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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
willgolf
933 posts
 
I have now tested Padis fuses and the new SR Blue.  I had a $2.50 fuse in my Raven Tube amp before.  Yes I experienced an upgrade in performance when I went to the Padis fuse.  After installing the SR Blue both ways, I DID NOT experience any uptick in performance from the Padis.  I get more performance when I change out my various Russian tubes.  I doubt it is a defective Blue fuse.  Maybe my equipment just performs better as is.  I played Lumineers, Louis Armstrong / Ella Fitzgerald, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Michael Hedges as part of my test.  
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,651 posts
 
@willgolf,
Thanks for the update on the SR Blue fuse. For me, it's nice to hear that you didn't hear an improvement over the PADIS fuse since that's what I have and I'd need to replace 5 of them. 😩

I truly feel that these PADIS fuses offer real value not only over a standard fuse but easily compete with the other aftermarket brands and all at their $25 asking price.

Just let the PADIS continue to break in as I'm still getting improvements with mine. 

All the best,
Nonoise
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

@willgolf - thanks for the feedback on the PADIS and BLUE.  There could be a couple of things going on here.  One is that the tube amp may not be high resolution enough to reveal any slight differences between PADIS and BLUE (I'm not saying this is true, I'm only saying it is a theory).  In my experience, the very high resolution equipment can reveal differences.  In stuff that is lower resolution or warmer voiced, the differences between elements such as fuses or interconnects are more difficult to see and sometimes impossible.  Having no experience with your specific tube amp, I cannot be sure.

The other one is that, in my experience, the differences in fuses for amplifiers have much less impact than fuses in preamp/source equipment.  I think that part of it is the fuses in the amps have a larger internal fusewire (because of higher amp rating) and the nature of fuse composition has less influence in amps.  In any case, a fuse will still have an influence on an amplifier's sonic signature, it is just much less of an influence a fuse would have in a preamp/DAC.

The final option would be that there is no discernible difference between PADIS/Futurech and BLUE fuses.  I think more testing with different types of equipment would have to be done before we came to this conclusion.

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
@nonoise - JINX!
greg22lz
182 posts
 
Dudes!
Y'all mean that after setting up the Tekton DI's I still get to experience another huge leap in sound improvement with these Red Fuses!
oh boy!
greg
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