September 22, 2012

• HiFi-Tuning Supreme Fuse

  The subject of this review is the HiFi Tuning Supreme fast blow, 1.25 Amp fuse that has been recently placed in the rear receptacle of my Modwright/Music Hall CD-25 disc player.  The reader is directed to my previous entry on HiFi-Tuning-Gold 38mm Special Fuses and Fuse Directionality for additional information.

  The Supreme fuse replaced the stock, glass fuse that came with the CD player when I purchased it approximately nine years ago from Response Audio.  I use the modified CD-25 for Red Book and HDCD playback.  In those applications, I prefer this player over the Oppo BDP-95 universal player, which does many things well but not always as well as players dedicated to particular purposes.  The CD-25 is currently outfitted with a pair of Philips Miniwatt SQ 7119 small signal tubes sans dampers, no footers of any kind, and Shunyata’s Antares interconnects and Venom3 power cord.

   

  HiFi-Tuning Supreme in Box                                                                   Supreme Standing on Its Own
       
  

  Supreme and Stock Fuses                                                                      Music Hall CD-25
       
  

   

  As a point of possible interest to readers, Oppo is discontinuing production of the BDP-93 and -95 models and will be introducing their newer counterparts, the BDP-103 and -105 in October.

  The fuse was placed in the preferred position, which is with the directional arrow pointed away from the body of the unit and towards the end cap of the fuse receptacle.  I’ve found that in this position, the full benefits of the aftermarket fuse are realized.  I encourage anyone purchasing this type of fuse to experiment and see which orientation is preferred.  The common wisdom is that the fuse should be oriented, as is the case with directional cables, in the direction of current flow. 

  As soon as the CD-25 was played after the Supreme fuse was introduced, there were easily audible differences in the sound.  I played a variety of music during the evaluation including Twelve Tribes by Richard Souther, Bach Concertos with Hilary Hahn on violin, and the Mercury Living Presence recording of Janos Starker performing Italian Cello Sonatas. 

  I’ve owned the last disc close to 20 years and thought I’d been very familiar with it.  Let me give you the following as an example of how the Supreme fuse has affected the playback abilities of the CD-25.  While reading and listening to this album as background music, track 19 (the Vivace movement of J. S. Bach’s Sonata in G Minor) began to play and immediately drew my attention away from my book.  This album is a somewhat dry recording but one I find reveals changes in my system handily.  This track and the following two portions of Bach’s sonata just sounded better than the previous ones.  The music was more immediate, lateral separation and the depth of the sound stage were markedly better.  I don’t think I’d ever noticed this before so I checked the liner notes after the CD finished playing.  I’d pretty well stopped reading as soon as track 19 commenced.  Anyway, Tracks 19 -21 were not recorded by the same people as the previous material.  The Chief Engineer and Technical Supervisor for these concluding tracks was C. Robert Fine and the Recording Directors were Wilma Cozart and Harold Lawrence. 

   

  It may have been just chance, but I don’t think so, it was only after the Supreme fuse was added to the mix that I became aware of these differences in the recording.

   

   

  • 12:33 pm
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