Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Well today is July 4 and I have the day off from work. So I spent the last several hours changing out one of the wall outlets in my Mother's living room. There are 5 outlets on one circuit. Previously she had One Synergistic Research Black, One Furutech GTXD-R (rhodium), and three Synergistic Research Tesla Plex (red) .  The primary power conditioner is plugged into the SR Black outlet. Today I replaced a SR Tesla Plex (red) which the dual subs are plugged into with a SR Black.

This occurred while she was out of the room eating lunch. When she got back I fired up the system. Her initial impression " better bass- firmer and more emotion to the music. Details are easier to hear".

We then spent the next hour listening to her streaming service and were impressed that we could hear the music presentation improve song by song. "It is like watching a flower unfold and becoming more beautiful"

A very nice time indeed.

David Pritchard

David,

   There you go again pampering your mother. I am amazed that a woman her age can hear the subtle nuances and details whenever you add another tweak to her system. I can't think of a better way to spend the 4th of July. I'm glad you got to spend some quality time with her.  

sherod:
The change in the system certainly was not subtle. The SR Black outlet makes a big improvement over the SR Tesla Plex or the Furutech GTXD-R. I made sure not to change the volume during the outlet installation. She is indeed a very focussed listener. It was a very nice afternoon.

David Pritchard

I received my two SR Black outlets today and I have to say that they are not outwardly impressive in any way. Black plastic, a steel back-strap stamped "spec grade" and the code-required tamper-resistant nylon "shutters" over the hot and neutral slots. About the only externally visible mod is what may be black UEF paint on the heads of the hot terminal screws. I'm planning on installing them tomorrow, replacing the existing PS Audio Power Ports as the first receptacles in line with each of my two dedicated 20 amp circuits. Updates promised.

The crazy thing I did today (or maybe just one of the crazy things I did today) was to install two 14 pound 12" x 8" x 2" Himalayan salt blocks under my Primaluna tube monos. The amps have long been supported on Herbie's Balls and Iso Cups which in turn were placed on three smallish granite tiles I used to "couple" them to my living room's oriental rug. It has always sounded pretty good to me (and better than the amps just plopped on the carpet), but changing to the salt slabs clearly exposed a significant weakness to this approach.  

The soundstage expanded yet again in all dimensions with rock (salt) solid edge-less images floating within and even better bass depth and definition--akin to the sonic improvements generated by the SR Black fuses (hello, almost-the-original-thread-topic!), the HFTs, the Atmosphere and the FEQ.

The simple explanation for this is that by substituting a single fairly massive slab base under the three-point Herbie's footers was way better than my three tiles on the carpet approach. In fact I have long considered what chunk of something I could cost-effectively place under the amps, be it granite, butcher block, acrylic, etc. And it's probably true that by ditching the tiles in favor of almost any kind of slab would make for better sonics. Science demands I experiment further (with other slabs or other footers), but at present I am disinclined.

So, why did I choose the salt blocks? I can't quite remember how I got the idea (they're advertised for cooking), but at about $60 for two, I figured I couldn't lose as I could always gift them to my cooking-nerd friends if they didn't improve things audio-wise. From an audio voo-doo perspective, salt is said to have a resonance very near the Schumann Resonance of the earth, which just happens to be the (claimed) operating mechanism of the SR Atmosphere and FEQ field generators, not to mention that they generate negative (good) ions when heated, pretty much making me a genius and finally providing the sure-fire path to fame and riches that has always eluded me.

Or perhaps not...

^^^

Nice post, Andy ...

You just never know what will affect the sound either negatively or positively. Salt blocks ... who-da thunk it?  :-)

I'm really looking forward to your assessment of the two SR outlets as they break in. They're on my bucket list.

I tried putting granite slabs under my speakers, spiking the slabs to the floor (raised foundation), and then spiking the speakers to the granite slabs.  I was looking for a way to improve the bass.  Well, it improved the mids and the highs, but the bass became almost nonexistent. So then I got the idea of ordering two Mapleshade maple platforms and tried them in the same way.

http://mapleshadestore.com/feedback_mapleshadeplatforms.php

Walla!  Great bass and an overall improvement throughout the full range. The granite slabs are now on top of the speakers and they fit the exact dimensions of the speaker tops. The added weight of the granite slabs add to the mass of the speakers and give a further improvement, especially in the area of overall clarity. 
 
At the moment, I'm breaking in two of the Von Gaylord 7000 IC's and a pair of their biwired speaker cables.

http://vongaylordaudio.com/beta/cabling/

So far, I'm getting fantastic results with only about 50 hours on them. The Von Gaylord cables require about 200 hours to sound their best. I'll start a new thread about them in the cable forum when they're broken in.   At 50 hours they are stomping all over the wires they replaced, and those were no slouches at all ... not by a long shot. 

Hang in there ... and happy listening.