Our early samples of the Audio Magic Premier Beeswax Super Fuse warranted further exploration. So we decided to look for more.

As of this writing, my audio colleagues and I have not tried the 32mm "large" versions. So we are not at liberty to comment on those "large" fuses.

In the mid-90s, my friend ACS did have a Polaroid camera. Due to expense and the frequent poor results, she rarely used it. Armed with a 35mm point-and-shoot camera, ACS would take risque photos of her housemates, friends, and lovers. When it came to male genitalia, the camera did not like subjects in motion, so ACS would often say, "Stay still."

Nowadays, we have digital cameras and an array of lenses. Even using a macro lens, I had quite a challenge, coming up with decent photos of the Audio Magic Premier Beeswax Super. This (above) is the end which is not worked on.

ACS would remark that, if a dickhead (she had a strong preference for circumcised penises) were worked on, it could have a wide variety of wrinkles, creases, colorations, fluids, textures, bumps, blackheads, divots, rashes, scales, flakes, scars, and even cilia. Hey, is that a hair on the Beeswax Super?

In the shot above, you can see the solder Audio Magic applied, in order to seal the hole through which the beeswax was squeezed.

When a responsible reviewer throws ace (and often expensive) products at the test review subject, the Stereotypical Audiophiles tend to piss and moan. But readers need to know what the review subject's outer limits are. Therefore, using powercords which cost as much or more as the Simaudio Neo 260D is vitally germane, appropriate, relevant, and important. And in the mean time, the SAs continue to stew in their own piss and bile.

The Pranawire Satori ($2950) with Acrolink CF plugs costs as much as a Neo 260D with DAC option. But now we're getting somewhere. The Satori CF allows the Neo 260D to be "very good" across the board. Arguably, this is the "most balanced" the Neo 260D can be, with the transport section being a solid performer, but still retaining the older CD-3.3X's top-end diminution. The Satori CF reveals the Neo 260D's DAC section to be excellent, perhaps less "professional" than the NuFore DAC-9, but more colorful, alive, and personable. If the DAC-9 is about professionally crafted sound, the Neo 260D is about people (professionals or not) taking a stab at playing music.

Unlike the usual cast of colored CD players, the Simaudio Neo 260D has enough honesty and resolution, that it does tell us how the ($5000) Pranawire Maha Samadhi M1/F1 tilts the balance. You give up some control, grip, and PRAT down low. But you gain some air and mysticism up top. Depending on the recording, the Maha Samadhi can recapture some of the soundstage depth. So overall, the Maha Samadhi makes the Neo 260D come closer to the sound of the dCS Puccini (which can be $18,000!) than all other source components in my experience. This can make many SAs stop pissing, and start drooling.

The Simaudio Neo 260D's manual recommends 400 hours of burn-in. That is 16.67 days of non-stop use. Though most of the burn-in occurs by the 7th day, Simaudio weren't kidding. In fact, I didn't think the Neo 260D stopped evolving, until it had 21 days on the clock.

Before you mess around with after-market powercords, do yourself a favor. Stick the stock OEM powercord on an audiodharma Cable Cooker for 4 days. Then stick it back on the Neo 260D for 2 days. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the Cooked stock powercord. The resultant sound may be lacking in bass power, but tonal balance is fine, and PRAT is surprisingly good.

Start with the Cooked stock powercord, and make changes elsewhere. I would start by replacing the Neo 260D's fuses [I'll have more on after-market fuses in future posts]. Since the Neo 260D is fundamentally solid, competent, and thoughtfully well-balanced, avoid line-level interconnects which are colored, distorted, fat, bloated, or otherwise inaccurate. The interconnects do not have to be new or expensive, either. They just have to be neutral, honest, transparent, and properly burned-in. Good examples include the all-Cooked AudioQuest Quartz; Kimber Timbre; and original XLO Reference Types 1 and 2.

If you want to go a little more upscale, but still not super-expensive, my friends got excellent results with Tara Labs Air 1, and Wireworld Silver Eclipse 6. I myself use XLO S3 interconnects.

Then you can resume messing around with after-market powercords. Be careful; the warm, round, and thick-sounding Synergistic Research Tesla T1 completely ruined the Neo 260D.

The Acrolink 6N-4030P with Oyaide P/C-046 plugs is a good startng point, with better image outlines, and boppier sound. However, those images aren't firmly anchored within the soundstage, which is itself small and not very spacious.

Back in spring 1987, the Sony CDP-520ESII was my first audio product with a real-time counter. That alone made it superior to our cassettes and vinyl. The Sony had all four time modes - a godsend for (a) personal use, (b) recording to tape, and (c) having guests. The problem with the CDP-520ESII's display was that, as informative as it was, it was tiny. In order to read the display, you had to be right up at the unit (please, no sex jokes).

I've already mentioned that, even by 1980s standards, the Simaudio Neo 260D's segmented display looks crude. Above, I've placed the Neo 260D side-by-side with a Simaudio Evolution model (the 600i integrated amp), which sports a dot-matrix display. The Evolution's dot-matrix display can do a wide range of numbers, letters (both capital and lower-case), and symbols. The Neo 260D can't even do a minus sign (for example, when trying to display remaining time). Moreover, the Evolution's display is larger (and thus more easily legible from across the room) than that of the Neo 260D.

When the 92-93 school year started, I had my first housemate who had a computer. When we moved in, one of the first things I did was set up the stereo. While I was doing that, my housemate Ron was putting together a PC. Once he had all the hardware done, it was time to load MS Windows. I just recall him patiently inserting one 3.5" floppy after another. His roommate's girlfriend joked about "inserting 3.5-inch floppy things" into a different, um, kind of slot. Anyway, as audio CDs were playing in the living room, I'm not sure if we could have imagined or foreseen CDs used for computer data.

In the 28+ years I have used audio CDs, no CD player has been as lightning-fast (operationally) as that Sony CDP-520ESII. As I've chronicled at length, many of today's CD players simply take too long (usually half a minute) to load. In this day and age, that is unforgivable. Those impatient and horny coeds would not have waited half a minute for males to load. That is a major reason why the CD format has died. The Simaudio Neo 260D takes 6-8 seconds to load/play. While not as instantaneous as the old Sony CDP-520ESII, that is still faster than the majority of today's CD players.

Just as importantly, when a CD is playing in the Neo 260D, you can put your ears up to the unit (get your mind out of the gutter), and will not hear the disc spinning. Because the Neo 260D does not make noise or give off heat [my college neighbors made noise and gave off heat], you can keep the Neo 260D, for example, next to your bed or on your desk. Throughout college, I would keep certain mementos of KJ next to my bed or on my desk. But the Neo 260D obviously gives more pleasure (get your mind out of the gutter).

At UC Santa Cruz, I was at Crown College. The campus radio station, KZSC, was located between the Crown dorms and a parking lot. As such, it was always a short walk from my dorm or apartment. KZSC would receive, from various record labels, hundreds of promo CD singles. During my 4 years at UCSC, I would buy a small number of these promo CDs. They were all regular 5" CDs. None was a 3" single. However, if you do have 3" CDs, the Neo 260D's drawer has a cut-out, to accommodate them. Some of the coeds' panties had a cutout to accommodate 3"...oh never mind.

I used to have an Audio Magic Sorcerer QL between my Koetsu Black/Basis 2000/Graham Robin and EAR 324. As always, vinyl was a major disappointment. But blame could not be laid on the Sorcerer QL, which, as the messenger, was only telling us the bad news about shitty vinyl. BTW, that Sorcerer QL was one of the earliest cables to go on my audiodharma Cable Cooker.

I no longer have any Audio Magic cables and powerline conditioners. But my audio friends are using Audio Magic's various liquid-filled fuses. The manufacturer claims that these fuses are not directional. At least with the gear (and its electrical values) we have, my friends and I have not found that to be the case.

Here is the Audio Magic Premier Beeswax Super Fuse in a Simaudio Neo 260D. In this orientation, the images are BIG, not leaving enough space or breathing room between and around those images. Grain is reduced, bringing out more warmth in the tone of the instruments. Moreover, it's a bit soft on PRAT. While your mind enjoys the "analog-like" presentation, your body wants to turn off the stereo, and move on.

Flip the Premier Beeswax Super Fuse the other way, and even non-critical regular people can hear the differences. The images are not as bloated, much closer to what's really on record. Audio Magic claim that the beeswax, compared to their other liquids, makes the sound more "organic." Bwahahaha! Go ahead and laugh your evil laugh. When you hear what the Premier Beeswax Super Fuse does in the Rotel RCC-1055, Simaudio Neo 260D, and Mark Levinson No. 37, you might shake your head in disbelief. Audio Magic are right; this fuse really does bring out the instruments' "organic" flavor. And it does so in way unlike other cables and tweaks I've tried.

By reducing grain, more of the instruments' textures, tonalities, and character emerges. You may not have known that such detail existed on your recordings. A lot of electronic grunge, grain, and scratchiness is gone. And all along, we had gotten used to these electronic artifacts, thought they were endemic.

KJ says that the Simaudio Neo 260D with its stock fuses is like looking at decent early-90s photographs of our college lives. But with the Audio Magic Premier Beeswax Super Fuse, the Neo 260D is, according to KJ, more like being outside a bathroom doorway, looking through glass, partitions, and curtains, to see the shower(s). You can feel some of the steam escape from the bathroom, and into the dorm's hallway. To complete this analogy, KJ says that if you want the audio equivalent of naked college kids going in and out of the bathroom, well, turn off the stereo (with or without fancy fuses), and go to a concert. Or visit them in their dorms.

But back to the stereo. At least in my source components, the Audio Magic Premier Beeswax Super Fuse really needed 4 weeks, before it "burned-in," settled into its groove, and revealed its true self. Until then, the bass and midrange tend to overwhelm the treble.

In 2003, I had an Audio Magic Sorcerer QL interconnect. At the time, I had hundreds of audio products competing for my attention. So I honestly do not recall much about the Sorcerer QL. It was a tonearm-to-phonostage cable, which went from a Koetsu Black/Basis 2000/Graham Robin to an EAR 324 phonostage. Furthermore, QL may have stood for Quantum Leap. At any rate, that Sorcerer QL was the first Audio Magic product I ever had. I would later add Audio Magic powerline conditioners.

I think it has been a decade, since I last used Audio Magic products. Half a year ago, one of my audiophile friends kept talking about the Audio Magic Nano-Liquid Premium fuses ($69 each) he was using in his myriad vacuum tube gear. He consistently told me that, due to the treble being drowned out by the mids and bass, these fuses were canted towards the Stereotypical Audiophile sound. Thus, while my interest was mildly piqued, it wasn't enough for me to act.

My audio friends have replaced their older after-market fuses with newer and/or more upscale ones. Since they no longer have a need for their older fuses, they have been lending some to me. I could have gone the safe route, and just defaulted to the Hi-Fi Tuning Supreme. But I discovered that Audio Magic do produce their fuses in a slow-blow 20mm 0.500A spec, which would work in the several of my electronic components. If the $175 Premier Beeswax Super Fuse doesn't work well or sound good in one component, we have other electronic components, which can use the 0.500A slow-blow spec.

Audio Magic take an OEM fuse, and carefully drill a small hole through one of the end caps. They have to be careful, not to damage or destroy the fragile filament. Audio Magic then squeeze various liquids through the tiny hole, to fill (not completely; there are still tiny pockets or bubbles of space/air) the inside of the fuse. Ostensibly, this is done to quell vibrations.

Sigh, when I showed ACS the Premier Beeswax Super Fuse, she shrugged, and wondered, "Does the beeswax spill or splatter all over the place, like when I have to pee in a friggin' cup?" Then she flashed that ebullient smile, and said, "Maybe they were inspired by condoms filled with semen. I'm sure they'd like to have certain body cavities filled with semen!"

Anyway, Audio Magic do have less expensive fuses, filled with other materials. They claim that the beeswax is even more difficult to squeeze into the fuse. As of this writing, the beeswax-filled fuse is Audio Magic's most expensive.

After giving it more thought, ACS asked, "Why beeswax? Why not bird spit, Sex Wax, earwax, boogers, eye crud, blood, or pussy juice?" After a pregnant pause, ACS then shrugged, "Or maybe they did try those other things, and really did find beeswax to be the best."

In the mid-90s, you'd say, "Shut your hole," to those who talked too much. To close the drilled-out hole in the fuse, Audio Magic then apply some solder. While one end cap is pristine, you can tell which end cap was worked on ["All this," quoth ACS, "sounds like fellatio"].

Audio Magic then subject their liquid-filled fuses to a high-voltage "nano-stream" process. They claim that this treatment improves the fuses' conductivity. ACS wonders what the high-voltage nano-stream treatment would have done for her dildos, or to a penis. Sigh...

In late summer or early fall 1994, I was with ACS and some of her friends. While waiting for them to decide where to go, and what to do, I was listening to Erasure's I Say, I Say, I Say. We ended up going to San Francisco's wharf area.

The Simaudio Neo 260D comes with a so-called CRM-2 infrared remote, which uses the Phillips RC-5 protocol. This plastic remote measures 2"W x 6.875"H x 0.625"D. To give you an idea of what size those dimensions are, here is the CRM-2 next to a CD jewel case and iPhone 5S. Even with the two AA batteries, the CRM-2 is not heavy.

Nowhere on the remote does it actually say, "CRM-2." Instead, the back says, "Part No. 8660130." In the mid-90s, ACS used to work at Victoria's Secret. She said that each product had a SKU (stock keeping unit). But there weren't any part numbers.

Simaudio's older Supernova and Andromeda CD players came with the FRM-2 preamp remote (above, left). You may complain about the Neo 260D's plastic CRM-2, but at least it is a dedicated CD player remote. Yes, it has an "input" function, so you can scroll through the Neo 260D's digital inputs [if your unit is equipped with that $1000 option]. Yes, it has basic preamp functions.

After dinner, ACS, her friends, and I went into one of those "adult entertainment" stores. They were checking out, among other things, vibrators. Most had an on/off switch. But one model had a sliding, tapered adjustment. Thus, you could make continual adjustments, from softly vibrating, all the way to maximum vigor.

While not as lightning-fast as 1980s Sony remotes, the CRM-2 works fine. At least with the Neo 260D itself, the CRM-2 works from angles, and by bouncing off of my back wall. The "fast search" functions are just a tad slower than via the front panel's buttons. Unlike the vibrator above, if you press harder on the CRM-2's buttons, that will not make the "fast search" speed up.

Perhaps the strongest criticism of the CRM-2 is that its buttons are not laid out logically, intuitively, or ergonomically. Indeed, when I use the remote in the dark, I still haven't memorized where the vital functions are (sounds sexual, but isn't). So if you do not like the CRM-2, you can use any remote which uses the Philips RC-5 protocol.

In high school physics, my friend ACS learned that a fuse protects a circuit when it (the circuit) has too much current. The fuse sacrifices itself (blows), and cannot be used again. But the electronics are saved.

ACS would then quip that a condom protects against over-current of another sort. The condom sacrifices itself, and cannot be used again.

In college, ACS and her housemates filled a small wooden bowl with condoms, placed it next to the living room futon sofa. The girls' motto was "Use more!" Another was, "Try it; you might like it." Eying the myriad brands and varieties, one girl used the cliche', "Variety is the spice of life."

The first Synergistic Research Quantum Red fuse showed enough promise in the Simaudio Neo 260D's F2 slot, that we decided to order other values for other audio components.

A condom only works one way. When you are groping in the dark, you may start to put on a condom, only to find that it is the wrong way. Damn, gotta start over, flip it, and roll it on the right way. But you can and should try a fuse both ways.

So far, the Quantum Red appears to be strongly directional. Like a condom on backwards, you'll immediately know which way sounds worse. The images will be bloated, there'll be excess warmth, and PRAT will be f----- up.

With the Quantum Red going the right way in the Simaudio Neo 260D's F1 slot, the excess bass disappears, the images get closer to their proper size, the music becomes firmer (please, no jokes about a certain male part getting firmer), and there's less ambiguity.

Enough of the small 5x20 fuses. We ordered a "large" 32mm Quantum Red for the Simaudio 600i integrated amp. Similar to the "small" fuses, if you get the direction wrong, the images are too large and fuzzy, and rhythms are retarded.

Don't rush to judgement. Even when you determine which way to point it (get your mind out of the gutter), the Quantum Red takes a while to burn-in. Give it at least three weeks. With the 32mm model, I had to wait a total of five weeks, for that last smidgen of detail to emerge cleanly. That is plenty of time, for you and your sex partners to experiment with a wide variety of condoms.

From what my audio friends report, and from my own experiences, the Quantum Red appears to perform consistently. You should expect focus, cleanliness, energy, gloss, and sharp image outlines. Versus other fuses, though, the Quantum Red lowers the amount of breath and air. It can cut off the top 1/5 of the soundstage's height. And if you want a larger soundscape, one in which the images are spread out further, you will have to pick something other than the Quantum Red. Yeah, yeah, if you (you know who you are) want to liken the Quantum Red to a thin and transparent condom, with a clean lubricant, go ahead.

In the Fall of 1989, when I entered college, the Bay Area was in the middle of a(n) horrific drought. When I entered the (shared coed) bathroom, there was a hand-drawn sign which read:

If it's yellow, it's mellow, so just let it sit
If it's brown, flush it down, 'cuz it looks like shit

Later that quarter, one girl (I think it was girl who looked like a brown-haired Marcie) used a red marker, and wrote: "If it's red, it's dead. Flush? Please go ahead!"

In my two years in the dorms, yes, I did see blood in the toilets.

In the mid-90s, ACS used to work at various Victoria's Secret stores. She says that Victoria's Secret should come up with a color called "Quantum Red," which just sounds cool. So if the Synergistic Research fuse has a white body, why is it called Quantum Red?

When Synergistic Research were testing these white-bodied fuses, they color-coded batches of varying characteristics and other qualities. The batch which sounded best to Synergistic Research happened to be marked with red ink. Okay, I'm not going to comment further. ACS observed the Quantum Red's outer appearance, and jokingly remarked, "Where's the string?"

Synergistic Research do indeed claim that the Quantum Red is directional, that it will sound better in one direction (the direction of the writing and the "arrow"), versus the other.

If this is any indication, they weren't kidding. In the Simaudio Neo 260D's F2 slot, the Quantum Red in this direction makes the CD player sound bloated, with no space between images. And the music's movement is all constipated and screwed up.

Flip the Quantum Red the other way, and the Neo 260D rocks. WTF?! In this direction, the Quantum Red brings the music out from the haze. And now, the music has freedom to move, to attack, to stop, to linger, to decay. The music can now express itself. It's like finally being able to ditch the suit and tie.

During my senior year of college (1992-93), my housemate Ron, a Computer Science major, had his own PC. Maybe it was a 286. By buying all of the parts, he assembled the CPU by himself. With that desktop PC's cover off, Ron showed us the computer's innards. He pointed to the power supply, motherboard, RAM chips, cooling fan, and all of the boards which inserted into the motherboard's rear. To this day, I still don't know what the "math coprocessor" did.

Anyway, it is much easier to open up the Simaudio Neo 260D CD player. Just remove the 6 screws on the top cover.

Back in 92-93, Ron used a dial-up modem, to connect to a landline. When connecting to UC Santa Cruz's servers, the modem made that blood-curdling noise. Ron had to disable the call waiting. But then callers couldn't get through, and got annoyed and ticked off with the constant busy signals. Sometimes, our friends gave up, and just walked to our apartment. Hey, I have the Neo 260D with the digital inputs. I do not know what the CD player-only version's innards look like.

I don't recall Ron's PC having a CD-ROM drive. I'm certain it had both 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives. But anyway, the heart of the Neo 260D is the so-called M-Quattro drive. It is Redbook-only, meaning it cannot play DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, or SACDs. It appears similar to or the same as the drive found in Simaudio's old CD3.3X. In the Neo 260D, this M-Quattro still curtails the treble, but not to the degree found in the dull and airless CD3.3X.

Okay, pay attention. The Neo 260D has two internal fuse holders. This one, labeled "F1," uses a 20mm slow-blow 0.500A fuse.

The other one is indeed labeled "F2." It accepts a 20mm slow-blow 0.200A fuse. As I will get to later, this F2 fuse effects more sonic change, than does the F1. But they are both important. Back in 92-93, my housemates and I grooved to that Sony CDP-520ESII; Adcom GTP-400 and GFA-535; Pinnacle PN-5+ system. We were already flabbergasted that interconnects, speaker cables, racks, and footers affected the system's performance. If you had told me and my housemates that fuses could effect similar sonic changes, we would have busted a gut.