Synergistic Red Fuse ...


I installed a SR RED Quantum fuse in my ARC REF-3 preamp a few days ago, replacing an older high end fuse. Uhh ... for a hundred bucks, this little baby is well worth the cost. There was an immediate improvement upon installation, but now that its broken in (yes, no kidding), its quite remarkable. A tightening of the focus, a more solid image, and most important of all for my tastes, a deeper appreciation for the organic sound of the instruments. Damn! ... cellos sound great! Much improved attack on pianos. More humanistic on vocals. Bowed bass goes down forever. Next move? .... I'm doing the entire system with these fuses. One at a time though just to gauge the improvement in each piece of equipment. The REF-75se comes next. I'll report the results as the progression takes place. Stay tuned ...

Any comments from anyone else who has tried these fuses?
128x128oregonpapa
David ...

Thanks for the info on the  The Synergistic Research ECT's. After I finish with the fuses, the ECT's will be my next step. In addition to your analysis, I've read nothing but good things about them.

I had two friends over for dinner tonight (my homemade chile), and they were amazed at how well the system sounded. We played nothing but CD's ... and it was so good we were listening to entire CD's all the way through. It was kind of mesmerizing actually. I know it sounds far fetched, but I believe even the WA  Quantum Chips needed some burn-in time. 
Getting back to the WA Quantum Chips for just a sec, I would like to point out a couple things. One is just how tiny some of these chips actually are. The one for small capacitors is what about 1/8" diam and thin as all get out. It cannot be a vibration damper or contstrained layer damper or anything like say the Marigo VTS Dot which is also rather the same diameter and also intended for (damping vibration of) capacitors.

In like manner the WA Quantum Cable Chip, as I already mentioned, is very effective wrapped around the audio circuit wire as it comes into the circuit breaker box. Therefore - and I hate to judge before all the facts are in - I kind of doubt the Cable Chip could be operating as a vibration damper as it’s just too far upstream. Upstream of where all the vibration is. The vibration that’s causing problems is way downstream of the circuit breaker box and the Cable Chip is even upstream of that! So, if they’re not anti vibration devices what they heck are they?

There’s a WA Quantum Chip for Cables, one for Power, one for capacitors, one for Inductors and Coils, one for Fuses. If they were acting on vibration wouldn’t they just sell one Type of Chip that could be used anywhere? Are the chips affecting RFI/EMI? Probably not since the speaker chip is placed on the cabinet. Are they affecting the way energy flows in the system, as the maker of the WA Quantum Chip suggests? Well, maybe. But what’s inside the chip? There not much room in one of those chips to put anything. In fact there is NO ROOM to put anything. Hel-looo!

As as regards the reports that WA Quantum Chips don’t work in some applications, or don’t work for some people or require breaking in well, isn’t that true of just about everything?
Like many who posted earlier, I have the original Synergistic Research fuses in most of my equipment, including some that I've sold. This was the results of comparisons some time ago with every fuse that I could lay my hands on as well as experimenting with the direction of every fuse I used. I remain very happy with what I hear with my old SR fuses.

Many manufactures claim that their fuses don't have a direction, but I have failed to find any such fuse. I think this was true of the SR fuses also. I hope to soon try the SR  Red fuses but that entails once again checking what values I need,

One thing is certain fuses and their direction are important.
Oregonpapa:

I very much look forward to your listening experiences with using the RED fuses in your CD player. I found this to be a very pivotal position. My SACD player has one main power fuse and then 5 fuses for the various circuits. I found the main fuse location to be a major change. The 5 rail fuse locations had a much smaller sonic change. One approach would be RED fuse at main fuse and then the WA Quantum chips on the stock rail fuse locations.

Charles1-  I absolutely agree that the SET amplifier magic is only enhanced by the Synergistic Research "RED" fuses. The Emotion type 45 SET amplifier putting out maybe one watt to the Teresonic speakers has an elegance to the sound that was not there with an ordinary fuse. So much more emotionally engaging.
Hi David,
I bet your system  with those pieces sounds marvelous. I wouldn't be surprised if  the upgraded  fuses have more impact on the source  (DAC,Phono stage) and preamp than the power amplifier. I ordered  the wrong  size fuses for my DAC (my error ). So I'm  looking forward to the fuse effect on the  DAC once they arrive. .
Charles,