HFTs or more fuses

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.

Sometimes it's hard to isolate one variable. Having HFT's placed front,back , side ,and ceiling with the Atmosphere does definitely change the sound field. That being said, the biggest change has been changing over to the Audio Horiziong  premium fuses in my DAC, preamp and amp . The system has changed dramatically with this change. The AH fuses replaced both the SR reds and blacks in the above mentioned components. 

rnwong:
Glad to read the Audio Horizon fuses are working well in your system. This really is an exciting time in audio with several talented inovators giving us great choices in products that will improve the sound.
I am of the belief that using a premium fuse + wall outlet is the foundation on which to build a supperior sound system.

David Pritchard