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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
2channel8
758 posts
 
@oregonpapa 
1) Thanks for the welcome and advice.
2) I was only gonna try it for a few minutes. ;^)
3) Don't tell my insurance company!

Happy Holidays!
I'm listening to the Harry Belafonte Christmas CD as I cook Octopus sauce for a generations old traditional Italian Christmas Eve feast. Now moving on to stuffing the shrimp.
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
^^^  Octopus sauce?  Sounds like a rustic Italian dish to me. Man, I love Italian food. I always add a few anchovie fillets to my basic tomato sauces to improve depth. You can't detect the anchovies, but its a great "secret" ingredient. 

Hope you have a terrific family dinner tonight. :-)

Merry Christmas. 
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,469 posts
 
A good quality breaker costs about $40 and replaces the on/off switch that carries its own cost. No, a great quality circuit breaker will not impact the sound any more than a quality power switch. 

Another big area for improvement in amps are the binding posts. Want to hear an improvement on the order of what these high end fuses deliver? Ok, get rid of the binding posts! No kidding. I know most won't ever go for this for many reasons, but the improvement is substantial.  Ok this is for out of the box designers and builders. Build tube amps/amps  with the output transformer leads running out to a nicely designed Teflon post that is built to clamp the tranny leads to the speaker cable. The only role the Teflon or wooden post plays is to clamp! Certainly a professional designer could design such a part that is simple to use and rugged. I use Teflon bolts, nuts and washers to accomplish it. Very notiicable and like all fuses,  connectors no matter the cost, all degrade sound. Yes I hard wire my power cord and ICs to my DIY tube amp for best sound:)


oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
Grannyring ...

I have a friend who does exactly what you suggested with hard-wiring.  I haven't heard his system as he lives in Utah and I live in California. But, he tells me about these improvements all the time. In fact, he's the friend who changed out the binding posts on my speakers for a quality set of Cardas copper binding posts. That was a significant improvement right there. 


nyame
198 posts
 
Grannyring                                      12-24-2016

" Want to hear an improvement on the order of what these high end fuses deliver? Ok, get rid of the binding posts! "

Agreed. But your sentence is not yet complete.

How about " Want to hear an improvement on the order of what these high end fuses deliver? OK get rid of the binding posts AND the RCA input connectors. Replace with higher quality connectors."

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