Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Georgelofi,

I have no doubt that no fuse is likely the best fuse for performance but I’ll pass on that. It is what it is. If I need better sound I’ll figure out some other way to get it beside eliminating the fuse that the designers deemed wise to put in there..

Papa also someone above pointed out that the fuse ARC put in their unit appeared to be not your typical Walmart variety fuse.

I would agree. The slo blow fuse that was in my ARC sp16 looked quite substantial and nothing like the slo blos we used to sell at Radio Shack. Some thought appeared to go into it. So I don’t think its safe to say that those making our gear always give fuses the short shift. There are many reasons why ARC has been as successful and been around as long as they have. They make great sounding gear to start.

Also I noted earlier that back in my hifi sales days, I recall convincing myself that slo blo fuses made more sense for use in hifi gear than fast blo and developed a preference for those based on teh gut feel that every slo blo fuse I have seen has a more substantial filament and is more forgiving of current passing through and I think its a safe assumption that teh fewer bottlenecks anywhere the better..

Its also almost always the case that one can only judge something new in comparison to what came before it. The quality of fuses being replaced by audiophile fuses surely varies widely. That alone could account for why different people hear different results. I tend to downgrade any review of any product when the reviewer fails to acknowledge what the gadget he thinks sounds so great is replacing.

So for me, its never been about whether a fuse can sound different or not. Its more about the value proposition of various options. $100 is small fry to pay as part of a 5 digit system. Yet there may well be other commercial fuses out there of similar quality still for less than $1. That’s still a huge difference to justify. When the time comes to replace a fuse, I will surely still consider all the alternatives based on pure technical merit.   If the $1 fuse does not cut it, no big loss.

Georgelofi wrote,

"OK, try this one for an experiment only, definitely not for long term for safety sake.

Make sure all is working fine and you grown used to how it sounds. Then remove the "red fuse" and bridge out he the fuse holder with some copper wire, you can even tack solder it on the outside of the fuse holder. It should sound the best, if anything at all."

actually, with all the advancements in fuse technology, including quantum mechanics and nanotechnology, in the past twenty years including, but not limited to, purer wires, better end caps, attention to vibration, attention to EMI/RFI, and attention to "energy flow efficiency" (WA Quantum Fuse Chip), the old copper wire bypass trick probably actually isn’t up to snuff anymore. And I didn't even mention cryogenics.  Shame on me. Besides you’ve only got a 50% chance of inserting the copper wire correctly according to my calculations. Otherwise you’ll wind up with a big mess. Not to mention the unpleasant sound resulting from soldering the copper wire.

geoff at MD
no goats no glory

"OK, try this one for an experiment only, definitely not for long term for safety sake.

Make sure all is working fine and you grown used to how it sounds. Then remove the "red fuse" and bridge out he the fuse holder with some copper wire, you can even tack solder it on the outside of the fuse holder. It should sound the best, if anything at all.

 Cheers George"

 

 I tried this with a pure silver fuse replica that was highly polished. After A*B-ing a few times... my conclusion was... the SR black fuse was highly superior in every way.

Well if teh Black Fuse truly uses Graphene as claimed then it might well be more conductive than silver.    How about in teh interest of science open up a Black fuse and report on the contents for us?

If the graphene claims can be verified independently that would score another point for SR and also help justify the cost further.

It could be like those flavored drinks,  yeah there is a little pomegranite in there but its mostly sugar and artificial flavorings.

"Skeptic" mopman out.