Synergistic Red Fuse ...

^^^ When Michael Fremer did his factory tour of the Audio Research plant, part of the tour was a visit into ARC's listening room and an interview with ARC's chief listener Warren Gehl.  

Part one:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a58bDqQQ-xY

Part two:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvL9FNuPwkE

During Fremer's interview with Warren, Fremer pointed out the cable lifters under the speaker cables. Fremer kind of scoffed and asked Warren if they really worked.  Warren's answer was ... "everything works." That's my take ... "everything" is a component including the room itself. 

So, unless everything is address from the room itself, to the equipment rack, to footers, to fuses, to tube dampeners, to the furniture in the room, to our listening position, to the tow-in of the speakers .... it all makes a difference. So if there are those who haven't had success with ONE tweak, and also haven't taken the time to address all of the issues listed above, its no wonder they can't hear the improvement that one fuse can make. 

This reminds me of last year's Newport show and the demonstration in the Synergistic Research room. Ted Denny played the system with most of the SR tweaks installed. It was as if we were listening to a wall-to-wall Imax theater of sound. It was truly great.  Then Ted removed the SR tweaks and played the same music over again. Everything just collapsed. Still good, but not near the room filling sound. Then he brought the tweaks back into the room and everything blossomed again.

The guy sitting next to me turned to me and asked if I could hear any difference. When I said yes, it was night and day, he just kind of gave me a little sneering laugh and said ... "well I didn't hear any change at all."  He left me wondering what he was doing at a hifi show. So, it seems that no matter the improvement, there are those who just cannot hear it, or won't admit it. Its one of the great mysteries of the audio hobby, I guess.

Frank 

Hi Frank,

I hope you won’t mind if I make one or two minor adjustments to your statement above:

"So, unless everything is addressed from the room itself, to the equipment rack, to footers, to fuses, to tube dampeners, to the furniture in the room, to our listening position, to AC quality, to cabling, to the tow-in of the speakers .... it all makes a difference. So if there are those who haven’t had success, and also haven’t taken the time to address all of the issues listed above, its no wonder they can’t hear the improvement that "INSERT ALMOST ANY AUDIO DEVICE HERE" can ultimately make.

Best to you Frank and Merry Christmas,
Dave

Nyame,
I agree that the more upgrading of fuses in one’s audio system the greater the impact on sound quality. Given the the innate caution or skepticism people have towards fuses(or tweaks in general) most aren’t willing to commit to this degree. I understand that reservation and it’s human nature. People are more comfortable with "try one first and see/hear what happens ". This was my initial approach to using premium quality fuses a few years ago.

If for example someone needs 5 or 6 fuses the cost can rise significantly, the majority of people will reject the "all fuses at once" method. I would have been very hesitant to begin this way in all candor. With 20/20 hindsight the result of entire system of fuse upgrading is now quite apparent. For some folks it’s a challenge to try even a single fuse, so I understand the common question of "where do you place the first fuse".

Factor in the fact that some listeners report no improvement with upgraded fuses and/or lack of "satisfactory " technical explanations and I can appreciate again the dipping toes into the water mindset,   It's easy for me to enthusiastically recommend better fuses due to my terrific outcome of having them in my system's components. 
Charles 

Frank,
Your story about your time at the SR demo in Newport and that guy's sneering reaction reminds me of an old "friend" I used to hang around with back in the day. 

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that that sneering guy heard the difference but thought it wasn't enough to justify the cost, just like my friend. He had this cognitive dissonance about hifi and it's costs and the better my systems got, the more angry and distant he became. Some people are just weird that way. Or the guy you spoke to had tin ears.

All the best,
Nonoise

nonoise ...

I have a "friend" like that too. The last time he heard my system, I had to endure two hours of him telling me how crappy my system sounded. Some folks just have no social filter, I guess. Funny thing is, we both have the same model of speakers.  We both use tube electronics throughout our systems. My electronics are the modern variety (ARC) and his consists of Bob Hovland's modified classic stuff (Marantz). 

In listening to my "friend's" system, he gets no sound stage to speak of. Everything is presented in a straight plane between his speakers. I hear no depth, nothing on either side of his speakers and no 3-D imaging to speak of at all. I will say though, he gets good clarity and tonal balance. 

When he was listening to my system, his main "gripe" was that it was too holographic, and that the holographic part wasn't on the recording at all. He claimed that the deep sound stage, the instruments playing to either side of the speakers and the 3-D imagining were nothing but distortions being caused by my system ... mainly by the ARC electronics.

I kept telling him that what he was hearing was an accurate reproduction of the event. On one of my reference stereo jazz recordings for example, the piano was to the left and behind the sax player. The bass player was to the right and behind the trumpet player. The drum set was slightly to the right and behind the piano player. The musicians were spread out with each one a different distance from each other ... and that's the way the microphones picked up the sound. I even showed him the cover of the album that had a picture of the group in the exact positions replicated to a "tee" by my system. He remained pat in his opinion. 

So, here's a guy who's system sounds really good, with excellent clarity ... but kind of uninteresting, telling another guy whose system is amazing (to my ear of course), that his system sucks. Why the difference?  I don't get it at all. I guess that's why they make Fords and why they make Chevies. 

Frank