Aftermarket fuse to tame a bright system?


Been reading all the interesting posts here, I've recently switched over to Audioquest silver interconnects and speaker cables, the improvement is easy to hear over OCC copper - lower noise floor, more clarity, greater transient snap, larger soundstage etc.... BUT.

I would say my system still has body, but the top end is now bright/harsh.  Could an aftermarket fuse tame this, so that I can still retain the clarity and other benefits of silver? I'm concerned that this potential solution may make my system more dynamic, and potentially give it a U or V shape sound profile - which is definitely what I don't want.

gavin1977

Silver like my 8AG speakers cable is spectacular on the right set up.Cables need to settle and broken in. Be patience.

I'd say it is possible.  "Too Bright" really means too much treble compared to the bass and midrange.   the added resistance of a fuse will affect bass and dynamics most since they pull the most current (a fuse has to have resistance or it wouldn't heat up and blow, physics).  So fixing the fuse problem will give better balance to the highs.

I'd try a slug first since that is very cheap and represents the most improvement you can get.  Your upgraded fuse will not give as much improvement as the slug will.   Some power supplies are unaffected by the fuse, others are affected and you might be surprised which ones are which. 

Of course you won't have fuse protection for the minutes or hours it takes you to do this test. Don't do it during a thunderstorm.

Jerry

 

The IC's in my system are the Anticables gold/silver alloy. Now those behave themselves while singing clearly all the while.

I know you are trying to compensate for a problem that only arose when you changed cables to the silver Audioquests.  That brightness (meaning comparatively lower levels of the frequencies below those that now sound bright) might also account for the clarity and increased dynamics so that taming the brightness may mean losing what has been gained.  If your older cables were somehow hiding a defect in another part of your system, then changing out the problem component could cure the problem.  It might not be easy finding the problem component(s). 

Compensating with cheap additions, like the fuse, may alter the balance, but I suspect that that effect would be quite subtle.  If the fuse was choking power availability to the amp such that it would grossly affect tonal balance, the amp would have to be quite inadequately designed.  That effect would also only be evident at high output levels where the amp is more likely to be starved.  This doesn't really explain why the problem was only revealed by the new cabling unless the speaker cables are forcing the amp to work harder.

You bought new cables to change the sound of your system, which they apparently accomplished.  Any change has a good chance of being negative or having some aspect of the change being negative.  Any substantial change means also tuning the overall system to balance various tradeoffs that come with a change.  That means doing the things, discussed above, like adjusting speaker/listening chair position.  I hope a simple fix, including the fuse experiment works; otherwise, you might just have to abandon the new cables.  Silver cabling can sound harsh or bright in some systems, and the really good silver cables that largely avoid this problem that I know of are very pricey (e.g., Audio Note silver cables).