FUSES??? Just when I just replaced all my PC cords.

Kenny928... "The issue there is why in the heck did the manufacturer not go with quality parts to begin with? A 5K and above amp or audio equipment with substandard fuses and power cords???"

Merrill Audio does just that . They supply quality fuses and power cords with their Veritas mono block amps. Merrilll would have it no other way.

Kenny928..."Explain that one to me! "

Every audio company has different profit margins and after market parts would kill their bottom line... would be my best guess... while other audio companys put the customer and company name first.

If its a good product and has good sound, chances are they made very educated decisions about the fuse just like everything else that goes into the design. Why did they not use a fuse that costs the end buyer $100 and the seller likely a small fraction of that? Don’t know but they didn’t apparently. I’m sure it was a sound engineering decision and no prejudice against any particular kind of fancy fuse.

BTW the stock fuse in my ARC pre-amp is not your run of the mill 50 cent fuse you might have found at Radio Shack (not that there is anything wrong with that). I replaced the stock ARC fuse with a Synergistic Red Fuse (given to me to try) and have not heard any significant difference for example.

mapman:
Ralph of Atmosphere amplifiers has said in another thread that he has had customer feed back from many Atmosphere users that this or that fuse improved the sound of amps. But he does not supply an upgraded fuse with his amps. I can not find a post where he states which fuse to the ears of his customers sounds the best.

The amplifier builders I have talked with are not interested in evaluating fuses , power cords, expensive capacitors such as Dueland, or any tubes (except run of the mill Chinese or Russian). They leave those decisions to the minority who are really looking to maximize their systems.

Kenny 928:

I do hope you will try a state of the art fuse such as the Synergistic Research Black and an audio grade A/C wall outlet. By picking a company with a good 30 day return policy, I have found it to be a fun experiment. It seems like it is an all win situation. If you buy the fuse, like the sonic change, and think the sound improvement is worth the cost -you keep the fuse.

If you try the fuse and are not happy for ANY reason you send it back. You then have the satisfaction of relying on your own priorities in what is good sound and what is worth buying and not some reviewer.

Unlike auditioning amplifiers or speakers, no worries about shipping damage or expensive shipping costs. Returning a fuse is $6.80 USPS flat rate box priority shipping with tracking and insurance. They can be returned via regular mail even cheaper.

I do hope everyone reading will enjoy a beautiful Mother's Day this weekend. I will be fortunate to be with my mom in person and get to listen to her beautiful music system that uses an Antelope DAC, Type 45 SET tube amp, and Terasonic speakers.

And yes she uses Black fuses in her system. After all, your Mother really does know best.

David Pritchard

But he does not supply an upgraded fuse with his amps. I can not find a post where he states which fuse to the ears of his customers sounds the best.

The amplifier builders I have talked with are not interested in evaluating fuses , power cords, expensive capacitors such as Dueland, or any tubes (except run of the mill Chinese or Russian). They leave those decisions to the minority who are really looking to maximize their systems.

We found a long time ago that people are going to try different stuff and will discard the supplied parts (tubes, power cords, connectors, fuses...). We do audition capacitors and resistors (we were the first to use Caddock resistors, back in 1978) and that continues to this day. Those parts are options in our lessor expensive products and standard in our more expensive units. This has the benefit of reducing the instances of people making a rat's nest of the interior of the product as we can do a much better job of installation in most cases, and we already know what parts work the best. We have some real craftsmen on staff- take a look at the video on our home page and you will see what I mean- all of our gear is signed!

We know how our amps sound and what is possible, but on a more practical level there is no point in spending a lot of money on something that is going to get thrown away! That is one reason we have IEC connections on our gear- in that way people won't hack the chassis up trying to replace a power cord.

We do have higher end fuses on our MA-2 amplifier- about 27 years ago we were experimenting with fuses and the ones in the MA-2 beat all the others hands down. 27 years later that is still the case. Those fuses use a much larger fuseholders with much greater contact area and contact force.