Something For The Fuse Guys ...

prof

If it's a normal part of being human to experience bias effects, we can expect a lot of people to experience bias effects. And so long as we are talking about people taking a "subjectivist" approach along the lines of "I don't need this to be objectively verifiable, if I hear it I know it's true" then that very approach self-selects for the pattern of people who "hear differences." They are all using the same problematic methodology. 

>>>what a load of horseman knew her. Nobody is saying that certain psychological factors aren’t real but it’s the worst exhibition of pseudo skepticism to suggest that expectation bias, pro tweak bias, placebo effect, reverse placebo effect or whatever is responsible for peoples’ results in all cases - or even 50% of the cases. OK, let’s take the worse case scenario. Let’s say bias accounts for 50% of user results. That still leaves 50,000 who actually did get good results. and we only have like three dudes who got nothing. And then there are folks like yourself who won’t even experiment to find out. Give me a break. Just another skeptic in an ivory tower. 

@barts,

You may try a ‘boutique’ fuse in AC line to judge yourself if it brings any audible improvements. I would try an fuse that offers money back guarantee so you only out of return shipping. Keep in mind, fuses are directional, try both sides 😊

Looks like your ARC needs 5V SLO-BLO fuse. 

@geoffkait 

>>>>>Why would a speaker line fuse make more sense than an AC power line fuse? They’re both AC circuits.

The simple answer is that the AC input is whatever is coming into your system, no matter how conditioned or not. The output to the speakers is
and audio signal, much more open to getting screwed up by anything in the path.  I'm not a fuser.

The fuse in the speakers is in line with the incoming signal (current) from the speaker cables which is alternating current just like the current coming off the power cord in the amplifier or CD player where the fuse usually is located. The only difference is that the current is a lot higher coming into the amp. Plus the current going to the speakers is alternating AC at a frequency according to the instantaneous audio waveform frequency whereas the frequency of the wall AC is 60 Hz. But they are both AC circuits. Follow?

While I don’t disagree that expectation bias is alive and well, I find that I can almost always flush it out through extended listening sessions and swapping back and forth. I’m not trying to promote a certain product so I can sell something; I’m after the best sounding audio system. If something doesn’t sound good, it gets thrown out the window. If it sounds good, it stays. Over the course of years, I’ve managed to incrementally walk my system towards better and better sound. It’s gone from “that sounds pretty good,” to “holy sh*t, is there a violin in the room?!”

I’m a bit confused by the “objective” crowd that says you have to have measurements and blind testing or else it’s just placebo. I had one experience where I bought some bulk wire to make some speaker cables based on rave reviews. I had completely psyched myself up believing this cable would be the bees knees. I hooked it up, hit play and... it sounded like crap! Out the window it went. If tuning by ear is all placebo and expectation bias, then why didn’t I experience better sound? Why did my positive expectation bias produce a nocebo effect? I have yet to hear a viable answer to that question. Just crickets from the “objective” camp.

For the record, I have no opinion on fuses because I haven’t experimented with them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do matter considering I’ve found stranger things that affect the sound.