Thanks Frank! The HIFI tuning I have are black. I think I am going to try one of the S.R. Blue fuses in my preamp. Do you use any type of footers under your Ref 3 or other ARC gear? Right now I don’t have enough room under my Ref 5se or Ref Phono 2se and still have adequate ventilation. I have large stainless steel cones under my amp and CD player. But I am planning on replacing my rack with a new one after I move this spring. My new rack will have more clearance between shelves.
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
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
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- 2978 posts total
Thanks Frank! The HIFI tuning I have are black. I think I am going to try one of the S.R. Blue fuses in my preamp. Do you use any type of footers under your Ref 3 or other ARC gear? Right now I don’t have enough room under my Ref 5se or Ref Phono 2se and still have adequate ventilation. I have large stainless steel cones under my amp and CD player. But I am planning on replacing my rack with a new one after I move this spring. My new rack will have more clearance between shelves. |
@jpspock I purchased two of the current production Tung Sol 6550s, cryogenically treated, from Upscale Audio. I have not sought out any NOS options, as of yet. @lak If you desire a significant improvement over your PS Audio Perfectwave transport, you Must check out the new Directstream memory player. The improvement is striking. And last I checked, PS Audio both offers a 30 day in home trial, and a $2K credit towards purchase with trade in of a Perfectwave. |
lostbears ... Nope, no footers. I haven’t tried them all, but I’ve found that the stock ARC feet are better in my system than all the after market ones I’ve tried. With that said, I have paid a lot of attention to reducing micro vibrations. If you click on my icon, then double click again on the other pictures, you will see exactly what I’ve done. Those platforms under the electronics are custom made. They consist of two very accurately machined pieces of high quality, high density, granite material with a thick layer of dampening material normally used to dampen our military submarines. The custom built equipment rack uses the same thinking, i.e., ... three pieces of quality plywood with the same dampening material sandwiched between each layer and then finished off with attractive material. The whole shebang is spiked through the carpet and into the raised wood floor. It weighs a ton. These are the details that when paid attention to gives our audio systems the "they are in the room" presentation. Everything is cumulative. Check out the platforms under the speakers. The speakers are spiked to the high density maple platforms, and then the platforms are spiked through the carpet into the floor. Same thing for the tops of the speakers. I’ve placed two of the granite platforms on top of the speakers along with lead weights. It has the effect of increasing the mass of the speakers. I’ve done that with all of the floor standers I’ve had in the past with very good results. It really improves the clarity of the presentation. Those two tweaks to the speakers were huge in improving SQ. If I had to do it over again, I’d take a little different approach .... I would concentrate on dampening the room first and getting that right. Instead, I did the room last and was astounded by the improvement it afforded the system. A good start would be a ten pack (at least ten) of SR’s High Frequency Transducers and install as per the provided directions. This is not a subtle improvement ... at least in my system. And they went in after the Shatki Holograms and the other room treatment I did. Highly recommended. https://highend-electronics.com/products/sr-hft-high-frequency-transformer The issue of cost always arises of course, but keep in mind that its taken me over 30 years to make all of these improvements ... a little at a time. And to think ... the tweaking all started with a set of aluminum "Tip Toes" under the speakers. Who knew?? :-) Oh and by the way, that big glass table is no longer in the room. It was very reflective and the bass improved dramatically once it was removed. Also, the speaker cables are now raised off the floor. A tweak here and a tweak there ... :-) Frank |
I have been in this for a while. Originally I had a Target rack. I then moved to a Solidsteel rack. Currently I have a pair of Zoethecus racks and matching amp stand. I am thinking of having something custom made out of maple and maybe using the Zoethecus Z block shelves. That way I can choose the distance between shelves to fit my gear. The move from the Solidsteel to the Zoethecus was a real eye opener. When I replaced the amp stand everything sounded smoother, more organic. Remember I have a tube amp. I don't know what affect the rack has on solid state gear. But I have become a true believer in wood over metal except for the turntable. I still like a sand filled metal rack for the turntable. I have a VPI turntable stand filled with sand and a 3" maple slab on top sitting on spikes. . |
- 2978 posts total