d have to find that damn Audio Horizon fuse first - that the Audio Horizon is a richer-sounding fuse than the Synergistic. I have observed, as I mentioned earlier,  that the Teslaplex SE has a slight brightness to it, which, in Enjoy The Music, the reviewer also noticed. But in my system, the  Quantum Black  fuse ANNOUNCED itself, as I noted in another thread. It was as though it was saying, just wait 'til you pull your system out of mute. I felt like the Boogeyman had jumped out and scared the daylights out of me (it was pretty astounding, seriously. I'm not joking.)  I'd sauntered into the music room, sat down and casually thought, "I'll listen to a few minutes of music" given it is now half past midnight. I’d last listened to it last night and it sounded very good - but not astounding. Somewhere between last night and tonight, it transformed.  Tonight it sounded more like the live mike feed I'm used to hearing when I listen to the Metropolitan Opera live on Saturday afternoons, which, even on a mediocre tuner - but a decent system, you can tell it’s live and not a recording. I’ve never heard - using an integrated (I had the NAD C325BEE in there) such a vivid representation of a live orchestra sitting there quietly between numbers - and with the harmonic information intact enough that the Rochester orchestra hall sounds more like the hall than it has in past listening, using mostly the Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CDs. To say it is vivid is not an exaggeration. Normally, I hear a sound or two from one or two members of the orchestra moving in their chairs in between numbers (Mercury did not always stop the tape: in some cuts, they clearly let it go from one cut to the next and continued running the tape). Tonight, my head was swiveling around like a cabbage on a stick, hearing sounds coming from every part of the orchestra. This bespeaks a highly significant reduction in grain, which then manifests as a more continuous presentation due to the lack of grain and, as a necessary adjunct,  much, MUCH lower noise floor. The presentation is simply more "see into" than it was. Even though the NAD integrated is a bit on the dark side of the Force, with the Synergistic, it's as though you went from listening to an orchestra light by 60 watt bulbs to 80 watt bulbs (yes, I do know it's 60w and then 75w, but I'm making a point here). It's obviously more lit up from the front to the back of the sound state. Not more resolution - well, not with the NAD - but more transparent. 
I’ll have to listen further to see if it resembles Siddh’s description, but so far it does not. But, I agree with him: fuses are like power cords or interconnects: some components they mesh with seamlessly, and in other components, they are less favorable. That’s been my experience, too. For example, I would never again put Hi Fi Tuning fuses, Supreme or otherwise, in my Hurricanes. The sound becomes wimpy, and the Hurricanes are, if nothing else, extremely powerful-sounding amps. And their realism, although the resolution doesn’t match my Goldmund Mimesis 9 amp, when I had it, possess a realism the Goldmund could only dream of having, despite that spectacular high frequency extension it had. I’m sure putting the Blacks into the Hurricanes eventually. This is one hell of a fuse, and I’ve had HiFi Tunings, AMRs, Furutech fuses (which I dislike intensely, and I don’t like saying that about anyone’s product, but they do something unpleasant to the midbass as well as the upper midrange and treble ranges), Audio Horizon and, of course, the 3 generation of Synergistic fuses.
My room in CT is tube trapped, same as it was when I lived in San Francisco. I’ve had Tube Traps for the past 30 years: takes the room out of the equation and makes it easier to evaluate. I’d love to try Synergistic’s stuff, but the room’s quite good as it is, so I’ll stick to the fuses.
Whether or not it works in one place in your system, try it in different places. It is a truly excellent fuse, and much superior to the previous Synergistic fuses.

Tonight my SR black was waiting for me on the table in the foyer. I opened it up like a giddy school boy and installed it into my power amp, observing the same "polarity" I had with the red fuse. I went back to my listening position and thought that I was going to be happy with the sound, but not astounded, especially since the fuse was fresh from the box with zero break-in time.  However, this was not the case. I was actually  bowled over.  

Unfortunately, due to getting home late, with my family sleeping I had to listen to the system at a relatively low level. Nevertheless, the attributes of this fuse came gushing through.  Gbmcleod makes some very good assessments above.  For me, Space, micro detail and overall smoothness have gone off the charts. Refinement like I've never heard before from my system.  It truly sounds less like electricity and more like music. Details are less bright, but better defined.  If this is what it sounds like from the box, I can't imagine what it will sound like after break in. The 3d realism simply cannot be explained. It's like with the stock fuse, the landscape is the same size, but much less defined. Images are larger as well. My maggies image like a huge set of high end headphones literally enveloping you, swimming in high fidelity. I thought  that it was great before. This is a new experience.  

In comparison to the red, the black has a much more decernerable difference in sound when switching direction, which makes figuring out the best direction in your component a breeze. (I simply reused the Reds previously determined direction, (happened to be the same correct direction) but still I experimented, but it was punch you in the face obvious with the black when I was in the right "polarity".

So now I have a red in the preamp, black in the amp and 2 blue furutechs in my source.  It sounds so insane right now that im afraid to "mess" with it, but we all know curiosity will get the better of me. I guess the next place would be the source, and pull the furutechs, because I'm sure the blacks would mop the floor with them and would be a better sonic upgrade from going from red to black in the preamp... In 150 hours I can't imagine what this thing will sound like.  I feel sorry for those that laugh at us. They have no idea what they are missing.  They spend precious time trying to prove their point instead of nearing their gear run at higher echelon. Pitty.  Truth is, if you can't hear the improvement, it might be time for a hearing test. 
^^^
If those last two posts don't convince the remaining members to get the SR Black fuses, then I see no hope for them. 

I keep saying it I know, maybe to the point of being boring, but my system has an eerie quietness to it now. The music just seems to come from nowhere and fills the room. Tonight I was playing Miles Davis' E.S.P. reissue and the sound stage went completely from wall to wall totally outside of the speakers. In fact, the speakers don't even exist anymore. 

Audiolover ...

I'm really looking forward to your assessment as your new fuse breaks in. As the fat lady said after the standing ovation she got with the first song she sang ... "you ain't heard nuttin' yet!"  :-)