fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

For me it is something I wouldn't want to do without, especially when us audiophiles grasp for even marginal improvements where we can get them. Better highs, more vivid mids and deeper more focused bass response alon with enhanced transparency...yeah, I think that's dramatic!

Did you have someone change the fuses....or not, when you went in the other room to refill your wine glass?

No wine, several days of listening and short term comparisons plus using familiar material and passages repeatably. Experiences are mine and should be considered suspect until validated by an official oversite commitee committed to the advancement and general well being of the audiophile community at large...or, you could try the experiment yourself:)

>>Experiences are mine and should be considered suspect<<

Very suspect indeed.

Dave_b

I think you buttoned it up nicely... Same experience I found in the end, it was at first something different, but could not point toward what exactly until you switch back to the old fuses a few hours later and realize the loss of sharper focus on everything.. And same thing with me and the direction of these things, however not sure its good advice to say that the arrow should point toward the component, this could simply just be coincidence in your components IEC being wired with the output of the power coming in from the IEC being connected to the outer end of the fuse holder, but in many components the fuse holder itself could be wired the other direction which makes on difference..

You could test it by removing the fuses and hooking up a multimeter to check for which end gets continuity from the IEC so you can figure out the actual component direction, however for most I am sure its just easier to pop them in and note if you can hear anything one way or the other, a bit of a pain in the A$$ for sure :-)