Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Frank,
Due to your efforts this thread has made many music lovers aware of a very good tweak, myself included. You should be justifiably proud. 

Different topic,  
Frank do you have any recordings of Hampton Hawes? He was a first rate West Coast style pianist.  I really enjoy him, as they used to say, this cat can play! He did some wonderful collaborations  with Harold Land and Jim Hall in the 1950s.
Charles, 

Hi, Charles ...

Hampton Hawes? Yes, I have a number of his recordings. One of my favorites is his playing of "The Champ" on the "Lighthouse at Laguna"recording on Contemporary. On one side you have Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse Allstars, and on side two is the Hampton Hawes trio. Its only available in mono, but its a Contemporary, so its one of those recordings that  has you asking ... "who needs stereo?"

Here's what to look for:  

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lighthouse-Allstars-At-Laguna-CD-Mint-/391526192694?hash=item5b28c79636:g:OY...

I have a lot of recordings featuring Harold Land too. I've always considered him to be an underrated player. He's one of my favorites. He did a lot of work on Contemporary Records and they did an outstanding job of giving us great sounding recordings. The folks at Contemporary turned out a superior product. I have a ton of Contemporary recordings and I don't think there's a bad sounding one among them. 

Here's some of the Harold Land albums I own:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAROLD-LAND-The-Fox-Elmo-Hope-Dupree-Bolton-Frank-Butler-Herbie-Lewis-LP-/25...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/West-Coast-Blues-Harold-Land-Vinyl-LP-/282151675630?hash=item41b18ce6ee:g:-~...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harold-Land-Eastward-Ho-61-Jazzland-LP-/370524519238?hash=item5644fb7b46:m:m...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLIFFORD-BROWN-MAX-ROACH-IN-CONCERT-JAPAN-KING-LP-Teddy-Edwards-Harold-Land-...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RED-MITCHELL-HAROLD-LAND-5ET-Hear-Ye-Hear-Ye-Hear-Ye-Hear-Ye-LP-sm-wobc-/301...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harold-in-the-Land-of-Jazz-New-CD-/291802879128?hash=item43f0ce9498:g:~ygAAO...

Right now I'm listening to "A Portrait of Love;" early 18th century music for the French court, consisting of violin, harpsichord and gamba ... plus Nancy Argenta - soprano on Harmonia Mundi. Amazing!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VARIOUS-A-Portrait-Of-Love-CD-Like-New-Mint-/182222450066?hash=item2a6d4ded9...

I have to say, since the big strides in resolution and musicality have been made over the past year in the system, as good as the Harmonia Mundi recordings were in the past, they really have come to life. What a great label. 

Its fun discovering "new" recordings among the "old" collection. 

OP

Good comment by Mitch2, whose opinions and sonic perceptions have over the years earned very high credibility in my book. And I agree that the discussions/arguments about the efficacy of fuse upgrades have pretty much run their course. I would like to add something, though, to what has been said about the value or lack thereof of having a technical understanding of how tweaks such as these fuses work the magic that many users have described them as providing.

There are at least two reasons why some (including me) would find it unsettling that a persuasive technical explanation doesn’t seem to be available:

1)A persuasive technical explanation, especially one that seems to make sense when looked at in a quantitative manner, would tend to dispel doubts some may legitimately have about what could legitimately be considered to be the seemingly implausible efficacy of such a tweak. Which would add confidence that the investment of time that would be required to properly assess the tweak in the various possible applications within a system would not be wasted.

And by "implausible" I don’t mean to suggest that a fuse change can’t make a difference. In fact based on Atmasphere’s experimental results that I quoted on 8-3-2016 on page 49 of this thread I would expect that the mere act of removing a fuse and then putting the same fuse back in place could make a difference.

What does seem implausible to me, however, and frankly quite baffling, as well as fundamentally inconsistent with my technical understanding of how electronic designs work (and I completely recognize and acknowledge that technical understanding can neither explain nor predict a lot of what we hear or don’t hear in a system) is that the benefits of upgrading to a particular fuse would occur with the high degree of consistency that has been reported, ***among components that are completely different in design, that perform completely different functions, that are used in very different systems, and that are powered by AC having very different voltage and noise characteristics.***

2)A good technical understanding of how a given tweak works its magic may, hopefully, enable increased predictability of whether or not that magic will be forthcoming in a specific application.

Regards,
-- Al

Almarg wrote,

"There are at least two reasons why some (including me) would find it unsettling that a persuasive technical explanation doesn’t seem to be available:

1)A persuasive technical explanation, especially one that seems to make sense when looked at in a quantitative manner, would tend to dispel doubts some may legitimately have about what could legitimately be considered to be the seemingly implausible efficacy of such a tweak. Which would add confidence that the investment of time that would be required to properly assess the tweak in the various possible applications within a system would not be wasted."

2)A good technical understanding of how a given tweak works its magic may, hopefully, enable increased predictability of whether or not that magic will be forthcoming in a specific application."

Another typical trollish comment that dismisses ALL technical explanations for fuses already put forward, you know things like purer metal conductor and end caps as well as vibration control. Recall, dear readers these explanations are NOT rocket science. The use of the word "magic"by naysayers when describing tweaks, you know, like psychological, perception, placebo, bias, I.e., is just another clue that the person’s mind was made up a long time ago and that nothing can change it. This is all just another case of one troll admiring the cut of another troll’s jib.

Dear Al, Ralph and geoffkait ...

Your interesting technical dialogues are always informative and enjoyable to read.

But .... .

Is there anything to be said for just using one's ears to assess whether a tweak makes an improvement, causes a subtraction, or just doesn't make any difference at all? Especially if one knows the sound of live music and that is what any given system is compared with?
I've said it before ... I don't know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor, other than the capacitor stores energy and ... and ... what was it that a resistor does again?  

All I know is, upgrading from the HiFi tuning fuse that was in my amp, to the original SR Red fuse that started this thread was not subtle by any means. It was so much of a positive change that it motivated me to start this thread to begin with.  

A good friend whose ears I trust heard the improvement without knowing what the change was the moment he walked into the room to start a listening session.

Then with the conversion over to the SR Black fuses, the stage was set. It was like upgrading to a far better pre-amp or amp without the outlay of many thousands of dollars.

Then, the SR High Frequency Transducers (HFT's) really locked everything into place like never before. I don't know how these little things that stick on the walls work ... I only know that the little buggers are fantastic.


So, there are those of us out here who really don't need to know "why." We only care that it "does."  And that was the point I was trying to make with the purveyor of PA systems for the home environment, Wolfie Cotton Ears.

In the meantime, Mr. Record, who hears like a dang bat, is coming over for dinner and a listening session tonight. He always brings his latest thrift store finds, both vinyl and Cd's. So ... I'm looking forward to this evening.

Take care, guys.

OP