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

mapman
Just for the record, GK and I are NOT like-minded. :^)



It would appear I dodged a bullet. A mind is a terrible thing to have. 😬

GK you are a talking (walking I assume as well) advertisement for whatever sedation of choice others might choose.   Doesn't matter though since OP is footing the bill.
Hey! Whoa!  I guess this must be another episode of 12 Angry Men. Or maybe Grouchy Old Men. 
Audio equipment which can measure the same (such as amps), can sound vastly different (unless one is Julian Hirsch).  Tubes and wire can measure the same and again sound totally different.  LPs which are pressed consecutively using the same stampers can sound very different.  Why, that is mostly unknown except for equipment which may mean the measurement of difference was not measured. 

As a former commercial real estate appraiser, I made adjustments to sales and rentals based on factual data.  Unfortunately, data was often missing which could have influenced the adjustments.  I had to make an educated opinion as to which facts were given more or less weight in the adjustment.  (Complex properties involved much more complex adjustments than illustrated).  

However, my point is that the SR Black fuse in my audio systems has a profound positive musical affect.  I do not know why it does so but I (and over a dozen friends and remastering engineers) hear the result.  That is why buying LPs on-line is often a crapshoot with sellers often unknowlingly ascribing incorrect condition to them either by ignorance of factors in determining condition or hidden condition (mint looking but poorly manufactured or abused i.e. mistracking, ground in debris, etc).

I know this could lead to another round of controversy, but multiple pressings of CDs can have variable audio quality from the same pressing plant, in other words, they don't sound necessarily alike.  There is no electrical or physical reason that I've found or my friend Robert has found, but the proof in the pudding, listening to one after another.  One CD can sound brighter/duller/tonally richer/thinner, etc. than another or they may sound alike.  I have two complete sets of the classical Mercury Living Presence CDs (as well as the boxed versions) in which many of them have tonally different sound, one set is generally brighter and more forward sounding and the other more rounded and less forward sounding.  It's a mystery as to why it is that way. 
... multiple pressings of CDs can have variable audio quality from the same pressing plant, in other words, they don’t sound necessarily alike. There is no electrical or physical reason that I’ve found or my friend Robert has found, but the proof in the pudding, listening to one after another. One CD can sound brighter/duller/tonally richer/thinner, etc. than another or they may sound alike.
I don’t find that surprising. Assuming (as appears to be the case) that the data on the CDs being compared is identical, a possible explanation relates to minor physical differences that may exist between the pits or other physical characteristics of the two discs. Differences that might have resulted from aging and use of the pressing equipment that may have occurred between creation of the pressings being compared, or perhaps from the use of different equipment, or perhaps just from normal +/- tolerances in the pressing process. Those physical differences could conceivably result in one disc being "easier" than the other for the tracking servos in the player to track, resulting in less electrical noise being generated by the transport mechanism, resulting in less noise finding its way into the D/A circuitry (even if that circuitry is in a different component), resulting in less timing jitter at the point of D/A conversion.

Undoubtedly there are other conceivable explanations involving comparably subtle technical effects.

As an experienced EE I for one don’t doubt any of the claims or statements in your post just above. I do, however, doubt that fuses are inherently directional :-)

Regards,
-- Al