Old news. Orange fuse rejected last November.
ORANGE Fuse rejected
So, to bring everyone up to date, my favorite fuse for analog equipment has been Furutech for a long time (I’m really sad that they no longer make the fuse). For digital transport type equipment, the best fuse has been Audiomagic Superfuse (NOT beeswax fuse - in my opinion the beeswax fuses push too hard on the voltage - this is the best I can explain what happens).
So, with the addition of a Farad Super3 linear power supply added for my Pink Faun S/PDIF computer card, I decided to try a Synergistic Orange fuse on this Farad power supply. It has been in the unit for at least 6 weeks constant now (24 hours a day). I recently finalized the burn-in of my last set of digital AES/EBU cables and sat down for critical listening and comparison. While this setup allowed me to differentiate between the digital cables and select which ones sounded the best, there was no cable that really sounded "good". I was really confused at this point because the sound had this harsh edge no matter what digital cable I put in the system.
So, I decided to pull the ORANGE and put back in an Audiomagic Superfuse. Low and behold, all that harshness was gone!! Also, the Audiomagic Superfuse gave me more tones and texture in the bass than the ORANGE fuse did. It sounded much more natural as well (throughout the entire frequency range).
I remember when I first put the ORANGE fuse in, it was like "wow, there’s so much high frequency resolution". But in the end, this was too much and too harsh (like someone turning up the sharpness on the TV way too much!). The ORANGE fuse -might- do well in warm laid back sounding equipment, but I only build my systems with high resolution detailed equipment and the ORANGE is not a good match for this.
Like I said, the Furutech Rhodium has been the best I have used for analog equipment (i.e. preamps / amps). However, it is a bit too slow and colored for digital transports (streamers, transport, bluray players, roku, video processors, etc.). The Audiomagic Superfuse excels in the digital transport area because it is fast and also neutral sounding.
There appears to be another thread here talking about Quantum Science fuses, in which even the Light Blue was an improvement over the Synergistic ORANGE. I may read through that thread and possibly try one of the Light Blue or Yelllow in the future sometime. Maybe it would be a good alternative to Furutech Rhodium.
So, with the addition of a Farad Super3 linear power supply added for my Pink Faun S/PDIF computer card, I decided to try a Synergistic Orange fuse on this Farad power supply. It has been in the unit for at least 6 weeks constant now (24 hours a day). I recently finalized the burn-in of my last set of digital AES/EBU cables and sat down for critical listening and comparison. While this setup allowed me to differentiate between the digital cables and select which ones sounded the best, there was no cable that really sounded "good". I was really confused at this point because the sound had this harsh edge no matter what digital cable I put in the system.
So, I decided to pull the ORANGE and put back in an Audiomagic Superfuse. Low and behold, all that harshness was gone!! Also, the Audiomagic Superfuse gave me more tones and texture in the bass than the ORANGE fuse did. It sounded much more natural as well (throughout the entire frequency range).
I remember when I first put the ORANGE fuse in, it was like "wow, there’s so much high frequency resolution". But in the end, this was too much and too harsh (like someone turning up the sharpness on the TV way too much!). The ORANGE fuse -might- do well in warm laid back sounding equipment, but I only build my systems with high resolution detailed equipment and the ORANGE is not a good match for this.
Like I said, the Furutech Rhodium has been the best I have used for analog equipment (i.e. preamps / amps). However, it is a bit too slow and colored for digital transports (streamers, transport, bluray players, roku, video processors, etc.). The Audiomagic Superfuse excels in the digital transport area because it is fast and also neutral sounding.
There appears to be another thread here talking about Quantum Science fuses, in which even the Light Blue was an improvement over the Synergistic ORANGE. I may read through that thread and possibly try one of the Light Blue or Yelllow in the future sometime. Maybe it would be a good alternative to Furutech Rhodium.