Gbmcleod,
I havent been auditioning equipment so am not in a position to comment how these 2 outlets synergise with certain charateristic of particular brands of equipment each given there particlar sonic footprints.
I have a teslaplex se feeding a psaudio p300(with red fuse) which has a Ncf and black outlet.
The black feeds my esoteric k01x and clock and the ncf feeds a bsgt qol, w4s/sonos streamer and FMC switch(with black fuses) and i find it just rightly balanced now although i have another black outlet and gtx to introduce.
I have tried adding the gtx elsewhere, but now leads to a slightly warmer, mid centric balance which is more musically pleasing to the ear but not as extended in the extremes over the mix of outlets i am using now.
I do however find both outlets have a very distinct sonic footprint even when used on another power line feeding my router and internet. But dont discount both as the very best overall soynding outlets.
I have used all incarnations of oyaide (now totally removed), wattages and some earlier furutech outlets and used and still using all incarnations of synergistic outlets.
Of interest is that my red fuse has intentionally been installed in the p300 in the wrong direction. This gives a slight less upfront, vivid and detailed presentation as the "added clarity and forward focus" sounds less relaxing and musical to me. The black fuse in this location upstream again adds another small meaningful stepup up in clarity and detail, again seems too much. I am thus hesistant to replace the Teslaplex se with the black outlet upstream before the ps regenerator.
The trick is that there is no clear winner between with the blacks and gtx/ncf or the red and black fuses and find they complement each strengths of outlets and fuses as they have different sonic character and excels in different areas.
The time i have spent comparing the Red and Black fuse and also had used the SR20 many year back is that the red fuse went the way of a softer more musical presentation. Now the black fuse has added clarity, definition and frequency extremes, but also a less musicall saturated tonality which i find as a slight washout sonically(but allows a better perception of depth as the details are nit upfront compwting wirh one another) and takes a step back in time towards the presentation of the SR20 fuse.
My summary is that the black outlet will most certainly work in a warmer less upfront sounding system and the gtx in systems wanting more fullness and richer musicality in a less technical fashion.
Again, introducing a number of both these outlets might still be the best compromise to acheive the best sonic balance when used synergistically together in whichever mix and number in any given system where one has carefully strived to achieve a more sonically balanced presentation.
I am unfortuantely not familiar wirh the current cj gear, but have owned the 12monos and 14 pre years back. Then intending to upgrade to the 17 and 16 pre lead me to finding a different setup. When auditiing the cheaper 17, the gains in dynamics, clarity was a jump improvement purely on technical aspects as the comparing the 16 again took away from this technical presentation with a new level of musicality lead me to stratch my head and seek out an overall more balanced soumding equipment that is more acceptable over a larger genres of music.
I have gone though my share of phases of upgrading or so called changing the setup and tweak towards a particular sonic presentation where clearly direction of tweak or cables away made an distinct improvement and relate back where i would have solely and clearly chosen the black outlet/fuse presentation. They have voice their tweak in a certain direction similarly and will appeal to a larger audience, who doeant like added definity, clarity, tighter bass etc. All sound great, but there is no free lunch where one should carefully assess areas where these gains may cause detraction in other area, much like a see saw i must say.
Overtime, i understood that is was purely a result of my earlier system not being balanced enough and overly skewed in 1 sonic direction and found adding certain tweaks giving tigher bass, clarity etc to compensate for this difficiency.
