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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
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
uberwaltz
Conversely I have zero respect for those who firmly grasp an abacus in one hand and slide rule in the other and state its just impossible for a fuse to make any sonic difference.

Was it not that type of thinking that said man would never fly?

Good night all.

Really??
"I have zero respect for those who firmly grasp an abacus in one hand and slide rule in the other"

I think the Wright Brothers would have zero respect for you and your fuse.
http://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1903-Wright-Flyer-Blueprints-Free-Download1-740x573....

Cheers George



tommylion
872 posts
 
I can respect someone who says “I don't know for sure if it makes a difference or not, but I'm not going to try it because I don't see enough probability that it will work.” I have little regard for those who “know” that it cannot possibly work without ever trying it.

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,796 posts
 
So I would like to see the evidence you mention. And of course, even if there is a variation, the question remains open as to whether it amounted to an audible difference, and if the test for this was sighted...well...that just keeps it in the realm of problematic that I’m talking about.
I missed addressing this one. I have no evidence. It's from further up in this thread. Someone else ran it but I do see that you've already discounted the entire thing due to it's being conducted and evaluated by the same person since it was "sighted". 

Oh, for the days of the one eyed ruler in the kingdom of the blind.

I believe lots of people can do the kind of testing mentioned and it would be easy for you to find someone who can accommodate you. I'm not adept at that kind of thing. I do trust my ears enough to not bother.

All the best,
Nonoise
prof
3,468 posts
 
@nonnoise,

I’ve gone back several pages. Haven’t found the link yet but have noticed the test has already come in for some sensible sounding skepticism and critique by other members. I’ll find the link when I have more time.

And, you seem to forget that Paul McGowan had no idea what his friend was replacing as he put the new fuse in and took it out. All he heard was the sound getting better, then worse, then better, then worse. It was only afterwards, that his friend told him all he did was replace the fuse.

Nope, I didn’t forget that. You are, like many audiophiles, under a misapprehension about how bias works. Bias doesn’t operate only in one sense - only hearing a difference if you think there will be a difference. It happens even if you don’t expect to hear a difference. Why? Because even if you *think* you are comparing one thing to another even that can produce false results. This is why you can tell someone to judge between cable A and cable B, and even if you don’t even actually switch cables (only ever play cable A), people will often enough still report hearing a "difference" when you "switch."
(And this is one reason why in blind testing you randomize switching - and you can see this effect show up in the scoring of cable differences).

I experienced this myself several times, thinking I was hearing sonic differences that I didn’t expect to hear when I switched something in my system - e.g. an AC cable, a digital server, etc. But blind testing showed I couldn’t in fact actually note any difference once I didn’t know which was playing.

This is why the very common refrain "I wasn’t expecting a difference, but I experienced it anyway, so it COULDN’T have been placebo/bias effect" simply gets things wrong. But it’s a pervasive myth nonetheless.

@tommylion,

Is there anything more subjective than one’s personal perception of, response to, and enjoyment of music? Given that, it makes perfect sense to evaluate the equipment used to reproduce music for one’s own enjoyment in a subjective manner.


You are mixing up two subjects: the subjective evaluation of music with objective facts or claims about what is audible or not. What you can or can’t hear is an objective fact. That’s why we have things like "hearing tests." You can claim you swoon to the sound of a 19K tone, but if you can’t identify when a 19K tone is playing in a blind hearing test, you can’t hear it.

Also, subjective opinions, emotional reactions, preferences etc can also be studied: they are every day.

You can even in principle (and in practice) find out if you even have an accurate grasp of YOUR OWN preferences. For instance, if you think you tend to like the sound of X speaker design over Y speaker design, you can do a blind test to see if, in fact, listening only to the sound, you actually end up picking X speaker as more preferable. People have often enough been surprised in such tests (see the work of Floyd Toole and others...)

Cheers.


georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
I can respect someone who says “I don't know for sure if it makes a difference or not, but I'm not going to try it because I don't see enough probability that it will work.” I have little regard for those who “know” that it cannot possibly work without ever trying it.

And those with technical knowledge have little regard for someone who's majority of posts are to do with "snake oil" tweaks and has who has no technical knowledge, and doesn't seem to think it matters.

Cheers George 
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