Hey Mark, I'll email you. I'm not sure what happened, I don't think the SDFB was at fault. The P15 seemed to be the culprit, and the amp's weak spot seems to be the rectifier--I've lost a few less expensive ones in the last nine months.

Hi Will. Yes, glad to be back. Always enjoy your posts and I learn something every time.

I just spoke with Mark on the phone for a good 15 minutes. His relationship to Saul Marantz quite riveting and others too. I met Mark at the Audio Society of Minnesota with Peter Madnick. Very memorable. Owned the best of their Audio Alchemy too, I did.

I placed my order and should have SDFB, Piggy Tail & Sluggo's by Wed, Th or Friday!  

Purchased my first Audio Alchemy in 1995. Had more of for 20yrs..... ,

Met Steve D's genius by phone in May of 2001 at age 37 ....I'm 60 now (wow, cant believe I'm 60) .....purchased the Zen Select/the rest is history 7 Decware products later....not cliche'.

Thanks, Kamran.
I have been enjoying your journey & thoughts.

The only other rectifier that arced in MY SEWE300B was the original 274B Aqua on the very first turn on of the amp. The VERY FIRST. Blew the fuse too. I then tried other rectifiers and no issue. Days ater, after some study and feeling brave I re-inserted that same 274B Aqua after verifying it wasn't dead by using it in the Taboo Mk IV, and it played fine--I used it for weeks until I bought my first 274B Aqua II. I later bought two more Aqua II, one for my CSP3 and one for the SE84UFO clone, both components in my audio/visual system. Now I'm down one Aqua II. Will sell a few things and buy another. I LOVE those rectifiers.

I like the test galdmo (AudioGon Forum review) ran to trip and not trip the SDFB. Well done.

I will get that posted bloodlemons.

It can't be coincidence; I'm thwarted. I don't believe in coincidences.

So, go to Audiogon Forums ......SEARCH with full words of SDFB.
Scroll down to Swiss Digital Fuse Box .....What headroom sounds like ....for the review.

Thanks Lon. I'm computer challenged today.  :o

Yes, I like the impressions I'm reading there. As I read here too, the cleaning and polishing. Gladmo, mentioned he got the idea from another Forum. Dare I say here, I bet. GS. Plus, GS started this thread in March 23....then gladmo Agon....May 23.

I have my peroxide, surgical gloves polishing cloth ready. In addition, I have a sealed packet of XLO's cleaning & enhancer I will use/not the peroxide. I have Deoxit too...but the XLO stuff is impressive. No oily fingers on my Sluggo's!

Okay, a little overzealous on my ship out. Mark said I'd have in 2-3 days with my south Texas location. However, I realize he meant after programing, testing and burn in (I read in the Agon thread). I noticed your first shipped 6 days after ordering Lon (2/29 -3/6) ...and that was right after the review too. Hoping my orders go out by Friday, 3rd.

Lon, what is the Link at Ali baba? The hollow silver slugs.

I read Gladmo’s thread multiple times last year and just assumed everyone else came across it as well.  While that was a great post, I feel the SDFB (eventually) got a better reception here.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this thread is the go to thread on the entire net for one to learn/read reviews on the SDFB.  GS deserves a lot of credit here.

I was intrigued about polishing the sluggoes as well but they already looked polished enough to me, so apart from using gloves and a microfiber cloth for a last second attempt at cleaning prior to inserting in to the fuse drawer, I didn’t do anything extra.

Thanks Lon.

Thanks Sean for the heads up.

Cool Lon. I'm excited to receive my first for my ZMA. The fork, funny!

I have an estimated delivery date for one portion on Saturday. The balance, not yet. Hopefully, I get that word by end of business today.

However, the queue exists for programming & testing as Sean witnessed. Probably next week then.

Sean.....Look forward to your impressions.

I knew you'd be impressed!

It gets better with more current and time. So prop up your jaw.

Will, always love hearing your take on things. And others as well, I learned long ago to pay attention to those who travelled the road before I got there. Being tall, I get the spider webs either way.

I've made my fair share of interconnects, but not a single power cord. There are so many choices as far as wire, connects, etc it's a bit daunting. Like anything else you got to start somewhere so I plan to go back through old posts and look for hints. I ordered a DHC2 a few weeks ago and put it on my AVR to give it some burn in. The Netflix ba duuum startup sound just isn't the same without the DHC2, so I need an upgrade there.

I don't want to derail things too far here, but since the SDFB does need power cords I think this could be on topic. I have outlets near both my audio and my AV setup and I'm not a fan of long power cables looping around stuff.  Is too short a power cable a bad thing? Well, other than shooting myself in the foot down the road someday when I may need that extra length. If not, let's say I cut a DHC2 in half, took a moment of silence for its sacrifice, and added new connectors for two shorter cables?

Perhaps a side-track, or perhaps a compliment to the thread, cables mattering to the SDFB as much or more than with anything else. I could go on for a long time about different design considerations, nice ready-made cables with your selection of ends, etc, but I hope this helps answer your question Sean.

I remember looking at theories that with relatively high quality power cords longer can be better... A long time ago, so don’t remember details, but as I recall, a theory is that they are functioning as a conditioner/filter, and within reason, longer offers more. Thinking about it now, I can conceptually imagine this with these ideas: electrons with wire that allows easier/more fluid movement, along with less noise susceptibility due to careful/by-sound geometry, and in many cases, with shielding designs that hopefully do not degrade other aspects of the sound as they reduce noise… I can imagine this combo could condition/smooth the power by making the electron paths and activities cleaner and easier.

That said, I have made some good sounding cables that are pretty short, and recently, very short, making some “piggies” that are a little shorter than Mark's, cables that to me are more musical and complete than Mark’s already pretty transparent piggies. And one being in front of my power regenerator that feeds the amp and pre-stages, it is the beginning after a very transparent receptacle… and it was a system upgrade.

Also when I have added clear quartz filters in bags, or boxes, or cast, on cable ends or fitted in the cable wires near the ends, it changes the sound for the better...less noise and more complex resolution, speed and space… And other crystal rocks can be nice, clarifying and nicely colored, while others I have rejected. But smallish tumbled clear quartz crystal pieces are quite neutral, and do some nice magic.

I did not build those into my special “piggies,” but do have “a bag of rocks” under the AC end of the cables, helping the cable and the receptacle. Just a little thickish plastic bag some resistors or small caps came in. And these filters are cumulative in effect. Having explored them over many years, I have variations using different minerals I liked that lend different balances to the sound placed all over the place (over transformers, IEC and AC ends, under tube circuits….) each chosen by sound and pure quartz most used I guess, finding clear quartz to be most transparent, dynamic, and spacious.

At some point I started adding them into the structure of some power cables. Which leads me to length again. I had a, I think(???) 3 foot, MyAudioCable HC (high current) braided 10 gauge silver plate on copper cable that seemed very similar to Decware cables at the time. Bought on a promotion sale, it was pretty cheap, and was one of my early cable upgrades. I was no longer using it after finding 10 gauge in the case of this cable was a little too full/thick/slow sounding for me.

When he was upgrading his system some years ago, I wanted to express some appreciation for Dom for the work he does, and being a really good guy. So I decided to try to make this cable as good as I could... hopefully an upgraded addition to the Decware cable he had, and if it came out sounding really good, give it to him. It finally sounded quite good to me... not as good as cables I have made with design, materials, and geometry that more easily allow refined levels of speed, resolution, and tonal balances, but quite good. I used some Neotech gold plated UPOCC copper ends I got years ago at a good price when they were discontinued…After hearing them, I got a number of pairs over time… This was before UPOCC had been recognized like it is now, and they are really good sounding ends. But with that cable wires and geometry, I knew it could use a little more help to bring it out more fully, hoping for a little more speed and spaciousness/complexity. So I integrated some Orgonite-like quartz based filter pieces I had been experimenting with that I made specifically for audio. I think this was near the AC end (?) built into in the wire braid. Pretty sure I used small packets of quartz powder held in some pretty strong plastic near the cable/ends connections as well. To me, changing the brass ends to UPOCC, and the quartz filters, made an OK cable really musical and relatively complete. And it was pretty short!

So, if it is a good gauge for your sound needs, I guess cutting your what, 5-6 foot DHC-2 cable in half could work pretty well. But to make it better, I would encourage you to buy some small tumbled quartz rocks from a highly rated seller, and experiment with different amounts of it in little bags at both ends of the cable. Also I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like those ends could be brass(???), and if so, I would look for some nice pure copper ends, or pure copper with gold, silver, or rhodium plate… each plate having a different sound. And if you want to try some that are not very high cost, but can be quite good, check out Chinese made audiophile ends, perhaps on Ebay from a highly rated seller. I buy things relatively regularly from AliExpress and have not had any issues I could not solve, but I get that the added security of Ebay/Paypal together if there is an issue feels more comfortable to a lot of folks. Hope this helps.

Will

@S of T

Love this - makes me proud and super happy - Thanks for your post.

I very much enjoyed our conversation. I think Grampa (Irving) Marantz would be really pleased with this and other products we are making

@Kamran - ALWAYS enjoy our conversation. I seem to have less and less time these days - but that's about to change. I love doing what I do - and I am working on ways to have more time for me.

@Sean

Call anytime - please. About to get on a plane (ugh) but6 the weekend is fine - 303.594.7586

@Lon - Major Grampa Hugs man...

@All - yes, we have moments when we have stock outs. In this case we were stock out because Singapore took SEVENTY ONE SDFB's - no joke and now Germany and other EU Countries (The Netherlands et all) and ordering almost daily.

NO COMPLAINTS - we are a very small company and sadly due to other issues (mainly health of others) I'm spreads a bit thin.

New Sluggos are bringing a new dimension to this also. We have three new ones all being made in larger quantities now. Takes Time.......

Graphene is amazing

Tellurium Copper with Rhodium Plating to me is amazing too...

GS has my one sample of Magic Fuse Gen 2 which is referred to here as Air Core. This hasd 4 separate Nano Treatments plus a new Metallurgy Mix that's for many - the end game.

@Will - always want to hear and see more from you... Your thoughts challenge me in a great way. I respect and appreciate all of you...

Lastyly - new metal just arrived from Japan for FUSE MAX which is roughly 50% bigger to allows us to finally support 11 to 32 amps safely.

LOTS OF WORK went into this...

Love to all and great thanks

Mark

Oh no, Sean, I was just alluding to getting my SDFB.

I'm sure that's a very interesting Sluggo.

For my system needs Mark suggested a Super Duper Sluggo and I have one on the way to me. I'm hoping for just a little more low end presence and a bit less high frequency energy.

Unless I too am confused the Super Duper Sluggo is:

Tellurium Copper with Rhodium Plating

Mark recommended these to address my system needs . . I don't think there's a possible bad choice especially if you can tailor by blending one or two or three types in different components. I know with my addiction to tweaking if I pay down more debt I may climb the ladder of the verafi Sluggos.

Sorry for the delay; I am sure you will enjoy the hollow silver slugs. I have two in use right now, and they have me very happy where they are (P15 and DAC).

Can't say that I noticed any change in "noise." But I am using three SDFB, one for each of three components.

Sean, Are you using the same cables as before, or perhaps one or more that are not as good at noise cancelation and protection? I am not, and though here lots of things can increase noise a little...one of them... for a few minutes, or for hours depending on incoming power and how well my systems deals with it, slightly increased noise can mess with my mind....But I wonder if by adding your distribution box and/or different cables, if this could have adjusted cable noise, and possibly ground paths/loops?

That said, I too wondered if adding more slugs into the power and amplifications parts of my setup may have increased noise a little... Can't say for sure as I am transitioning with a relatively new amp that can be noisier, especially with warmup, and more efficient speakers that show noise better, tube experiments, other pre stage experiments... etc... always tuning something. But mitigating/reducing noise is also always part of those choices.

And I can imagine that the slugs, from amping up the current into especially tube stuff, also amping up the power supplies (including transformers), and tubes in the gear...and doing that in a solid clear way, couldn't this also increase the perception of noise that was there in the chain to start with... from minor ground loops, cables, cable placement, tubes or gear? Like for so many, the slugs helping bring out aspects of what might be perceived as positive musical adjustments/revelation, might greater electron flow potentially make previous noise a little clearer too?

One test that could be interesting if up for it and easy (not so easy here with so many slugs and some in difficult to get to spots).... in the warmed up system, listen carefully for the qualities and loudness of the noise. Then leaving all else the same, including the Fusebox, your distribution box, cables... pull the slugs while putting the fuses you had been using back in, let it warm back up and listen.

Sounds fun. Those cables might surprise you! There is a lot coming out of China now that can be quite good and low cost.

Yes, it can be impressive Chinese made things. I am so glad there are development folks there who are interested in good audio... Think of Gustard, Singxer, Holo, Eversolo.... to name a few in front end components.... Linlai tubes.... the revered Lii Song drivers and speakers.... and of course, all the cables now made, some with really good wires and parts, and many at least decent. To me the Verafi Piggy looks like it is likely originally Chinese parts and wires, maybe curated and perhaps adjusted and/or assembled to Mark's or his partner's preferences, but you couldn't buy 1/2 of one Furutech Rhodium plated carbon fiber connector for the cost of a Piggy.  And the DHC-3, I believe I saw on a Chinese site at one point, without a Decware logo or perhaps any specific design tuning or assembly Steve might have asked for or be doing... but it looked like the same base cable as I recall. Don't know...but if I got it sort of right, curating and quality assurance, or design adjustments... these are valuable things... but the thought being there is good stuff coming out of China....I have gotten quite a few things over time that have been quite good in my experiments. Clearly potential issues for folks in labor practices, and political issues. But in the potential for good quality, and to support innovators in the audio development community there, I am personally for it. They are shaking up the pot and that is usually pretty good for innovation.

Stone,

Prepare your ears and mind. The piggy tail takes about 30-40 hours to settle in, may sound a bit treble bright initially. Enjoy.

HK