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The new Synergistic Research BLUE fuses ....

New SR BLUE fuse thread ...

I’ve replaced all 5 of the SR BLACK fuses in my system with the new SR BLUE fuses. Cold, out of the box, the BLUE fuses stomped the fully broken-in SR BLACKS in a big way. As good as the SR BLACK fuses were/are, especially in comparison with the SR RED fuses, SR has found another break-through in fuses.

1. Musicality ... The system is totally seamless at this point. Its as if there is no system in the room, only a wall to wall, front to back and floor to ceiling music presentation with true to life tonality from the various instruments.

2. Extension ... I’ve seemed to gain about an octave in low bass response. This has the effect of putting more meat on the bones of the instruments. Highs are very extended, breathing new life into my magic percussion recordings. Vibes, chimes, bells, and triangles positioned in the rear of the orchestra all have improved. I’ve experienced no roll-off of the highs what so ever with the new BLUE fuses. Just a more relaxed natural presentation.

3. Dynamics ... This is a huge improvement over the BLACK fuses. Piano and vibes fans ... this is fantastic.

I have a Japanese audiophile CD of Flamenco music ... the foot stomps on the stage, the hand clapping and the castanets are present like never before. Want to hear natural sounding castanets? Get the BLUE fuses.

4. Mid range ... Ha! Put on your favorite Ben Webster album ... and a pair of adult diapers. Play Chris Connor singing "All About Ronnie," its to die for.

Quick .... someone here HAS to buy this double album. Its a bargain at this price. Audiophile sound, excellent performance by the one and only Chris Connor. Yes, its mono ... but so what? Its so good you won’t miss the stereo effects. If you’re the lucky person who scores this album, please post your results here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ULTRASONIC-CLEAN-The-Finest-Of-CHRIS-CONNOR-Bethlehem-Jazz-1975-NM-UNPLAYED-...

Overall impressions:

Where the RED fuses took about 20 hours to sound their best, and the BLACK fuses took upwards of 200 hours of total break-in, the BLUE fuses sounded really good right out of the box ... and that’s without doing anything about proper directional positioning. Not that the BLUE fuses don’t need breaking in, they do. The improvement continues through week three. Its a gradual break-in thing where each listening session is better than the last.

Everything I described above continues to break new ground in my system as the fuses continue breaking in. Quite honestly, I find it difficult to tear myself away from the system in order to get things done. Its truly been transformed into a magical music machine. With the expenditure of $150.00 and a 30 day return policy there’s really nothing to lose. In my system, its like upgrading to a better pre amp, amp, CD player or phono stage. Highly recommended.

Kudos to Ted Denney and the entire staff at SR. Amazing stuff, guys. :-)

Frank

PS: If you try the SR BLUE fuses, please post your results here. Seems the naysayers, the Debbie Downers and Negative Nellie’s have hijacked the original RED fuse thread. A pox on their houses and their Pioneer receivers.

Frank



128x128oregonpapa
karmapolice's avatar
karmapolice
254 posts
 
Hi,

I replaced SR Black with SR Blue fuse for digital player and right away notice more.musical more foot tapping.

It is.midrange improvement but dont think highs or lows are.negatively impacted.in my resolving system.  Perhaps tad less.bass but gain midrange far greater than slight bass loss and overall enuf bass (and I am bass picky)....perhaps better still after break in but pleased already

dlcockrum's avatar
dlcockrum
2,190 posts
 
The Blue did not work well at all in my ModWright 9.9 power supply. Lost all sparkle in the highs with a reduction in dynamics in the upper mids compared to the Black.

HiFi Tuning Supreme Copper (Cu) is an amazing fuse as lalitk has stated. Ridiculously good in the MW power supply and better than the Blacks in my Aurender. Higher energy fuse that adds real-life rhythm, pace, and dynamics and moves the soundstage forward without losing depth and layering when used in combination with the Blacks and/or Blues.

The Blues are the clear victor over the Blacks in my SS DAC, pre, and amp. Have not yet tried the HFT Copper there.

Mixing and matching baby, that’s where it’s at!

Dave
imgoodwithtools
236 posts
 
About three weeks ago, I received my one and only SR Blue fuse to try in an Audio Research Reference 6 preamp. This new fuse would displace my SR Black fuse, should the system sound better with it. I swapped the Blue fuse orientation twice and settled on the position that provided the greater image focus. At that time, my first impression was that the Blue fuse tended to roll off the high frequencies. I decided to investigate more. The Blue fuse probably has about 60 hours of play time on it now.

To make a long story short, my judgement hasn't changed from my first impressions. The Blue fuse, in my system and to my ears, tends to roll off the high frequencies. With this change, the midrange tends to sound slightly richer. The bass does seem slightly more impactful and focused using the Blue vs. the Black.

To try to quantify the extent of the reduction in high frequency energy, I had some experience fine tuning the tweeter level of my Wilson Alexia's by swapping resistors. The reduction of HF seems to be on the order of 1dB using the blue fuse. If I install the resistors that give me 1dB increased tweeter output with the Blue fuse in place, the sound is almost identical to using the Black fuse with the 1dB lesser resistors. 

I then compared the sound of my Berkeley Alpha Reference 2 DAC directly driving my amp, vs. the Audio Research with either the Blue or Black fuse. The sound in the high frequencies of the DAC directly driving the amp sounds much closer to the Black fuse, while the Blue sounds muted in the highs. 

To put another description in play, I have a headphone rig highlighting Focal Utopia's. Sound in my main system with the Black fuse in place sounds a lot like my headphone rig running Moon Audio Silver Dragon Headphone cable. Sound with the Blue fuse in place sounds much like my headphone rig using Moon Audio Black Dragon cable. 

Your mileage may vary. 


justubes2
203 posts
 
Thanks for all the insighful observations. 

 I reported previously that i expwriences a slight reduction in HF sparkle or brillance with the black fuses. 

Great to hear more trials. 

I may try 1 blue to see how it meshes up.  Synergy can be most important. 
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa OP
4,867 posts
 
No roll off in the highs here at all. In fact, just the opposite. Very extended and very sweet. Everything makes a difference, so I'm thinking maybe a good combination is the Blue fuses with a compliment of Herbie's tube dampeners. 

Frank
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