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The new Synergistic Research BLUE fuses ....

New SR BLUE fuse thread ...

I’ve replaced all 5 of the SR BLACK fuses in my system with the new SR BLUE fuses. Cold, out of the box, the BLUE fuses stomped the fully broken-in SR BLACKS in a big way. As good as the SR BLACK fuses were/are, especially in comparison with the SR RED fuses, SR has found another break-through in fuses.

1. Musicality ... The system is totally seamless at this point. Its as if there is no system in the room, only a wall to wall, front to back and floor to ceiling music presentation with true to life tonality from the various instruments.

2. Extension ... I’ve seemed to gain about an octave in low bass response. This has the effect of putting more meat on the bones of the instruments. Highs are very extended, breathing new life into my magic percussion recordings. Vibes, chimes, bells, and triangles positioned in the rear of the orchestra all have improved. I’ve experienced no roll-off of the highs what so ever with the new BLUE fuses. Just a more relaxed natural presentation.

3. Dynamics ... This is a huge improvement over the BLACK fuses. Piano and vibes fans ... this is fantastic.

I have a Japanese audiophile CD of Flamenco music ... the foot stomps on the stage, the hand clapping and the castanets are present like never before. Want to hear natural sounding castanets? Get the BLUE fuses.

4. Mid range ... Ha! Put on your favorite Ben Webster album ... and a pair of adult diapers. Play Chris Connor singing "All About Ronnie," its to die for.

Quick .... someone here HAS to buy this double album. Its a bargain at this price. Audiophile sound, excellent performance by the one and only Chris Connor. Yes, its mono ... but so what? Its so good you won’t miss the stereo effects. If you’re the lucky person who scores this album, please post your results here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRASONIC-CLEAN-The-Finest-Of-CHRIS-CONNOR-Bethlehem-Jazz-1975-NM-UNPLAYED-...

Overall impressions:

Where the RED fuses took about 20 hours to sound their best, and the BLACK fuses took upwards of 200 hours of total break-in, the BLUE fuses sounded really good right out of the box ... and that’s without doing anything about proper directional positioning. Not that the BLUE fuses don’t need breaking in, they do. The improvement continues through week three. Its a gradual break-in thing where each listening session is better than the last.

Everything I described above continues to break new ground in my system as the fuses continue breaking in. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to tear myself away from the system in order to get things done. Its truly been transformed into a magical music machine. With the expenditure of $150.00 and a 30 day return policy there’s really nothing to lose. In my system, its like upgrading to a better pre amp, amp, CD player or phono stage. Highly recommended.

Kudos to Ted Denney and the entire staff at SR. Amazing stuff, guys. :-)

Frank

PS: If you try the SR BLUE fuses, please post your results here. Seems the naysayers, the Debbie Downers and Negative Nellie’s have hijacked the original RED fuse thread. A pox on their houses and their Pioneer receivers.

Frank



128x128oregonpapa
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 

A hypothetical question---no snarkiness intended---for those who have heard a significant improvement in sound by installing an "audiophile" fuse in place of a garden variety one: For the absolute best sound possible, it makes sense to consider the possibility that the altogether elimination of a fuse may be expected to result in sound superior to even the best "sounding" fuse (parenthesis for the benefit of those who don’t cotton to such a notion). When I had Ric Schultz "modify" (if you know Ric, you know his mods are far more than mere "mods" ;-) my Audible Illusions Modulus 2 pre-amp, I was given the choice of having the fuse removed from the pre-amp. Being young(er) and opposed to compromise, I elected to have Ric remove it. In the promotional literature for his mod, Ric stated removing the fuse would enable the pre to provide slightly improved sound quality. Having heard the modified Modulus only with the fuse removed, I can’t testify to the truth of that claim.

So my question is: Audiophile-grade fuse enthusiasts are obviously very serious about doing whatever is possible to squeeze the maximum potential out of their gear. Does that include throwing caution to the wind by removing the fuses from their electronics? ARC tube power amp owners know (or should know) that the company made the engineering choice to not fuse their output tubes, as they feel fuses in those locations compromise the sound quality of their amps. The penalty for doing so is damage to the amp in the (inevitable) case of a tube going bad. Are there any audiophile fuse proponents willing to go "all the way"?

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
In my case yes it does mean throwing caution to the wind as I had Ric bipass the fuse in my EVS Uber modded Oppo 102. I used an Audio Magic Nano fuse at the AC POWER cord entrance to my all tube Woo Audio headphone amplifier.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz
13,381 posts
 
I believe there are a few manufacturers who use a circuit breaker in place of fuses but again I guess there are breakers and then there are breakers!
Maybe a whole new aftermarket tweak for SR!
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,840 posts
 
FusesJoin Our CommunitySubscribe to Paul's Posts

February 29, 2016 by Paul McGowan

Here’s a subject that simply drives some people nuts. Fuses.

Change the power fuse in a DAC or preamp and the sound changes, depending on the type of fuse you change to.

I first became aware of fuses and their sonic differences in the 1980s. We were working on releasing the 200C power amplifier, designed by Bob Odell. This 200 watt per channel amplifier was the best sounding power amplifier we had ever produced and we labored long and hard polishing every part and decision to perfection. In those days we relied upon an output fuse to protect the loudspeaker and the amp from each other. Too much current passes through the amp and the fuse blows, disconnecting the power amp’s output.

The prototype amplifiers didn’t have output fuses. It wasn’t until we got to the production versions that we added them, and that’s when the trouble started. The production amplifier didn’t sound as good as the prototype: thinner, weaker, with less bloom and midbass strength, relative to the prototype. Why the two sounded so different was a real head scratcher.

When faced with such differences, you start removing any changes between the two until they sound the same. It didn’t take long before we discovered it was the damn output fuse.  Short it with a clip lead and the fullness of the music returned.

This vexed us greatly because we wanted the sound of no fuse while enjoying the benefits of its protection. Different types of fuses sounded differently too. We gold plated the fuse and its holder to see if that would help. It did. But not a lot. We even tried bypassing it with a small capacitor. That helped to, but wasn’t a good idea. And neither solved the problem.

In the end we came up with a clever scheme. We took the feedback for the amplifier not from the amplifier’s output, but from the output of the fuse. Thus, the fuse was included in the amplifier’s corrective feedback loop, and the fullness returned to the music. (For those of you giving this some thought, we also added a 100Ω resistor in parallel with the fuse so if the fuse blew the amp would remain stable).

With the clarity of hindsight there are many explanations of why this mattered, damping factor changes not the least of them.

The point of the story is simple. Fuses matter. But why should they matter in the AC circuit? I don’t have a great answer handy. But we’ll look some more tomorrow.

I thought this would add some perspective as it comes from a very talented amp builder.

All the best,
Nonoise
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,840 posts
 
And, I’d like to ask if anyone knows whether after this discovery, that lots of amps are now designed with the fuse "in the feedback loop" and as a result, will definitely sound better with a better made fuse.

And as a result, has the "manual" that naysayers refer to been updated to reflect this.

All the best,
Nonoise
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