Audiophile Fuses - Are We Certain They Provide Protection?
I had several email exchanges with the maker of Tuning Fuses and got the same Red Herring responses. My first experience with his product was in an RM-9 MKII that came to me for service with eight tuning fuses (one for each tube) in place of my specified HIGH BREAKING ceramic fuses. The tuning fuse's inability to do their job properly had blown the wirewound cathode resistor, which I had never seen before. I study every failure and this one caught my attention because it takes a lot of energy to blow that resistor. Its wire is much stouter and of a very high melting material, any fuse should go first.
Of course I opened up the fuse and looked at its construction. It was made in such a way as to be the worst possible fuse for that application. I called the distributor here and asked is it was a high breaking fuse and suitable for a tube fuse. He didn't know what that was. I said well the fuse specified for my amp is high breaking and ceramic. He said that because his fuse was ceramic also it must be OK. This is very naive. He doesn't know and perhaps the maker doesn't know that a high breaking fuse is made a different way, though from the outside it looks the same.
These fuses are totally inappropriate for any high voltage DC application such as a tube fuse in an amplifier. What also amazed me is that these fuses cost more than most tubes. I felt sorry for the owner who had been led down this path by irresponsible magazines like Positive Feedback. Not only did this fuse not protect his tube but it did not protect his amplifier.
The maker of these fuses, like many makers of tweaks will certainly get no admiration from me. What gets me is why so many people want to play with tweaks rather than make real improvements in their system like bi-amping, adding a good subwoofer and simplifying the signal path.
iQ Database is UL’s searchable database for fuses. This free online database gives you the ability to find, verify and specify fuses by selecting from a set of more than 10 parameters to meet your specific application. Another UL Certification Search option. |
"Andy Wiederspahn at SR wrote to me indicating that all SR fuses are UL certified. I tend to assign a high level of validity to that and suspect the search criteria or database info isn’t correct. A company is unlikely to make performance claims in writing that are fraudulent." The Synergistic Research website does NOT indicate that their fuses are UL-listed. There's a reason for that, but believe what you want. |
@turnbowm This is what inspired me to start the thread in the first place - I couldn't find any information on any audiophile fuse maker's website indicating a UL certification. @cleeds made the very good suggestion that I just start reaching out them directly and that's what I'm doing. Failure to find a spec on a website is not proof positive that the spec doesn't exist. I do however find it curious that high-end audio fuse manufacturers wouldn't put a bit more effort into marketing UL certification more broadly simply as a selling point. |
