Synergistic Red Fuse ...

After 96 hours of continuous burn-in, the two fuses inside of my SACD Player is really starting to open up, much smoother and the hard upper region is Gone and I'm hearing more texture, body and subtle cues on guitars, violins and cellos...

I inserted the SRB fuse into my Integrated amp last night and done some initial fuse orientation cold right out of the box just to get a sense of the sound with zero hours; results similar to what I experienced with my CD Player but different in many ways. One direction produced a more organic sound that was upfront in imaging but very little detail. A quick flip of the fuse and things changed, soundstage drastically shifted 4-5 feet behind the plane of the speakers allowing you to hear the recording venue of the Artists.

More to follow on the Amp fuses in 4 days with the tube power supply being the next upgrade...

My default disposition is somewhat skeptical. That said, I was surprised at the difference Hifi Tuning Supremes made in my Ayre AX7e a few years back. Everything opened up, more dimensionalality with a deeper wider soundstage, more punch, more organic sound. Maybe it's my imagination but I've been convinced nonetheless and yes it strikes me as logically odd that something not in the path of sound transmission could make a difference. And never had a problem with them. 

So when I recently upgraded to the AX-5 I had no hesitation deciding to replace the fuses. Reading this thread I decided to try the SR Black, which are now on order. Will update after installed and some hours on 'em.

Frank  (Oregonpapa ),
I find myself in agreement with you often on this thread. The Black fuses definitely need more burn -in hours than the SR RED fuses for whatever reason. A few nights ago at roughly 60 hours of  use the music just bloomed  and opened up. I was listening to a very familiar Carmen McRae live recording and it all just fell into place, it was somewhat dramatic. Up to that point I was missing the musical ease and organic natureof the Red fuses. It was at this juncture where the Black fuses surpassed the terrific Red fuse. The sound based on listening last night is apparently still improving (90 hours)  A very familiar recording,  Chet Baker "The Italian Sessions " has never sounded better, just engrossing and beautiful. The Black fuses require patience. 
Charles, 

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