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The Synergistic Research Orange Fuse ... Further thoughts.

Here are my observations after several weeks of burning in the new SR Orange fuses:

1. The sound has a more relaxed presentation. 

2.  Clarity - There is less grain. I thought I had this beat, but evidently not. 

3.  The soundstage has expanded further and instruments and performers are more well-placed inside the stage. The presentation is a lot more three-dimensional. 

4.  More articulation on voices. Vocals are more organically human in nature. While listening to Kevin Mahogany sing "Skylark," I hung on every note and word in the lyrics. Massed voices, like those heard on the Norman Luboff Choir's "But Beautiful" album, are more delineated. The solo instruments are more present than ever before also.

5.  There is a definite improvement in dynamics. Drum solos place the drummer right there in the room with you. Rim shots, bongos, congas and big bass drums are amazing. So are vibes. Cal Tjader and Victor Feldman ... Welcome to the party. 

6.  There has been a further improvement in tonal accuracy. String instruments have taken on a new dimension.  

7.   Among other improvements, there has been a slight amount of welcome warmth added to the mid-bass. The music, as a result, has become more emotionally involving. A little more tube-like in a very nice way.

8.  More meat on the bones overall. Massed strings are beautiful.  Bach's "Air on a G String" ... simply beautiful.  

9.  Lastley, I can set the volume control lower and get the same volume in sound as before.

Overall ... the new Orange fuse is a real winner in my system. 

Highly recommended. 

Frank

128x128oregonpapa
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,838 posts
 
I have the synergistic blues fuses and are very good ,in my preamp section I tried the orange a  3-4% better then the blue but.currently $70 more per fuse and I needed 5 ,solution 
i use Furutech nano fluid which uses nano particles of silver,gold  i use a small foam swab and coated the fuse holder contacts good which contacts are crap and this alone gave a noticable boost in detail 
it takes a few weeks to dry but gets better over the few weeks 
others I know that have used it agree, even on power cords ,both sides .on ebay I get it straight from Japan for $120 delivered vs $170 here and it goes a long way and BTW synergistic uses brass 
nickel end caps ,Hifi tuning use silver,gold.it says right on the synergistic site ,it not the best conductors ,vs silver,gold
that’s why the Furutech nano fluid makes a noticable enhancement it goes into the pours of the fuse,and holder.and save $$
alexa6404
5 posts
 

I am also in the process of upgrading fuses in my system from mostly Synergistic Blue to Orange.  There are a couple of questions that I wanted to ask those with experience with these fuses:

- Given the same fuse generation, does a higher Amperage fuse sound fuller and better than a lower Amperage fuse (eg replacing a 500mA fuse with a 2A fuse) ? I assume the higher rated fuse has a thicker filament and could actually result in a better response.

- Is there any way to accelerate the burn-in process? The 200-300 hour burn-in process for the fuse means that I put in 200-300 hours on the very expensive and hard to find tubes that I have in my equipment before I get good sound. And, to compound that, since I will be upgrading my fuses gradually, this means that I will be putting in many hours on the tubes in my DAC, preamp, and amp before the fuses are burned-in. By then, the tubes have aged considerably, which is very concerning.

rbyington711's avatar
rbyington711
60 posts
 
Need a little help if I purchase orange fuses in what order should I replace them for the best bang for the buck and a few words on why. Would it be AMP first then the preamp DAC phono stage?

I have a BHK 250
             BHK Pre
             Perfect wave DAC
             Stella phono amp
             Power Plant 20

Pass Labs for my home theater 
Someone suggested don't replace the rail fuses in the 250

Thanks in advance 
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,838 posts
 
Your sourse components do first ,since the music starts there it is the most critical part of the chain.
nobody speaks of runin time Synergistic says 2-300 hours. 100 hours brings it over 90% 
always should  if possible Go to a bit bigger size for these are accurate and Can blow  ,standard buzz fuse can vary over 15-20%, I found out the hard way with earlier versions.
theone in mySchiit Yggsdrasil made a very noticable improvement 
my preamp section nowreplacing orangefrom blue , very overpriced imo, but worth it. Also as far as snake oil comments 
great electronics Gurus like John Curl, and Nelson Pass as a small example has used them ,and they may know a thing or two about Electronics engineering !! There is on average 4 x less resistance  from these top fuses vs the steel,zinc fuses,just lookup metals resistance index .the steel fuses are a bottleneck .
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,838 posts
 
How about breakin time on these orange fuses ?
I have 50 hours on them and the treble is tilted at least 15% higher 
then when I had the stock fuses in there.
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