Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Thanks for the rundown on the outlets.

Outlets are also a very large contributor to the sound, but find they, like plugs can cause a bigger change and improvements which need carefully synergies with the equipment and cables unlike the fuses. Any aftermarket fuse is likely to give an overall improvement over a stock standard fuse.

Like the wall outlets, i still like the old Teslaplex (non SE) in front of the SE version. It has some hardness and dynamics which the SE verion leaves behind for a more musical presentation, which for Rock music give a calmness which at times seem wanting.

Afraid an added GTX-D may add too much detail and spotlighting effect which a nonplated outlet will never give.. So may swing for the black.

Seriously, I've never seen a more substantial boatload of nonsense on any thread. Now outlets are supplying a sort of passive tone manipulation? Outlets with good grip on plugs make sense…hospital grade or whatever ( I use PS Audio power ports because of that) but they simply have zero effect on any aspect of tone. To think otherwise is really strange. Does anybody think about this stuff rationally as it applies to AC or is rationality simply swept aside when discussing imaginary fuse direction symptoms or dynamic tone changes from magical sources? Overpriced fuses pushed hard by smarmy agenda driven "experts" can ensnare the gullible into thinking they see clothing on the emperor (overused cliche' but valid in this case)…and encouraging others to waste their cash on placebos installed well outside of the active circuitry of power supplies and complex tone shaping components is sketchy behavior at best, unethical at worst.

Goldencutt ...

Changing from the Reds to the Blacks was the right thing to do. You are eventually in for a real treat. By "eventually," I mean that the magic comes into its own at around 70 hours and continues to improve past 100  hours.

 What you're experiencing is normal. You can hear some improvements over the Red fuses, but there's a hard edge that's annoying, right?  Once broken in (100 hours) all of that hard edge will be gone and there will be a new light shining on your sound stage with the instruments and vocals really coming into focus like never before.  There will be a  new sense of lack of grain, a grain that you didn't even realize was there. Its quite an amazing transition, really.

 When the fuse in your CD player is finally broken in, you won't believe the improvement in your digital playback. I'm mostly a vinyl guy ... but I have to say, these fuses have  brought my digital to way beyond where I ever thought digital could go. Totally enjoyable now, and I find myself listening to digital more and more. Good thing too ... I have over 2000 CD's in my collection. Sick, I know. *lol*

Please give us an update as your Black fuses start to break in. This is interesting stuff. 

Take care ...

Wolf & Mapman ...

And there is no reason to buy expensive Single Barrel Scotch or Bourbon whiskey ... After all, alcohol is alcohol, right? 

Choice or Prime beef? Nope ... meat is meat. 

Plain old American processed cheese slices vs a carefully aged English cheddar?  No difference! Cheese is cheese. 

A stock Dynaco Stereo 70 vs a modern day tube amp? Nope, tubes are tubes and amps are amps. 

For two guys who continue to rail against the progress being made in the materials being used to make the improvements in the items being covered in this thread, all I can say is ... try the upgrades for yourselves and then comment.  Until then, you two guys have nothing to go on except your prior experiences. 

Question ... Are you two guys still using the original cell phones with the huge battery packs?  If not, why not? After all ... a phone call is a phone call, right?  

And now, back to my audio system that is sounding simply amazing these days thanks to the various upgrades being applied to the system. 

Rest easy  ...