HFTs or more fuses

Rockyboy:
There certainly IS a 30 day return on Synergistic’s fuses. In fact, I just - 10 minutes ago - spoke to Andy at Synergistic Research, because I was curious about the new Black fuses, AND because my dealer also told me there was no longer a 30-day trial, which I mentioned to Andy, and he informed me there IS (still) a 30-day return on ALL Synergistic fuses. However, you might want to call him and confirm that for yourself. Their phone number is listed on their site. I think if I put it in here, something triggers a blackout of the number. Here is a post from another thread:
"Manufacturer’s Description:

The Synergistic Research BLACK is the most advanced fuse to date. With Synergistic Research’s cutting edge UEF Coating and Graphine first developed for Synergistic Research’s new Atmosphere Series AC power cords, Synergistic Research Black Fuses deliver performance far beyond their world class RED Fuses. Improvements over RED include a lower noise floor, improved dynamics and clarity, and soundstaging that must be heard to be believed. In fact the performance gain over RED is far greater than the difference between SR’s RED fuses and their original Synergistic Research 20 Quantum fuses. Sold with a 30-day no-risk money back guarantee, you won’t believe how good your system can sound until you try BLACK but don’t say we didn’t warn you because once you go BLACK you’ll never go back to your old fuse!"

According to Andy, dealers who sell their fuses should be honoring this. I’m about to order a Black fuse and notify my vendor about the 30-day money back guarantee, because I was told the same thing as you: that that promotion "is no longer going on." So, check with Synergistic first.

Well, I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the Quantum Black fuse.
I put just one in my Arcam FMJ 23 and just wandered into the room a little while ago after giving it 5 days to break in. Pulled it out of mute and was immediately smacked in the face by the sound of the orchestra sitting in their chairs waiting for the next number to begin. The noise floor is significantly improved over the Red. In fact, between the SR20 and the Red, I heard a slight improvement in the noise floor, but this time, I didn’t have to listen for it: it was waiting to ambush me.
Strings sound much better on this version than on the Red, as well as the ambient information. I was listening to a Mercury Living Presence CD from the second boxed set. There’s a cd called PT Barnum and this was cut 19, which has a pause in it. I un-muted it right before the pause, and in the silence (which is a very LIVING silence, not just the absence of noise), you hear the air coming into the microphone - and very fluidly  at that, so you hear almost a "harmonic silence." It is easier to identify it as the Eastman Rochester hall. But in any good hall,  if you close your eyes during a concert,  you can still tell there are people around you and "hear" the air in the hall - even in the silences between numbers -  as a living, breathing presence, for lack of a better phrase. And I THINK, compared to the SR20,which I had in the Arcam, there is almost no glare on the brass, which may be more a function of the microphones Mercury used.
Although I liked the SR20, and then the Red (which, in my system, wasn’t that great a difference in the places I used them (CD player mostly, although also in integrated amps), the Black shows its true colors…make that absence of color, since Black is the absence of color. It’s more like an absence of colorations, but I’ll have to listen more to discern what it is doing and what it is not doing. But it’s the first truly impressive fuse, and I’ve had Hi Fi Supremes, Audio Horizon, AMR, Synergistic, Furutech (my least favorite: I find Furutech has a distinct sound to it, one I am not liking in anything in my system including power cords re-terminated with Furutech connectors: they seem a little bright and cold in a solid state setup and diminished in the mid bass, a failing I cannot overlook).
I'll try these in my PS Audio Power Plant next, although I haven't found the fuses to be quite as obvious in the Power Plant, which is not to say I can't hear what different fuses do in that location. I can. It's just that it doesn't seem to do that much to the music itself, as in allowing more information to come through, or drop the noise floor as much. In the Arcam, it is, hands down, better than any fuse that preceded it, simply because it took no time whatsoever for me to tell how much more like a mike feed from the Metropolitan Opera on Saturdays it "sounds" (or doesn't sound) like. Quite impressive.

My experience. Putting SR Reds in my Bryston BDA-1 and Musical Design Elite Ultra tubed pre resulted in a noticeable but very small improvement in SQ.  Not the "aha" result i was hoping for. It was something akin to a cable or IC upgrade. While I am now tempted to replace the Reds with Blacks, 30 days have passed; so no refund and, after spending good money on the Reds, I can't just relegate them to my parts drawer. In the meantime, new spkr cables (that I'm familiar with) should be in my hands this week. So, anxious to get them in my system. 
gbmcleod-fwiw, I had your CD player for approx. 10 years and loved it. However, replaced it a couple years ago with a Bryston BDP-1/BDA-1 combo and was overwhelmed by the clarity/detail that I had been missing with the FMJ-23. In addition, the Bryston combo enabled me to rip my cd colllection (and a large number from my local library) and put the music on thumb drives thereby allowing me to access any album or song from my love seat using my iPad remote. The days of getting up and swapping out CDs in a player's drawer are a thing of the past. I know there's better players and DACs available. I think you would really enjoy a digital upgrade.  

Rockyboy, had a Bryston at one point and sold it, although it sounded great. The Arcam is my "fallback" player, one that I’ll never sell (i’ve bought it 3 times, and sold it twice, so the third one stays!). That allows me to have a CD player to listen to at all times - and it serves as a ’control’ for my system. But I’m an analog guy, with 10,000 records, so digital’s something I don’t spend money on often. VPI/Clearaudio Stradivarius is my thing. I doubt I’d spend as much for digital as I would for an analog rig. Have a Versa 2.3 I’ve had for 27 years (bought it right after the big 1989 San Francisco quake. The house shook so hard, that afterwards, I thought to myself, "If I’m going to fall into the Pacific, I might as well have a really good turntable to enjoy for now and maybe take to Heaven"). Although I’m now in CT it’s still out in California for now.
But since I have the FMJ, I wanted it to have the best ancillaries, and that includes fuses. If I can graduate from a good to very good quality, I’ll do it. Besides which, I’m curious about everything, so I try the ’tweaks’ out just to see what they do. My friends benefit: some of them now have Nordost Titanium cones, Goldmund cones, Finite Elemente Cerabases in their systems. I like doing things like that, and they’re all guys who attend live music or majored in it in college, so i get knowledgeable assessments of things I loan them. I’m going to talk them into a Quantum Black shortly, or maybe I’ll just take mine (the Arcam) over and let them listen. It’s fun to share!

gbmcleod, I digress from the topic, but what footers do you have under your tt? I have a VPI Classic 3 and will experiment tomorrow with Edensound triceratops that I used years ago with great success under a Sota tt.