[Roy G. Biv]

We are missing a trick here. Why are fuses not in our discussion?

"and I'm sure there are skeptics out there like I was, but holy smokes what a difference these Synergistic Research Purple fuses make. I tried one in my Pass Labs amp first and then a few weeks later another in my PS Audio DAC. Significant improvements in both components and I was already happy with my system. Deeper, tighter bass, textured mids, and crystalline highs without any edginess. Everything just sounds more "right". Anyone calling this snake oil has unquestionably never tried them. Pricey for a fuse for sure, but a small fraction of what I spent on my system. And my Pendragons are highly capable of revealing the improvements."

I shall be off replacing my fuses directly!

lol I read this post https://tinyurl.com/3rxnbm3s that had some thoughts on some of the claims people regarding what they're hearing.

"IMO, with time, more and more nonsense articles and claims have built-up in audiophile magazines and the Internet. I think young audiophiles must have difficulties making heads or tails about what is true anymore while negotiating this massive minefield of questionable information. I would not be surprised that some in this Industry actually prefer the presence of this "fog of subjectivity" because it allows people to make irresponsible claims about anything they want and not have to provide evidence so long as some key reviewers or readers have faith to repeat the belief over time! "

 

[Paladin79]

We are missing a trick here. Why are fuses not in our discussion?

"and I'm sure there are skeptics out there like I was, but holy smokes what a difference these Synergistic Research Purple fuses make. I tried one in my Pass Labs amp first and then a few weeks later another in my PS Audio DAC. Significant improvements in both components and I was already happy with my system. Deeper, tighter bass, textured mids, and crystalline highs without any edginess. Everything just sounds more "right". Anyone calling this snake oil has unquestionably never tried them. Pricey for a fuse for sure, but a small fraction of what I spent on my system. And my Pendragons are highly capable of revealing the improvements."

I shall be off replacing my fuses directly!

I hope I am open minded about such things.

Would you consider it a fair test if I purchased three of the fuses and had five friends do a blind listen as the fuses were placed in four identical headphone amps of my design? My way of thinking is to not tell anyone what changes were made, and put one or two or three of the purple fuses in random amps and let the group tell me when any amp's sound was improved? Naturally the amps would be shielded so that no one knew what component was changed and into which amp it was placed.

We can easily switch between amps and the headphones involved using music that was designed to show off 20 criteria within the audio spectrum. Most likely we could use some very good Sennheiser or Focal headphones.

If need be we could do individual scores on each amp as either type of fuse is placed inside, this could show if indeed there was a perceived change to any of the criteria when scored against a baseline amp or two, or three.

We have specific DAC's we like to use as well as speakers, were we to go with pre-amps and power amps.

Such a test would certainly reduce expectation bias and for all the folks knew, we might be changing a tube, or cables.

Mind you this would be done in an engineering lab and most likely the setup would be controlled by an audio engineer I often use. I am neutral about such things and if the purple fuses were correctly picked on a consistent basis, I would think they might warrant the $200 cost per fuse.

Now if the thought is the equipment was not accurate enough to show the difference, I can certainly lay my hands on other gear made by Pass or whomever. I would not involve myself in any listening and the test subjects I would use are not on Head Fi so they would most likely think we are trying new 6sn7 tubes. Naturally we could use test equipment to try to pick up any differences but I would prefer to keep this as a blind listen.

 

[DougD]

Would you consider it a fair test if I purchased three of the fuses and had five friends do a blind listen as the fuses were placed in four identical headphone amps of my design? My way of thinking is to not tell anyone what changes were made, and put one or two or three of the purple fuses in random amps and let the group tell me when any amp's sound was improved? Naturally the amps would be shielded so that no one knew what component was changed and into which amp it was placed.

That would be a wonderful thing, a most valuable contribution to the discussion.

 

[golfbravobravo]

I hope I am open minded about such things.

Would you consider it a fair test if I purchased three of the fuses and had five friends do a blind listen as the fuses were placed in four identical headphone amps of my design? My way of thinking is to not tell anyone what changes were made, and put one or two or three of the purple fuses in random amps and let the group tell me when any amp's sound was improved? Naturally the amps would be shielded so that no one knew what component was changed and into which amp it was placed.

We can easily switch between amps and the headphones involved using music that was designed to show off 20 criteria within the audio spectrum. Most likely we could use some very good Sennheiser or Focal headphones.

If need be we could do individual scores on each amp as either type of fuse is placed inside, this could show if indeed there was a perceived change to any of the criteria when scored against a baseline amp or two, or three.

We have specific DAC's we like to use as well as speakers, were we to go with pre-amps and power amps.

Such a test would certainly reduce expectation bias and for all the folks knew, we might be changing a tube, or cables.

Mind you this would be done in an engineering lab and most likely the setup would be controlled by an audio engineer I often use. I am neutral about such things and if the purple fuses were correctly picked on a consistent basis, I would think they might warrant the $200 cost per fuse.

Now if the thought is the equipment was not accurate enough to show the difference, I can certainly lay my hands on other gear made by Pass or whomever. I would not involve myself in any listening and the test subjects I would use are not on Head Fi so they would most likely think we are trying new 6sn7 tubes. Naturally we could use test equipment to try to pick up any differences but I would prefer to keep this as a blind listen.

I think that's an excellent suggestion!

 

[Paladin79]

I need to see if that company advertises here, if so I cannot say anything negative as a member of the trade. Once I retire I will have some of those restrictions removed I suppose.

 

[Paladin79]

I think that's an excellent suggestion!

I just need to come up with a quad of well matched 6sn7's with the type of sound I prefer, power tubes will be Tung Sol 5998.

Also thinking ahead, we will carefully clean each fuse holder before each fuse insertion, I can recall someone, who shall remain nameless saying that doing that can improve SQ, so why not.

 

[StimpyWan]

When I worked at Nimbus Records, I was an audio engineer in the Audio Mastering Dept. One slow day, I did some spring cleaning. The next day, one of our other audio engineers, asked what I had done to the room; that everything sounded so much better. All I had done was to unplug each cable and clean the contacts. I had also pulled all of the daughter cards, from our Sony 1630 processors, and cleaned all of the edge contacts. I admit, I was a bit surprised that the cleaning was so noticeable...!

 

[dstrimbu]

When I worked at Nimbus Records, I was an engineer in the Audio Mastering Dept. One slow day, I did some spring cleaning. The next day, one of our other audio engineers, asked what I had done to the room; that everything sounded so much better. All I had done was to unplug each cable and cleaned the contacts. I had also pulled all of the daughter cards, from our Sony 1630 processors, and cleaned all of the edge contacts. I admit, I was a bit surprised that the cleaning was so noticeable...!

I'm not surprised at all - oxidation increases electrical resistance, right? None of those connections are air-tight, most likely. Oxidation happens. One might say that the simple act of unplugging / re-plugging may have been enough, but if you're gonna do that, why not clean them, too? I like your style, @StimpyWan.

Anyway, I'm a firm believer in proper use of DeoxIT... clean contacts can make even a mediocre cable perform at its best. Now, the cable thing... pls don't get me started. <g>

 

[A Jedi]

lol I read this post https://tinyurl.com/3rxnbm3s that had some thoughts on some of the claims people regarding what they're hearing.

"IMO, with time, more and more nonsense articles and claims have built-up in audiophile magazines and the Internet. I think young audiophiles must have difficulties making heads or tails about what is true anymore while negotiating this massive minefield of questionable information. I would not be surprised that some in this Industry actually prefer the presence of this "fog of subjectivity" because it allows people to make irresponsible claims about anything they want and not have to provide evidence so long as some key reviewers or readers have faith to repeat the belief over time! "

Sadly, this has and will continue to be the case with everything from the beginning until the end of time.

 

[Paladin79]

When I worked at Nimbus Records, I was an engineer in the Audio Mastering Dept. One slow day, I did some spring cleaning. The next day, one of our other audio engineers, asked what I had done to the room; that everything sounded so much better. All I had done was to unplug each cable and cleaned the contacts. I had also pulled all of the daughter cards, from our Sony 1630 processors, and cleaned all of the edge contacts. I admit, I was a bit surprised that the cleaning was so noticeable...!

That makes very good sense and is a fine example. I am about to build myself 25 new AC cords so I can swap out what is there and clean contacts, I already have plenty of interconnects I can do that with but I would need more AC cords. I can then clean with Deoxit and let them dry and still use all my gear. All I need do is buy some Nema 5-15 plugs and I am in business, I have a mountain of new scrap to work with, 14 awg with a molded IEC 320-C13's in place.

 

[valiant66]

I was trying to figure out whether you were trying to start a flame-thread or not. Translation: them are fighting words. At least. At least you were not pining for the Fjords (in particular audio cassette tape). I still have baaaaad memories of 120 minute tapes bird-nesting in my knock-off Sony (Sinny?) Walkman (Wolkmein). As soon as I could get my hands on a JVC combo-CD/tape boom box, I bailed on cassette. What I find frustrating, @dstrimbu , is... that.... you.... are.... RIGHT. Vinyl has a THING about it. Is it for me? Do I need vinyl. Nah. I'm from the CD era (I still remember buying my first CD, Dire Straights, Brother in Arms, from A&B Sound, down on Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, ...1989... and turning said JVC up to 11 for Money For Nothing).

When I graduated from using PINE (Pine Is Not Elm) to Eudora as my email client, my first sig was "No longer PINEing for the fjords".

Nobody ever got it. I don't know if that's the sign of a good joke, or just that my target audience was so miniscule I never reached it.
.

 

[valiant66]

Derp

Fnord.
.

 

[GearMe]

I hope I am open minded about such things.

Would you consider it a fair test if I purchased three of the fuses and had five friends do a blind listen as the fuses were placed in four identical headphone amps of my design? My way of thinking is to not tell anyone what changes were made, and put one or two or three of the purple fuses in random amps and let the group tell me when any amp's sound was improved? Naturally the amps would be shielded so that no one knew what component was changed and into which amp it was placed.

We can easily switch between amps and the headphones involved using music that was designed to show off 20 criteria within the audio spectrum. Most likely we could use some very good Sennheiser or Focal headphones.

If need be we could do individual scores on each amp as either type of fuse is placed inside, this could show if indeed there was a perceived change to any of the criteria when scored against a baseline amp or two, or three.

We have specific DAC's we like to use as well as speakers, were we to go with pre-amps and power amps.

Such a test would certainly reduce expectation bias and for all the folks knew, we might be changing a tube, or cables.

Mind you this would be done in an engineering lab and most likely the setup would be controlled by an audio engineer I often use. I am neutral about such things and if the purple fuses were correctly picked on a consistent basis, I would think they might warrant the $200 cost per fuse.

Now if the thought is the equipment was not accurate enough to show the difference, I can certainly lay my hands on other gear made by Pass or whomever. I would not involve myself in any listening and the test subjects I would use are not on Head Fi so they would most likely think we are trying new 6sn7 tubes. Naturally we could use test equipment to try to pick up any differences but I would prefer to keep this as a blind listen.

Would be an interesting exercise and follow-on discussion. However, based on the test description, I'd expect people from both camps (subjectivist & objectivist) to 'cry foul'!
FWIW, I'd rather see you spend the money on some great tubes and tell us about your listening experience!

 

[Paladin79]

Would be an interesting exercise and follow-on discussion. However, based on the test description, I'd expect people from both camps (subjectivist & objectivist) to 'cry foul'!
FWIW, I'd rather see you spend the money on some great tubes and tell us about your listening experience!

We spent in excess of $50k and three years on just one type of tube, so this will be an easy setup lol. The thing we wanted to avoid with our tube testing was to avoid a person knowing he was listening to a tube that sells for $1-2K or that friends describe as the holy grail of tubes. If you spent even $300 on one tube your expectations are bound to be high. You might also have peer pressure of "OMG this tube is amazing, can you not tell that yourself?"

My answer to anyone crying foul is to spend $200 each on the fuses and do your own testing and show me a better way of doing it. I cannot get into the basis for some of the testing we have done, there are some well educated folks involved but every now and then we do some things for Schiits and giggles and have a nice adult beverage afterwards. Setting up the gear from the show Bosch is a prime example and fuses are much less heavy to lug around.

My listening experience with over 1500 6sn7 equivalents is not an easy thing for me to describe. We used a point system, and I can say such tubes as a specific Melz 1578 scored extremely high, others of note were made by RFT, Tung Sol, Ken-Rad, and GEC. The lowest price tube in the top 52 was an RCA grey glass and a non Bad Boy Sylvania.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

I hope I am open minded about such things.

Would you consider it a fair test if I purchased three of the fuses and had five friends do a blind listen as the fuses were placed in four identical headphone amps of my design? My way of thinking is to not tell anyone what changes were made, and put one or two or three of the purple fuses in random amps and let the group tell me when any amp's sound was improved? Naturally the amps would be shielded so that no one knew what component was changed and into which amp it was placed.

We can easily switch between amps and the headphones involved using music that was designed to show off 20 criteria within the audio spectrum. Most likely we could use some very good Sennheiser or Focal headphones.

If need be we could do individual scores on each amp as either type of fuse is placed inside, this could show if indeed there was a perceived change to any of the criteria when scored against a baseline amp or two, or three.

We have specific DAC's we like to use as well as speakers, were we to go with pre-amps and power amps.

Such a test would certainly reduce expectation bias and for all the folks knew, we might be changing a tube, or cables.

Mind you this would be done in an engineering lab and most likely the setup would be controlled by an audio engineer I often use. I am neutral about such things and if the purple fuses were correctly picked on a consistent basis, I would think they might warrant the $200 cost per fuse.

Now if the thought is the equipment was not accurate enough to show the difference, I can certainly lay my hands on other gear made by Pass or whomever. I would not involve myself in any listening and the test subjects I would use are not on Head Fi so they would most likely think we are trying new 6sn7 tubes. Naturally we could use test equipment to try to pick up any differences but I would prefer to keep this as a blind listen.

I would personally love to see (hear) this happen!