Synergistic Red Fuse ...


I installed a SR RED Quantum fuse in my ARC REF-3 preamp a few days ago, replacing an older high end fuse. Uhh ... for a hundred bucks, this little baby is well worth the cost. There was an immediate improvement upon installation, but now that its broken in (yes, no kidding), its quite remarkable. A tightening of the focus, a more solid image, and most important of all for my tastes, a deeper appreciation for the organic sound of the instruments. Damn! ... cellos sound great! Much improved attack on pianos. More humanistic on vocals. Bowed bass goes down forever. Next move? .... I'm doing the entire system with these fuses. One at a time though just to gauge the improvement in each piece of equipment. The REF-75se comes next. I'll report the results as the progression takes place. Stay tuned ...

Any comments from anyone else who has tried these fuses?
128x128oregonpapa
tommylion:
I am glad to hear the Black fuse is making an excellent DAC even better.
You may get whiplash shaking your head at how fast yet clean Oscar is playing!

When does something as trival as changing a fuse become meaningful. I was reminded of that today when listening to Vivaldi's trio sonata op.1 number 12 (RV63) - La folia. Las folia is a simple melody that has been around since the 1400's. It's simplicity lend itself to variations in the melody, loudness, and tempo

OK. so what. It really is not a trio of two viloins and cello as the title suggests, but there is also the continuo of a lute and harpsicord. Before my fuse upgrades, the high pitched plucked lute and harpsichord were burried in the back of the soundstage and added more of an annoying bee buzzing than anything musical.

This piece reminds me of the rock songs that start with a simple melody and eventually end in a furrious climax of interplaying  instruments, speed and volume. The Yardbirds
with Jeff Beck on lead guitar and Jimmy Page on bass guitar springs to my mind. Especially the song "Over, Under, Sideways, Down".

With the Black fuses in place, the bee buzzing becomes instead a furry of individual notes and even the left and right hand parts of the harpsicord can be distinguished.

The improvement in sound was significant and more importantly the emotional communication even more improved.

So give a Synergistic Research Black fuse a try if you want
your music listening to have greater impact and more enjoyable.

David Pritchard
David:

Well put. It is the unforced addition of detail that is at the heart of the sonic contribution of the SR Black fuses and outlets....

Andy
David, Oregonpapa, et al,
I'm back with an update now that my SR Black fuse is fully burned-in. I'm using the Black fuse in a high power SS amp and a Red fuse in an ARC CDP.
  First the good; some of you have used the term transformational to describe the effect on sonics and I agree. The soundstage has expanded in width and height, imaging is deep and precise, and a very noticeable lowering of the noise floor.

But and this is a BIG but...my system has gone from smooth, natural sounding digital to hyper-detailed. Let me emphasize that there is no harshness or glare, in fact CD's sound smooth, but music no longer provides an emotional engagement. This is the same effect I experienced when I auditioned the SR Black UEF PC; too much detail from individual instruments in orchestral music. The music does not sound cohesive.
(I've even checked speaker phase and polarity).

My CDP is naturally detailed (ARC CD3 mk II) and my speakers are Gallos with their very resolving tweeter.
So what to do...would a SR Red fuse be a better fit for my system?

BTW, when using the SR Black, music was sounding very two dimensional. After reversing the fuse in the holder, the reward was a glorious soundstage of music.


Maybe you could try the AM Beeswax. I have one in the pre (and SR Blacks in the amps that are now 110 hours burn in), and it is very very good, maybe less demonstrative but more nuanced with more subtlety in the rendering of feeling the "music" in the way you described it. You should try it in the Pre as a kind of rebalancing the sound of your system.
it is just a guess