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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
benzman's avatar
benzman
55 posts
 

Talk about giving a mouse a cookie!!

 I started by placing a Red in a 9.9 Modwright power supply. Nice bump but wasn't really realized until my buddy brought over his 9.9 and it was a significant improvement when comparing side by side.

Then a couple Reds in in a Aurender N100s music player. Slight improvement, nothing earth shattering. 

Then the blacks were introduced so I put one in a Mccormack pre and right around the magic 100 hr mark everything kicked in. So much more body to the music and defined bass.

The Kismet Monos have a total of 8 rail fuses so that wasn't going to happen. I tried to score the HiFi  Silverstar but they were all sold out so picked up the Golds for 9.95 each. Definite improvement but then one of our fellow Audiogoner's was upgrading his Kismets from the Reds to the  Blacks..... I  should have his Reds in a few days and all broken in.

I got a new Odyssey Candela pre tonight so installed a Black in that, figured may as well break in everything together.

Before I took the McCormack out of the chain, I switched the fuse around. I must of had the proper orientation the first time as it took all of 3 minutes to switch it back. You will definitely know when you have it right!!  

  These little tweaks is what makes this hobby so exciting and keeps it fresh. I don't even want to tell you about USB clean up and LPS power supplies..... that's for another day.

Enjoy your night,

Russ   

        

brownsfan
1,238 posts
 
Charles,  I will be out of town for a few days and hiking this weekend. Its likely to be sometime next week when I hit 60-100 hours.  I do hope I will see additional improvement with more hours, but right out of the box I would have called this a good return on investment.  Still, its not hard to do better for the money with the right tube, or as I said, a good set of feet.  If I realize a similar improvement with each new fuse or pair of fuses, the total improvement would be significant for a $700 investment. That would be money well spent.  We will see.  I really like what the fuse did qualitatively, but I'd like to see a bit more quantitatively.  It is a happy coincidence (no pun intended) that the Franks and Sony both take a pair of the same fuse. I will be surprised if I hear an insufficient improvement to warrant keeping the fuses. 

Frank, your question to Charles is an excellent one.  There is some variability in the reports.  Is the variability attributable to variations in equipment, incoming AC quality, ambient EMI/RFI, listener acuity or preference, fuse to fuse differences, or some combination of all of these variables?  SR does a good thing by offering a generous return policy, which allows us all to reduce this tweak to an experimental question. 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
6,996 posts
 

Hi Frank,

If you take into account "all" the responses on this ever growing thread, the positive outcomes have been overwhelming. The negative or minimal improvement outcomes are very small. No audio product/component no matter how highly praised ever gets an 100% positive from everyone, it just never happens. I belie
ve Bill has a good chance of further sonic gains with additional hours placed on his Black fuses. If not, then so be it, I trust Bill's impressions in the context of his own system. Even though he and I use the same Coincident Line Stage and SET amplifiers, sometimes results are just different for whatever reason. I honestly believe my Black fuses continued to improve up to the 150 hour mark. They really click in my system.

Charles,

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
6,996 posts
 

Bill,

Enjoy those beautiful hills and trails. I look forward to your future listening impressions with these fuses.

Charles,

audiolover718
121 posts
 
Good morning fellow loon...er, audiophiles.  :-). 

This morning marks about 30 hours on the black fuse.  I hate to go back on what I originally said, but this morning the sound that I had when I first put in the fuse just isn't there. 

It got me thinking just how sensitive components are to power.  Remember, when I put in the fuse, it was about 1am, and I had the best power of the day, I was also listening low, so the pre break-in brightness, actually helped, kinda like creating a loudness curve.  

Anyway, I'm feeling like Oregon papa right now with 30 hours.  The system sounds hifi. Mind you- it still sounds fantastic.  Although, my good friend is coming over tonight for a listening session after I started gushing about the black fuse. Hope I'm not embarrased.  Lol. 

I look forward for the fuse to be done with puberty and being able to get down to business.  There are times when the sound does catch my ear and I look up startled, so that's a good thing. 
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