My wife stopped watching soapopras, now she just reads this thread...
;-)
;-)
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
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
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- 2978 posts total
Some comments regarding Teo_Audio’s post, in which as I understand it he attributes the audible effects of fuses, at least in amplifiers, to odd order harmonic distortion which “is the distortion pattern a fuse exhibits under the highly dynamic load that a piece of audio equipment puts the fuse under.” Generally speaking harmonic distortion occurs as a result of non-linearity. And a fuse is indeed a non-linear element, in the sense that the voltage drop across it is not in linear proportion (i.e., is not in direct proportion) to the amount of current it is conducting. That follows from the fact that the fuse’s resistance changes depending on how much current it is conducting. It should be noted, though, that Teo’s explanation mentions the specific case of amplifiers. And indeed, in the case of most amplifiers the amount of current conducted by both mains fuses and fuses in internal circuitry will vary dramatically as a function of the dynamics of the audio signal. (Although in the case of mains fuses, amplifiers operating in class A are an exception to that). As I said in my lengthy previous post:
However, I don’t see how Teo’s explanation would be applicable in the case of mains fuses that are used in preamplifiers and in most source components. In those cases the current being conducted by the fuse, rather than being subject to the “highly dynamic load” Teo refers to, is essentially constant. Other questions also arise in connection with the harmonic distortion explanation. Under typical circumstances are the odd order harmonic distortion components that are referred to large enough to add significantly to the corresponding distortion components that may be present on the incoming AC, even if a power conditioner is being used? And in the case of components which provide tightly regulated DC voltages to their audio circuitry, such as most well designed preamps and source components, how would higher order odd harmonic distortion components that may be introduced by a mains fuse influence the audio signal, given that rectification (i.e., AC to DC conversion), extensive filtering, tight voltage regulation, and the typically very great “power supply rejection ratio” of the audio stages would all greatly reduce (and arguably eliminate) that influence? I’m doubtful that any of us are in a position to provide definitive answers to those questions, in part because such questions cannot be readily analyzed from a quantitative standpoint. Finally, to be sure it’s clear I am certainly not saying that fuses don’t make a difference, and I am not saying that anything in Teo’s post is incorrect. What I am saying is that the explanation he has provided for audible differences among fuses does not appear to apply to many and probably the majority of the circumstances in which benefits have been reported. Regards, -- Al |
Al A very well thought out and interesting post on the subject but to me just leads me to more questions from my own fuse experience. The most dramatic effects I have witnessed on sq from fuses has been in source components, for example when I inserted a SR Black into my Exogal Comet Plus DAC. At first I really could not detect much change, so I decided well maybe direction is a possibility after all so I reversed the direction of said fuse. This wrought a major sq change and for reasons I admit I do not understand it made me a believer of fuses and direction of said fuses! Now a pair of SR Black fuses as main line fuses in my BAT VK600 reaped much more minor and subtle changes, maybe if I had changed out all 4 buss fuses as well I may have heard more. I am the first to admit I do not know why or how they work and you could well be right that it is a combination of many factors and in some peoples systems those factors may indeed be absent or at least of minimal consequence, hence the few non believers of the power of the humble fuse. |
We’ve been all over the fuse distortion and noise subject already many times. Please stop pretending it’s some big mystery, folks. Well, maybe in the inscrutable minds of the Uber Skeptics. Where’s Wolfie to ask for the umpteeth time, “Uh, why doesn’t anyone ever give an explanation?” Sob, sob! It’s not rocket science, people! 🚀 |
- 2978 posts total