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
Jetter, that’s why - in most cases - one does not evaluate equipment immediately any more than one would assess a speaker system after 30 hours. I was trained to play music through a component for weeks, and if you have ever read The Absolute Sound, you would recall that they did the same thing for weeks. Amps, preamps, speaker cable, power cords. Everything. I clearly remember Andy Benjamin’s review of Audio Research’s Classic 60 amp, way back in the day. He was appalled by the sound of it out of the box, and it took weeks for the amp to fully burn in, and for him to hear its virtues. Shunyata cable is the same: it takes hundreds of hours to break in (Shunyata demurs on this), but the owners almost universally state otherwise (including me). And God forbid you move the cable around and then listen to it immediately: you have to wait an hour or two for it to "settle." Sound ridiculous? Perhaps, but nonetheless, that’s the reality. I didn’t always know that, especially about Shunyata (I don’t know if everyone’s cables work that way, but Shunyata’s sure do!), but I know if after 15 years of owning their cables, power cords, etc. And I have friends with better ears who have good systems, who will come over and listen, too, and they can hear it as well. And I don’t tell them what to expect. I just let them listen. Some of this is VERY esoteric, but that’s why the non-believers state it’s "hysteria," "hogwash," etc.. Of course, they say this with little-to-no personal experience, or a one-time listen on a poorly set up system at a dealer’s "who has a $200,000 system," they proclaim loudly, as though that means it is well set up. I know otherwise about setup (and the setup can kill even the best electronics and speakers’ ability to deliver the optimum performance). Poor electrical isolation can mask differences, too.

The same thing applies to fuses. I don’t know why, but I imagine Synergistic allows a 30-day guarantee because they KNOW it will take time for the fuse to break in. I wonder why other manufacturers of fuses don’t do the same. It would certainly provide assurances for the Doubting Thomases, although some people are simply unwilling to trust ANYthing. That’s their prerogative, but it sounds exhausting, not to mention depressive in nature.

I will listen initially, wander in and out of my music room, and then listen again seriously, at, say, 200 hours, and then - if I am missing certain aspects of the sonics I KNOW should be there from having owned the disc for 30 years - reverse the fuse to see how it sounds and then give it time in that (reversed) direction, although I can usually determine where the human voice (unamplified) is displaying its full harmonic palette. Voice is, I find, the easiest way of determining correct orientation, but yes, it does take time. But it helps to use discs you know really, really, really well, vinyl OR CD. You can’t pull some new CD or LP that you haven’t used over the course of years and thru several different components in YOUR OWN SYSTEM and expect to make experienced observations.
And even after I’ve tested the new component (in this case, the fuse), I will still take it out and re-insert a previous generation of the same company’s fuse, let IT warm up for a few hours (or, if I’m REALLY unsure, days) and see if the voice is missing information and/or harmonics.
Some people don't have the time or the patience, and I understand that. They would also not be hired to write for audio magazines. That requires curiosity, patience, a little skepticism, and a love of music above all. And even then, one can make a mistake. But at least the whole experiment has been conducted in as scientific a manner as is possible. And that's all anyone can ask.
I've only had experience with HiFi Tuning Silver Star and PADIS fuses and in both cases, reversing them gave me much better sound. The HiFI fuses were in for almost two years and the PADIS fuses were in for only three days and in both cases, they displayed the same deficiency in regards to how they sounded: rolled off highs, an out of phase focus and a one note bass, among other things.

I was never in the camp in regards to directionality which is why I waited so long to do it the first time around. With the PADIS fuses, I immediately suspected they were in the wrong direction but gave them three days to see if things cleared up, but they didn't and reversing them improved things considerably. 

It would appear to me that hearing something amiss the first time around should at least prompt someone to simply flip the fuse. There will be time needed to break in but even at first listen, you should be able to tell.

All the best,
Nonoise
I expect vitriol about my personal hearing ability, my tube amp (I tested the SR blacks in a SS amp also…but mostly in a push pull tube amp), my questioning Denney's patent claims (if someone claims something is patented and it's not, that goes to their credibility unless their worshippers don't mind utter nonsense, which seems to be the case), and I get that. Religious people don't like my atheism either, and I see similarities when magic thinking is involved in anything. My basic beef with Oregonpapa and other Fusers is simple: Claiming that the FUSE has such a transformative and obvious effect on the sound of your gear heap is simply not believable, and when you understand why fuses are there in the first place, simply as a safety item protecting your stuff from catastrophic failure, it seems very strange indeed. The main reason I'm harping about technical explanations of this "magic" isn't due to being obsessed with technical explanations, it's simply because in the case of "special" fuses, there are none…a conspicuous absence. None. A scam by SR to sell an item to gullible fans at an insane profit seems to be working well, and since it's only judged by subjective opinion I'm offering exactly that…me and most high end gear manufacturers. 
Many have said that you should install the fuse and if it does not sound good reverse it and it is now in the correct direction. What if, like other audio gear, the initial listening isn't indicative of its true character? That is, how can you be sure that what sounds not quite right on first listen isn't in fact in the correct direction and will produce the best sound after break in?

I seem to recall Ted Denney saying to try switching the direction, after the fuse is broken-in. Go with what sounds best.
I expect vitriol about my personal hearing ability, my tube amp (I tested the SR blacks in a SS amp also…but mostly in a push pull tube amp), my questioning Denney's patent claims (if someone claims something is patented and it's not, that goes to their credibility unless their worshippers don't mind utter nonsense, which seems to be the case), and I get that. Religious people don't like my atheism either, and I see similarities when magic thinking is involved in anything. My basic beef with Oregonpapa and other Fusers is simple: Claiming that the FUSE has such a transformative and obvious effect on the sound of your gear heap is simply not believable, and when you understand why fuses are there in the first place, simply as a safety item protecting your stuff from catastrophic failure, it seems very strange indeed. The main reason I'm harping about technical explanations of this "magic" isn't due to being obsessed with technical explanations, it's simply because in the case of "special" fuses, there are none…a conspicuous absence. None. A scam by SR to sell an item to gullible fans at an insane profit seems to be working well, and since it's only judged by subjective opinion I'm offering exactly that…me and most high end gear manufacturers.

🛫✈️🐺🛩🛬  😁🍻

I guess this falls under, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." 🙄

If you're going to continue to harp, ask yourself this, do caps, resistors, (tubes, etc.) with the same values and/or that all measure the same sound different? If the answer is no, please replace all of such components in your system with the cheapest ones you can find, and enjoy your system.