Synergistic Red Fuse ...

What geoffkait does to his colon is certainly his business, and may be part of why he feels compelled to promote mythological faith-based tweaks like bags of rocks and "directional" fuses. Unnecessarily discomfort during his medical procedures could simply make him mad at the world somehow, and this preference could certainly manifest itself as an oddly manic response to logic. We should have sympathy and compassion for his condition, and be gentle in our responses to his posts so as not to get him too irritated…kindness…simply respond with kindness.

It's difficult to refuse the fuseless who claim a fusion with fancy fuse users. Oh, and the answer to Geoffkait's list of questions is: All of the above. 

I put those PS audio plugs in years ago as they're great for my antique iron lung collection. And you have to wonder how many people would install good wall plugs and after 29 days would think, "gee, these things just don't cut it"…and friggin' send  them back! "Dear PS Audio, these wall plugs simply don't make me happy enough, so GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK"...

Sorry Papa, I can only assume your check from SR is late and you're grumpy…this thread should continue in it's mindless and unfunny worship of overpriced pseudo tweaks any time now...

Strangely applied pseudo logic from the beleaguered geoffkait (remember, he's sold bags of pebbles to place on your cables) seems too have hit a new low when he compares skeptics to OJ lawyers. Not that OJ's lawyers aren't relevant, they're just not relevant to this topic. As somebody who has claimed to NOT use fuses himself (a refuser?), his credibility continues to plummet in the face of actual expertise, and his primary defense of audio fuser silliness seems to be the fact that companies have been exploiting audiophiles with tempting fantasy tweaks for years in spite of the inherent silliness of some of this stuff…like "special" fuses. Well done geoff…as useful as a bag of rocks (which in landscaping or aquariums may actually be useful) on your cables.

"The astonishment at the shameless promotion of nonsensical, technically unexplainable, and ridiculously overpriced faith based pseudo tweaks never fades"…Wolf Garcia.


I'll scurry back into my troll home under the overpass.

Georgelofi is right, it’s a bumpfest festooned with more promotional rantings which are right out of the Vegematic sales manual (although I can reasonably assume a Vegematic works). A good financial deal for SR certainly, and the wordy reactions to my posts questioning the efficacy of overpriced silliness exposes a classic paranoia. These guys must know it’s nonsense and if it’s not, why not cough up a technical and reasoned explanation of how tiny aluminum dots "transduce" (really?) sound waves, and how fuse that is out of the signal chain can make cellos sound better? I guess I expect too much….or I know too much...

The smokescreen of personal attacks and other nonsensical rantings only prove my point about these fraudulent products…nobody can explain the technical design aspects of "special" fuses or "magic transducing aluminum jujubes" that provide so much imaginary glee to the believers because there IS no explanation beyond plucking out terms like "Quantum Tunneling" or "Transducers," and tossing those phrases into the hype. If these things work I simply ask, again, why? How were they developed? What do SR fuses do to the electrons before they hit the circuits? I think these are reasonable questions that if asked of an amp designer or even a gear rack or speaker footer company (Or car manufacturer or wine maker) there is no hesitation to at least try to come up with reasonable technical explanations, but with this stuff it's NADA, and will likely remain so, as this is profit driven scamming at its most (or least) transparent.

So, again, there is no attempt at a reasonable explanation of how or why  a half inch of fuse wire in a tiny glass case packed with graphite or beeswax can get all that mojo going…the lack of even a weak attempt at addressing this mystery, and considering anybody who stands for reason (except Almarg, who gets a pass…deservedly) a troll is an apt response among the Believers who seem to simply not care about the technology, but don't hesitate to toss piles of money at it based on faith…it's all sort of adorable…like scared sheep huddled against a frightening passing cloud of reason.  

I tested the fuses (reluctantly, until provided with a pile of them that I couldn’t resist playing with), and found them to be merely fuses, and not very safe fuses at that. That in itself should be helpful information for those considering wasting money on these silly items. You’re welcome. The fact that "clean your fuse holder" Almarg has been deemed a troll by some here speaks volumes of the mind set among some of the magic fuse Athletic Supporters in this thread, and Al is welcome to visit my PA festooned box under the freeway anytime. A note regarding technical explanation…For decades I’ve hung with and spoken to successful cable designers, speaker designers, amp designers (both home or pro use) and serious musicians who are also audio geeks, and pretty much anybody will readily and unhesitatingly discuss the whys and wherefores of their gear if so disposed to do so…Bill Low entertained me with logical and well reasoned cable design wisdom for an hour before a jazz show I was mixing (there’s that swine PA reference again!). He seemed legit, and not one to simply throw a "low manufacturing cost relative to extreme high retail price" Carpel Tunneled (I mean Quantum Tunneled) gizmo at the Subjective Audio Geek market without supporting technical reasoning…my issues with SR’s ability to fill their corporate coffers by using threads like this to promote Quantum Trammeled Carbon pleasure placebos to rabid seekers is my main reason to keep showing up here…that and the fact that I refuse to be bullied off by boneheads.

I've never actually seen a thread with more shameless product shilling and relatively less product design discussion…I don't mind the name calling as it proves my point about the lack of spine among the clearly insecure who are unable or unwilling to understand simple questions and comments if they get too close to the truth…if I worshipped an inane and unexplainable object I'd likely worry about naysayers, but nothing is sacred to me, except my right to object to obvious commercial hype in a forum. You can put lipstick on knghifi, but he still needs eyeliner.

Perhaps if somebody knows Ted Denny, he could be asked pop in here and explain how he came up with the designs of his fuses and maybe his "transducers."  I assume somebody in here knows this guy as otherwise how would the arrangement to be compensated for pushing these products have come about?  Note to patient readers of this thread…after often asking clearly if ANYBODY knows how or why these things provide the astonishing benefits alleged in this thread, there remains zero actually useful info proffered by the SR product users. Reminder: A fuse is NOT in the signal path, and if working properly only provides its services by melting if need be. Do any talented and successful amp designers swear by the sonic benefits of "special" relatively expensive fuses to the extent that they'd be willing to explain what they actually do? Pass? D'Agostino? Atmasphere? Shindo? Anybody?  My feeling from being around a few of these designers is they don't do magic well…it simply seems lame to them.

I just talked to Ted Denny and he says this stuff really doesn't do anything and no real research was involved other that some marketing ideas.  He says enjoys reaping a pile of money from the "seekers' who are seemingly born every minute, and apologizes to those who have found his products to be useless…he has issued a resounding "meh." 

Shameless, tasteless, astonishing.

An active room neutralizer would be a great thing to have when your relatives start arguing during the holidays.

Recently viewed a Youtube thing about a Japanese audio maniac who erected his own "telephone pole" for isolated electricity to keep his neighbors pesky distortions out of his gear heap. Seems to work, and fits with my idea of buying a salvaged nuclear power generator from a retired submarine to put in my backyard…just don't tell the neighbors, or bribe them for their silence with free juice.

Adjusting fuses for directionality, although very likely a complete waste of time since fuses are a part of an alternating electricity flow (AC), could reveal a .000137% difference in something or other that you're not going to be able to notice unless you fool yourself into thinking you do…it's a fuse…a tiny, output irrelevant wire not actually in the signal path, and designed to melt. Don't be fooled by the unexplainable mythology of snake oil purveyors unless hey, you enjoy faith based tweaking…in which case, geoffkait is your man! (and, he claims to not use fuses except in the metaphorical sense of his "having a short fuse" as illustrated in his re-posting everything he sees fit to comment on).

A foil hat works also (bend it around you ears…there ya go), and it has the added benefit of stopping those crazy messages from space: "geoffkait…bags of pebbles…follow the rubber line…turn the fuse around…"

Also note you can get a 5 pack of excellent Littelfuses for under 9 bucks including shipping! They really help in bringing cellos out of the mix and then throwing them out into the alley behind the Beacon Theater, providing more coherant blending of timbre and heavy breathing in recordings of any musicians, providing blacker blacks, PRAT (and Whitney),  rounder roundness, more uppity upness, sound staging so realistic you can aurally sense the cigarette butts and ballerina sweat clumps in the dusty corners of the venue, approving nods from others who detect a modicum of sanity from your "special" self, and, if needed, utterly melt into useless tiny glass tubes of blown wire thus saving your audio gear and rendering the Holidays safer. It's a wonderful thing. Under 9 bucks.

I continue to wonder HOW SR fuses do whatever they are claimed to do. I realize that to the SR faithful this question is blasphemy, and to even raise this question often engenders the ire of the Magic Fuse Faithful, but since this question has never been answered, I still wonder. I'm not contacting SR because I'm more interested in what the SR fuse users, or "Fusers," think the answer might be. Massaged electrons? Current being passed along to the circuits with a light coating of sauce? SR claims to zap the fuses with a zillion volts or something, and puts graphene someplace, but I still wonder how they arrived at this technology, and why? Also, why can't they produce a product that conforms to existing standards of use (like my 2 dollar Littlefuse products do) if they're sophisticated enough to manufacture them in the first place?  Note this post doesn't need to be read carefully the first time as geoffkait will repost it in his response. Thanks is advance for the kind and well considered answers to my query.

So, again, my question remains unanswered, although obviously I still think it's relevant and very basic. Most manufacturers of "audiophile" tweak products like gear racks, cables, tube dampers, spiky or rubbery feet, etc., will be happy to explain the whys and wherefores of what the product actually technically does, even if the design theories are a little sketchy or controversial. Fuses not so much, or in the case of SR's fuses, nada. I've tried 'em, they don't do anything sonically at 8 times the price of standard issue fuses, and they're somewhat dangerous. 

I should amend my post to note that SR Black fuses are more like 40 times the price of standard fare. Note that geoffkait’s HiFi tuning info post easily fails the logic smell test as it includes the same "directionality" nonsense along with references to "data" with no actual data…5%? Really? It’s amazing that a firm such as HiFi Tuning while selling a product would support such products…who knew? I realize many here feel these things help the mojo of their gear somehow, but the lack of any explanation of WHY they help a power supply improve its function and the downstream components (and apparently all aspects of the listening experience including but not limited to soundstage, cello tone, ear wax reduction, and Jo Mama, as long as break-in time and directionality issues are considered) beyond mere speculation is troubling. Or consumer fraud. In any case the fuse rating issue remains a dangerous thing that even "Fusers" may want to think about, as it was my understanding that UL approval (Or maybe Good Housekeeping?) keeps things safe with pesky electrical failure safety testing on everything from toasters to Pass Labs. I might be wrong about that, but I like my fuses to be the proper value with zero wiggle room ("Fuse blew? Try one rated higher, insurance will rebuild your house after the fire so what’s the big deal?"). Now I can sit back and wait for my big fat promotional check from Littlefuse…oh yeah…uh huh...

I'm considering contacting UL and asking them if a potentially dangerous product such as an unreliably rated fuse falls under their purview, although I may have to wait until Tuesday…I suggest SR fusers unplug their gear until I get this settled…or maybe install some Littlefuse products for the time being. You're welcome.

Anybody able to locate the above mentioned "UEF Tech" patent? I'd be interested in whatever the heck THAT says.

The fuse marketing expertise of Ted Denny et al is brilliant. Get a product out there that is very cheap to manufacture in China (and save some bucks by not testing the things for accurate ratings), sell it for 50 times what other competent fuses cost (Litelfuse…reliable, well made, a couple of bucks), and replace it frequently with upgraded versions marketed to the faithful (It's new so it HAS to be better!). My sympathies to Aniwolfe…sorry man.

Almarg...thanks for the research. I will now direct all of my patent queries to you! Also note that Uncle Ted didn't notice your post or simply couldn't respond to the patent issue about which nobody seems to care (lying is seemingly OK these days), and I have to say I agree with this part of what he wrote: "the Black fuse which is every bit as good today as it was when it was when first launched two years ago." Indeed, it still does it's inexplicable (or at least unexplained…by anybody), unverifiable and utterly nonsensical thing of nothing except continuing to fleece of the faithful. You go Ted, and since you read this stuff, how about offering a response to the patent question? I'll stand corrected if you actually did patent the thing…I'll wait right here….

Wait a minute…can you replace your fuses with tennis racquets?  On a positive note I do like Sherwin Williams paint though…good stuff. My contention has always been that in spite of "special" "directional" fuses supposedly helping technology march on toward audio nirvana, I'm again reminded that a fuse is there to melt if needed. That's it. Melt. Like Ted Denney's imaginary patent claims…blown like a bad circuit.

Wait…you're talking about the fuse, right? 

Yeah man…a paint infused with discarded lamb fuzz or recycled sponges. Basis SCHMASIS!

Do you advocate more solid soft bits or softer solid bits? And who's Bob?

And still no explanation of WHY "magic" fuses work, other than fan-boy speculation about power supply bottlenecks or fake directionality theories. I assume that if Fusers were given these things for free (like I was) instead of committing hundreds of their Geek Bucks to them thus encouraging a passionate desire for them to work their magic ("I really really think I hear the cellos better…I do…I KNOW I do…now I KNOW I'm a Real Good Listener and will be welcomed as part of the beloved Fuser Faithful."), the perceived (or imagined, often maybe the same thing) results would be like what I found, that these fuses are over promoted consumer fraud. This also assumes the fuses didn't blow immediately (like mine did). Also, if something like a copy of Atmasphere's well reasoned unmasking of the fake science of fuse directionality accompanied the fuses to save the consumer's time and effort by eliminating the "Post 170 Hour Break-in Fuse Flip" ceremony, I bet many less Fusers would buy into that and simply clean the fuse holder. 

I've run lots of live outdoor shows and add a little bit of stereo reverb to 'em to make them sound more natural, thus fooling the audience into thinking they're having more fun than they actually are. 

I continue find some of the descriptions of the degree of improvement that "special" fuses provide in the systems of the proponents of these things unbelievable, especially since a new round of claims of MORE  wonderfulness is begat by the New Blues. It's a FUSE (a safety related device that's supposed to MELT if need be), and until some rational explanation is provided as to WHY and HOW these things "massage the juice" before it runs through the power supplies and all the other caps, resistors, transformers, rectifiers, tubes, transistors and every other part of an audio component's circuits, I'll continue to hold the opinion I've had since doing my own little test of the black version of these things…they're a silly and possibly dangerous (sketchy fuse ratings) waste of time and money when compared to less precious (like ultra reliable way less expensive Littelfuse products) "standard" fuses. Unbelievable. 

"All of the information needed to understand audiophile fuses is out there."  It is? Because it's certainly not in here! And not in the minds of most audio engineers and modern gear designers either. SR's gibberish about "Quantum" something or other certainly doesn't explain anything, and their apparent need to mention imaginary patents (a lie conveniently ignored by the "Fusers," as it simply doesn't fit into their SR worship format) doesn't either. Remember, you're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. I don't consider my posts to be a waste of time as clearly I enjoy poking the Bear of Mythology, and shall continue to do so in the face of this steaming heap of nonsense because I can.

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. 

Jay23…unlike fuses, most component bits like the caps, resistors, transformers, tubes, etc., matched or otherwise, obviously all have plenty to do with the tone and performance of gear, and measurement isn't what I'm "harping" about anyway…it's simply that in the face of preposterous claims of tonal efficacy I would think somebody, perhaps the manufacturer of a product, could explain why and how a fuse would perform so many tasks that logic (and my previous fuse test) would indicate it couldn't. Carpal Tunneling (uh…make that Quantum tunneling), carping at me, eating carp, buying into SR's "fog of nonsense" when describing their pseudo esoteric methods of filling fuses with fudge or carbon or dog meat, all add up to not so much…a fuse is still simply a fuse, even if it "absorbs" the vibration of the cash in your pocket.

You take your chances…although I’ve been ranting seemingly for ages against SR’s overpriced examples of possibly dangerous audio tomfoolery, and have occasionally posed the still unanswered question, "why, and how, were they designed to do whatever they do?", the safety issue (as well as the fuse directionality myth and ridiculous imagined sonic benefit claims, as well as obvious commercial promotion by thin skinned "shill seekers") seems unignorable, which isn’t to say it won’t be ignored. "Damn the torpedoes, I want my tonally accurate cellos!" You can claim until the cows come home (they may never come home by the way) that special shoe laces make you walk better, or cryonically treated valve stem caps make your car corner faster, but logic may prevail when reports come in that the laces come untied causing you to fall over, and the valve stems explode causing you to crash. Hypothetically…or maybe not as regards SR fuses. Details schmeetails!

Uh...right…although it has been claimed by premium fuse Athletic Supporters that the wonders of SR fuses can be realized in even crappy gear. That’s right. The wonderfulness is always there because it’s baked in…"lifted to perceptive improvements unmistakable by even you." Yeah man, EVEN YOU…no not you…but maybe you…although not me. I guess my components aren’t being served by ultra pure conductors except maybe Pierre Boulez, although you can’t really be so sure even about that guy, although conductors are generally directional.