Synergistic Red Fuse ...

charles1dad:

The Black fuses certainly do need more break in hours than the original SR20 and the RED fuses. As you pointed out the change in sound does not show a linear path of improvement, but there is a sudden improvement and only after "x" number of hours. Then there is a continued improvement.

I believe the increased break in time is the UEF material that is placed in that small circle located at the mid body of the fuse. Synergistic Research is now sending a little diagram of the fuse pointing out to take care not to rub this dot when putting in the fuse. So now I install them so I can see the "dot: so I do not rub it off installing of removing the fuse.

Today I changed out the rail fuse that protects the laser of my SACD player and even here the sound changed. 

Upgrading fuses and a/c wall sockets has been much more rewarding than tube rolling!

David Pritchard

 
wolf_garcia said

"Reading a review of a new Pass amp last night I noticed it has NO fuses…I suppose you can add one later..."

correct- I place a fuse on top of my Pass amp in a very careful north/south orientation 

Hi David, 
Your comment about fuses and AC wall outlets compared to tube rolling rings much truth in certain circumstances. I've had the good fortune to audition 11 different brands of 300b tubes in my SET amplifier  (these include generous loans from fellow audiogon members ).  Each is unique, some subtle and others are quite obvious. The SR fuses (Black and Red ) elicited a greater sonic impact on my system than quite a few(but not all of them ) of the 300b tubes. These terrific fuses are far less expensive than those tubes.  The very best 300bs have a bit more impact but definitely at a cost. 
Charles, 

Charles,  thanks for that last comment.  If these fuses have that kind of impact in the coincident gear, the decision to invest in these fuses becomes pretty easy.  Since I have stock fuses in nearly everything, the improvement should be pretty substantial. I intend to proceed in a very slow deliberate fashion however, replacing one fuse at a time, allowing break in to occur before proceeding with the next purchase.  I am also intrigued by some of the comments on the AM beeswax fuses.  I can't help but wonder if they might not be a superb choice for the franks.  Beeswax in a fuse is the kind of wacky stuff Jerry comes up with that causes some to smirk, but I have never seen his stuff fail to deliver.  At any rate, I will have an SRB fuse for my CSL by next weekend.  I'll probably proceed to the sources, and finish with the Franks. 

My neighborhood friend Charles just stopped by with only One SR Red 3 Amp Fuse. I wanted him to hear a new dac that I put into my system. The sound was good, but not that engaging. We tried different filter settings on the dac and different digital cables. We were just bored. I then changed my two year old Telos fuse in my Absolare preamp for the SR red. The sound was good and then I switched the fuse around. OH MY the system went from boring to lively with an organic quality that I never had before. It was at least a 50% improvement. Next week he will bring the black SR fuse over. I am just tongue tied. I never heard an improvement like this before. I can't believe the shear organic and transparent quality yet its not bright and the dynamics are explosive, but controlled. Who would have thunk. I told this to my skeptic friend Doug and of course he does not believe me what so ever. I don't blame him as I can't believe it as well. I am always open to new things as I was already using a good fuse in the Telos. I can't wait until next week.