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
Aolmrd1241,
What you wrote makes perfect sense.  However I can attest to the fact that the Red fuse does improve  with additional  hours of use, I just can't explain how  or why.   

Keith if it turns out that the Red is the more musical  and the Black is the more audiophile oriented, I'll  choose the Red. I await further impressions from Oregonpapa who I believe is on the same wavelength as me in this regard. I just prefer audio products that  induce focus on the music/emotion rather than focus on the sounday in isolation.  The Reds in my system do the former. 
Charles, 
Thanks for all the posts. I have the Reds in my preamp and amps and they were a definite leap over the Hi-fi tuning. Question:. Is it during or after the "break-in" period that one would reverse the fuse and see if it makes an improvement? If you do reverse it, how long do you listen to see if it does? 
The wrong direction sounded somehow wrong, rarher poor sounding.  In my case, soft, unfocussed and  lacking clarity just to mention some.

The correct direction snaps everything and show what the sound of the fuse does. imho, a normal fuse is not as appearent, but does sound clearer in the correct orientation.

Googling Graphene, guessing it is coated on the endcaps, is a nano carbon structure and is a super conductor.

hmmm, it is some kind of breakthrough material, but not much was revealed in the marketing literature of the Black fuse.

Maybe those who have the Black fuse in hand should looked at the endcaps to see if there is a coating. My guess is that the fusable element could not be graphene material as there is no industry standard testing or approving such a material I would make an educated guess.


^^^ No coating noted on the end caps. 

I left the CD player with the two BLACK fuses on "repeat" overnight. Just started listening about 30 minutes ago. Things are really starting to smooth out now. I'm liking what I'm hearing. 

So far, the BLACKS, compared with the RED's, are giving me a lower noise floor, more transparency and a more upfront presentation.

I noticed on one orchestral piece of really beautiful music ... Bach's "Air on a G String," that on the massed violins I could detect the individual players more distinctly. No "cringe factor" on the strings, if you know what I mean. Nice.  Also, voice is becoming real again. Nice. I'm a classical and Spanish guitar freak and know the instrument very well. The transparency of the system is letting me hear around the strings and sense the wood of the guitar. Same with cellos and acoustic bass. Nice. 

The sound stage is wall to wall, but still lacks the front to back layering of the RED's. Don't get me wrong, the BLACKS are improving in that area too. I'm keeping the CD player on "repeat" all day and tonight too. I figure this should bring me to about the 50 hour mark on the break-in procedure. 

So far, so good.  

Stay tuned ...
Charles1dad, you know I’m in the musical camp as well, I’ve listened to component's  that cost as much as a house that did nothing for me at all, I’ve got more musical pleasure from modded 2,000.000 speaker’s than 50,000.000 speaker’s, the merry go round is always a hit or miss, sometimes, cost has nothing to do with what can make an individual Happy.