Tbg:
Thanks for the insight. My chips arrived today: both the fuse and speaker "chips."
I agree with Lacee that the directionality of fuses is more obvious with the chips. I have the HiFi Supremes and I most definitely heard the difference in directionality of the fuses with the WA Quantum chips on them. I could hear it even before placing the chips on them (they sure don't stick easily!), but it was more obvious WITH the chips on them.
I also agree with Ozzy point #6: "The speaker chips work pretty well, but the placement on your speakers matters." I put them vertically and horizontally, and, listening to Renee Fleming's Handel recording, her voice flattened out and lost subtle dynamic shadings when I placed the chip on the top half of my speaker horizontally. I was non-plussed and removed it, and her voice came back to life. Then I looked at where I placed it (more like, slapped it on) on the other speaker and duplicated its placement. This worked better. I also noticed that when I let it sit for a few minutes and played the same cut again, the woodwinds were more vivid.
I have to say, I like the fuse chips the best. The speaker chips, I will, as Tbg suggested, give time to see how they sound tomorrow (if there's any power tomorrow: this is the night of the "Storm of the Century" in the Northeast (MAN, is that snow high: I can't see the wheels of my van!). Actually, I'll listen to them a little later, but they clearly DO sound better, even if played just a few minutes later. Interesting. I saw on another site (or maybe it was this one on another thread) that the perception was that the sound got louder, as though one had turned up the volume controls. Yup. No question about it: about half a decibel, I'd guess, or maybe even a full decibel, but it unquestionably sounds louder. And there IS more weight to instruments, although that may simply be the sense that there's more "push" behind the instruments towards the listening seat (as in jet-propelled, although not quite that dramatic, but you get the idea). Still, "weight" is a good way to describe it.
My only concern is moving the speaker chips around the cabinet of a floorstander. That's a lot of space to cover to find the optimum spot, but vertical placement (on my speakers only) seems preferable to horizontal. I've no idea why that would be, but Fleming's voice was disparagingly deadened - and the voice flattened out, as in a balloon fully inflated, and one half-deflated - when the speaker chip was in the "wrong" spot and horizontally placed. I'll have to play around with it some more).
If I were recommending them, I'd go for the fuse chips, simply because they're cheap. Also, for the snake-oil crowd, empirical evidence beats speculation every time. If a person can spend $11 on popcorn/soda or even just the price of a ticket at a theatre, it would seem to me that spending $7.95 for something that lasts longer, and could actually benefit one's system is a no-brainer (and one doesn't gain weight from the fuse chips, so think of it as dietary supplement).
I can see how a body could miss its effects, though.
