fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

If $39 is considered anything more than couch cushion change then get the friggin ++++ off this site. Second, try them after you have addressed all the other parameters in your system. A well tuned system should reveal the difference a fuse makes (for good or bad). Some people can't tell the difference between a violin and a viola, so results will vary. Audiofeil is most peculiar in his discourse...slightly random, obtuse at times and seemingly grounded in his self importance. Perhaps passages of music should be exchanged before determinations are made regarding the worth of someones opinions...that would surely help to assign merit where it is deserved!

You're funny Dave_b but accurate about the 39 bucks.

I think the last time my wife and I grabbed Pizza and a couple of glasses of red wine it was closer to 50 bucks.

The next day the Pizza and wine were in a place no one wants to go, but the fuse would still be delivering (assuming) better sound.

I say grab a sandwich in the kitchen instead of your next meal out and go for the upgrade :^).

I'm ordering Papa Johns right now...maybe it will make my system more relaxed sounding?...Hmmm!

I think the $39 issue is a strawman. If the darn thing cost $100 bucks and improved the sound I'd buy it. And as a practical matter many of us will try it, what the heck. In fact I have tried it. If it improves the power to the system, improves noise/ripple, great. That is an explanation of why it should make a difference, though we may be in a hobby where not everything has an explanation.

On the other hand, when I speak to three well known and very respected, long-time designers of highend amps and preamps, and all EEs by the way, and to say the least they are very dubious of the whole fuse concept making a difference, then I got to believe they don't know what they are talking about, or they are deaf -- the equipment they make suggests neither is the case. Which of course did not stop me from trying them:)

A few days ago I installed two Hi-Fi Tuning fuses to each of my Maggies 3.6. The Maggies 3.6 use a 4 Amps fast blow fuse to protect the mid-range driver and a 2.5 Amps fast blow fuse for the tweeter. The fuses are mounted between the crossover and each driver following the signal path. So the signal passes through the fuses and they also get all the vibrations from the speaker frame.

I did a shootout between the following fuses:

• Hi-Fi Tuning ceramic fuse, $39/each.
• Littel Fuse glass fuse, $2/pack of 5.
• Radioshack glass fuse, $2.99/pack of 3.
• Buss Fuses ceramic fuse, $6/pack of 5.

All the fuses are UL Listed, except for the Hi-Fi Tunning one.

In this particular application, the ceramic fuses performed better than the glass fuses. The overall difference is that the sound coming from the mid-range driver and the tweeter driver is cleaner with ceramic fuses than it is with the glass fuses. For instance, piano notes sound more consistent with the ceramic fuses.

The Radioshack fuse produced a slightly cleaner sound, but the clear winner by far is the ceramic fuse made by Buss Fuses @ $6 per pack. There is a more coherent presentation with this fuse. The mid-range has more weight and the highs are a lot cleaner.

I was quite surprised that the much cheaper ceramic fuse performed better in this particular application. This makes me believe that the Hi-Fi Tuning fuse is simply a scam. In the case of Hi-Fi Tuning, you're basically paying for the printing of the logo on the fuses, selling the fuses to a distributor, which a the same time sells the product to a reseller. This process seems to cost $39 to the end user.

My suggestion is go to mcmaster.com and get the cheap ceramic fuses from them, or any other supplier, and save the money to buy some music.

After a long listening with the cheap ceramic fuse, I inserted the Littel Fuse glass fuse and I could only listen with this fuse for 5 seconds. The cheap ceramic fuse is here to stay.