fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

You're right about it. Everything that's not mass-produced, from fuses to cars, will carry a higher ticket price. If they do everything in Germany, plus the current value of the Dollar against the Euro, then they may easily end up with a $39 fuse in the US.

The funny thing in audio is that sometimes high price does not translate into high performance, or conversely, low price does not mean low performance.

I'm disappointed and happy with my test. I'm Disappointed that the fuse specifically called "true audiophile grade" didn't do better than its cheaper ceramic cousin made in Taiwan. I'm happy that what works for my particular case costs just $1 & 20cents. And that is a true audiophile deal.

Why surprised that price/performance are not related?
A current 25000$ Honda Accord handily outdoes the same price car from the dawn of Acura...the 25000$ Legend.
More features, safer, as quick or quicker, better economy.
The works. And that is before I count 22 years of inflation!
That's a deal!
I have a 10 Euro note on my shelf.....I can dream, can't I?
It cost about 8$ and is now worth about 15$.
I wish I had invested BigTime.

Mt Isanchez- Personally, I've never seem the Hi-Fi Tuning fuses recommended for use in speaker systems. They have always been tried in locations that provide voltage to power supplies(AC) or tubes/transistors(DC) and been shown to provide substantial sonic gains in those locations. Since I never drive my gear into clipping, and trust it's reliability implicitly: I've replaced my Maggies' tweeter fuses with 10A's (if I'd had 20's on hand....)and am experiencing a much better clarity from my high freq. panels. No surprise there! Just much bigger conductors in the heavier rated fuses. That had occured to me before trying the Hi-Fi Tuning fuses in my Cary monoblocks, but the difference the fuses made in my Carys spurred me on to make the change in my Maggies. I'm still wondering why I didn't try it after upgrading my crossovers, or perhaps bi-passing the fuses altogether(In over 40 years of audio, I've never personally experienced a tweeter failure).

Since the site won't allow me to edit my post: I'll add that the Hi-Fi Tuning fuses, at $39.00 a pop, to me represent a bargain when I consider the increase in sound quality they deliver.

Agreed with Rodman. My Counterpoint NP100 uses 5 fuses, 1 for AC and 4 for rails. The sonic improvement from these Hi-Fi Tuning fuses is substantial. I can't remember anything close to $200 that has yielded this much improvement.