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Furutech power things show impressive skill with bringing out fine detail with warmth, but for me the blue fuses were too warm, preferring more transparency. I was using an oversized fuse though...6.3A where the Torii calls for 5A, and since bigger power cables tend to cause bigger/deeper sound, I thought this could have been part of my problem with the fuse.
If warmth appeals, I did see they are under 50 at VHAudio for the small fuses.
The (now cheap) Silver stars are quite clean and complete as I recall, having a quality "silver" feel. I have used them in the CSP3 a fair bit.
For those who don't "believe" fuses make a difference, I recommend stopping now. I don't want to be responsible for apoplexy!
I have been exploring cut up WA Quantum Stickers on caps, chips, connections and clocks in my Gustard x20pro DAC, something others had found helpful. Interestingly, whatever they do did not tend to develop fully for a day or so. But once it did, the WA Stickers were very impressive, transparently making the part they were on like a better part...cheap electrolytic caps starting to sound like nicer film caps.
It is interesting moving them around, and adding or subtracting them. The clarifying effects can go too far, especially in certain places....dissecting the sound. Up to that point, the WA seem quite neutral and transparent to me, bringing out all the good gracefully, giving better coherence, smoothness, space and fine detail, but otherwise, leaving the tonal values pretty intact. If too much, the hyper cleaned signal builds focus and loses the connectedness and integration needed for musical quality.... Luckily, I went with the advice of others and cut them up to start with.
After that, Telos stickers, being the same idea, but different design/materials, seemed worth a try. They are supposed to basically clean and empower the signal. In the DAC, 1st they focussed and clarified with good balance, but after a few hours, the heightened signal flow and quality increased tonal density and clarity too much for me, making for a harder sound...too pushed... The density focused more macro detail, leaving the still present micro detail underneath, while the bigger signal caused the mids-down to be stronger in the balance...this could work really well in lean systems I think, but not here.
Looking for a place where these Telos could work before cutting them, I put one on a small, slow blow glass fuse. Aha!
In the MKIV, with a 5 amp cheap glass fuse, when the sticker is added, the sound smooths while enhancing detail complexity, space and textures...With increased focus and density overall, more detail complexity does not sound too detailed, supported by the smoother, denser, deeper signal. Though denser, the clarified signal balances pretty nicely here.
Not night and day, but clearly noticeable, this sound is sort of in-between the more fragile and brittle open clarity of cheap glass fuses, and the too smooth vibe of some ceramic audio fuses. I like it.
Encouraged by finally liking the Telos I cut one in half, and put it on the speaker end of the positive speaker cable. Nice! Cleaner with a bit more density, but in balance...remaining neutral. So I tried some 1/2s in the DAC on the power-to-board connectors. Again, it improved signal clarity, smoothly, with nice density, and without losing tonal balance. Where a whole sticker had been too much, now they helped clean up the signal musically and with their own flavor, more dense and focussed than the WA, but still nicely balanced. Trouble with Telos, is they sell them a bunch at a time for $100, but with a 30 guarantee (Tweekgeek) not a terrible risk.
Just now I had to try a WA fuse chip on the standard glass fuse. First impressions....here the Telos cleaning came with beefed up signal density and focus (pleasantly), the WA more transparently clarified the signal. Compared to no sticker, the sound became more coherent, a bit bigger, more open, and complex, with loads of fine detail smoothly brought out. Rough edges and stridency were smoothed while everything good refined with less noise and increased very fine detail. Nice! An improvement on the stock fuse similar to many audio fuses.
The cool thing about the stickers...if you leave a little backing on, then tape them on the fuse with masking tape, they can be moved from a blown fuse. And they make a harsh fuse do a lot of what expensive fuses do. It does not totally compare to the Synergistic Research Red here, that one having exceptional refinement and spaciousness, but it is also about $10 with most of that interchangeable (the sticker). VHAudio has the fuse chip for $9. Not much risk.
I am going to leave on the WA for for a day or two, and see if/how it changes.
My system/room is very revealing, but I think yours is too Pal so I am guessing you will hear them.
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Fuses (Read 15826 times)
