I find it so ironic as at least for me there are better amps even at these price points for that type of music, and his excels at acoustic instruments recorded carefully; classical, jazz, etc. can sound beautiful with these amps with the right cabling, speakers, tube choice etc.
I am enjoying THE HECK out of my production model #16 of his SEWE300B amp. … especially after a lot of tube-rolling to find just the right ones.
I hope I’m not sounding elitist or particularly ignorant but are there “heavy metal” “audiophile” recordings?
I don’t think so.
My thought parallels your, when I was there. Brought my own music, and he reverted to some Head Banger Music, which isn’t my thing. Yes the gear excels with delicate sounding music. Some of the speakers I auditioned there, which was the primary motivation for the visits, were how do I say it…
rather SHOUTY, with significant emphasis in the presence range. The amps showed promise so I purchased two, which are now long gone. With the right speakers they are very nice.
It is not unusual for someone to put a song by the band “Tool” in the playlist at my house. My system is really capable of blasting Tool correctly. I quite enjoy it. I draw a blank on Metal that I fancy. RAMMSTEIN, Sabbath, Alice Cooper Killer Album. Tool. Who else?
I really like Tool though.
It has been a couple of days with the Master fuse in the streamer. So, I put back the ACME fuse to see if I really heard improvement.
The soundstage collapsed and the music became lifeless. After one hour I switched back to Master, and the big soundstage returned. The music is alive again. The 2nd Master fuse has passed the test and will be serving U2 streamer permanently now. 
It is still curious why it did not do well in the pre and MK2 dac. Here is my theory:
The BHK pre has a pair of Gold Lion 12au7 tubes, and their sweet midrange may overlap with Master fuse’s midrange strength too much. The DS MK2 has an APS transformer upgrade. This Mod has made great improvements in the midrange and bass areas; the Master may boost them too much also.
Thanks for both your test and analysis!
I don’t have the transformer upgrade in the MK2, so I will consider this once I finally do my streamer upgrade.
Like @aangen Al said Tool Fear Inoculum track 2 Pneuma can give any system a workout especially the drums! I love it!!
96/24 on Qobuz. I have the CD and the LP which is currently bargain priced on Amazon arrives today, Crank up track 2 and if your system is firing on all cylinders it will reward you!
Fear Inoculum https://a.co/d/45mBNii
Cut 8 is a Bacc-dsph delight with bells and chimes everywhere sounds coming from all over the room.
Good to know! It’s a great recording!
I’m listening now. I like them, they’re creative.
In the queue.
EDIT:
NIce
I seem to remember that you mentioned (or tried) this fuse before:
FURUTECH Fuse TF-15A(20) SB
Parts Connection has this one on 50% sale $31.5. I am not about to try another fuse again. I have too many spares. I do not know anyone here has tried this fuse before. I am wondering if it is any good.
Hello Donald. Yes, I started with the Furutech/Padis fuses. They are beautiful and don’t have the grainy harshness of a simple glass fuse. The image has more depth and the timbres are a little richer than with a HiFi tuning Supreme Silver Gold. But a narrower stage with less detail and dynamics. A compromise. The Furutech does not reach the level of a top fuse like an Audiomagie or SR which simply offers more of everything. My Furutech booster brace arrived recently and I installed it on the wall socket
Thanks Andreas! That is good information. The booster brace looks beefy! For heavy cords it secure them better at wall too. I use a metal column to support the plug. If I have another gear needs to plug into the wall, then I may consider getting this.
The booster clamp offers little support because it is only glued and not screwed tightly like a C-Lock. Their function lies in the NCF material. Luca also has some of these and more experience with them. The Booster Brace can also be used very universally on device connections. Similar to the 3M tuning rings.
I got it. It’s not quite what I was thinking. It has a similar function like their wall sucker/plate, I guess. There’s no need for me to get one since ZenWave has Furutech N50 plug, and it fits in their socket/plate tightly. It was much tighter than my previous PSA wall socket.
I agree with you, they work for sound, not for physical ability to sustain the plugs. I tried them on the wall sockets, on the IEC sockets, like tuning rings in the middle of a power cord length and so on.
Like the other NCF boosters (for power cord plugs) and NCF boosters signal (cable elevators) from Furutech you need to be cautious, they tend to “boost” too much the sound when used together.
At the end of the day I removed them all, using just 2 signal boosters for speaker cables, 1 booster for amp IEC plug (without the top clamp) and a few other with an isoacoustic Orea on top of them (like a sandwich) to dampen the IEC plug connection of some components.
Like Vince always says, less is more!
Happy cake day!
Happy cake day!
