Best fuses for under $50?


I need six of them for a power amp therefore I need something more economical...  say $50 or less. Any suggestions?


robertsong
Welcome to Audiogon, robzz.

gbmcleod, your post above is an excellent example of the kind of post that has been long awaited on the topic of fuses vs the usual banal debates.

Recognition that fuses can and often do made audible differences, that there are individual sonic differences between and within brands, that it is key is to find the one that best suits a given piece of gear and listener preferences and, most importantly, going further to provide specific observations/recommendations to another on different fuses in a specific component based on your actual first-hand experience is, well, Wunderbar.

Hat off to you.

Dave
My stereo amp uses 7 fuses !
Replacing the original glass fuses with ceramic fuses made a positive 
improvement , I then purchased an expensive fuse for the main power
and while I did hear an improvement over an off the shelf fuse I can't say it was  big enough to justify the many times the price I paid .
I did discover that you should purchase a name brand fuse ,
I had used generic fuses from my local electronics supplier
and discovered the difference in sonics after one blew and I replaced the 6 on the board with Bussman fuses. Wow what a positive difference.
I went further and replaced the 6 sets of fuse holders on the baord
with Littlefuse solid copper silver plated holders and
I replaced the 20 amp main fuse holder with a military spec 30 amp
holder.
AND NO YOU ARE NOT A FOOL AS analogluvr WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.
IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT AND YOU HEAR AN IMPROVEMENT GO FOR IT .
Being an audiophile is fun, it's personal and it's expensive .

 



@gbmcleod 

i bought one of the those furutech outlets from you. After over a year in my system I don't disagree with you. But, after having installed the gold hifi tuning fuses the something is off little niggle I couldn't put my finger on is now replaced by a wonderful balance. I lost an SR20 fuse right about the time PartsConnexion had 50% off the HiFi fuses. So with this bit of serendipity or just dumb luck whatever you want to call it the sound that was leaning lean for me is replaced with a more natural fullness along with no loss in detail. Oh and the bass is sounding more like a bass as well. So excited to have purchased something that really is not subtle or is of questionable value to performance ratio. Now I'm sure I'll be thinking about those NCF outlets but for now things are definitely Bueno. 
Finally, a sane discussion on the differences with fuses. I've been so tempted, as of late, to get some SR Black fuses to replace my HiFi Tuning Sliver Stars but lately, from what I've read here and on other threads, the Blacks may be too much of a good thing and lean things out. 

It took me about two years to just try reversing the HiFi fuses in my Marantz SACD player (I was very hesitant) and the improvement shocked me. It just sounds so right as of now. 

Can anyone chime in who has been in my particular neck of the woods on any noticeable improvement by going up to a Red or Black fuse over a HiFi Tuning Silver Star? It would be most appreciated.

All the best,
Nonoise

@gbmcleod - in my initial posting, I also said to be careful with Furutech fuses. They are very revealing and VERY TRANSPARENT. This means that it will reveal problems or inadequacies in areas of your system that other fuses may compensate for or mask thereof. An example would be a preamp with a somewhat undersized power supply. The Furutech fuse being fast and transparent can cause the preamp to sound lean in the bass/midbass area because the power supply does not truly have enough capacitance to keep constant voltage on the large waveforms (and even the midrange waveforms that can become shouty/forward). A fuse that will slow down the charge/discharge and make this preamp sound warmer and fill in the bass/midrange area.

As I have said, the Furutech is very revealing of problems and it may not be the path that everyone want to start. You may end up working to fix every other problem/characteristic in your system. However, if you choose this path, the end result will be the very best (in my opinion).

@fourwnds - I have also had similar experiences with SR20 fuse. The SR20 is very fast and very clean. It is so clean that it almost becomes artificial to me (almost similar to a silver fuse) and I lose emotional contact with the music. I have also experienced where the bass is definitely lean with this fuse. Trying a Hi-Fi Tuning gold (discontinued)fuse was an improvement and the sound was a lot warmer. However, over time I determined that the Gold has somewhat of a metallic edge to the sound and it wasn’t the fastest fuse. The HI-Fi Tuning Supreme (silver) was nice, but it had that push in the upper mids (silver) that caused it to be less natural sounding to me and more artificial. This may be a good mating with tube equipment or very slow/laid back stuff.

I encourage all to re-read a history thread:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/direction-of-aftermarket-fuses-only-for-believers

A lot has been discussed here on fuses, and it’s not a 4,000 post thread like the "RED thread".