The guru on fuses:


For two years, I have asked why and how fuses could possibly matter. All I got was arguments of faith, pro or con. I needed a real audio guru who actually knows. Here is a link from John Curl’s discussion on Parasound’s website. He engineered and designed some some great equipment, including some Mark Levinson gear, The Grateful Dead’s 30 plus McIntosh amp powered Wall of Sound, and his admittedly, somewhat price compromised Parasound designs. He discusses the electrical properties of standard fuses, showing how they are compromised. The entire article is quite enlightening, but to skip to the fuse section, go to the bottom half of page 6. https://www.parasound.com/pdfs/JCinterview.pdf

128x128danvignau
OMG ... do you even know how "sound" travels in a material. Transverse waves are not the only method. Even solids have longitudinal waves.  When vinyl is cut, it is intentionally cut at reduced speeds to reduce impacts of vibration ... you know the non-fancy name for what you mainly call shear. But really, who cares. The vinyl is already pressed and if it is new vinyl, it is pointless you should have just stayed digital.
I know how sound travels in materials..

After seeing this video and recognizing the motions we at Star Sound developed the Platter Ground this video https://youtu.be/GuCdsyCWmt8 puts a scope on the implications of shear wave generation.
I met with a fellow company member who is a geophysicist and we wrote the following in September of 2016.

The stylus makes shear because it is physically bumped as it travels in the groove in the groove. This is a purely mechanical process. Part of the shear energy mechanically excited by the stylus travels through the record to the center or the outside of the record depending on the movement of the stylus. The energy in the vinyl interferes with the sound when it bounces off the edge or center of the record, and travels back to groove creating an additional vibration on the stylus. The stylus has such a fast shear velocity that the energy - both the music and the interference - that it then can be translated very quickly and cleanly into electrical pulses.

The shear going to the outside of the record will always be behind the stylus because it is having to travel the distance to the outside edge and back plus the distance the stylus has moved since the shear wave was created. The distance the stylus moves is increased to the shear traveling to the outside because the outside edge is physically moving faster than where the stylus is. This is a velocity that has an acceleration component due to the angular momentum of the record - ie we are now into an equation with a first and second derivative. The vinyl has a slow enough shear velocity that the shear going toward the outside edge will miss the stylus on its return from the edge and go to the center of the record. The shear energy going to the center of the LP will move through vinyl that is traveling slower and slower, so when it bounces off the center label it will could be in front of the stylus. This is the energy that the Platter Ground removes. Also since the stuff bouncing off the outside edge of the record is behind the stylus, the only shear that can interfere is the shear coming from the center of the record, not the outside edge.
The mechanical world has many aspects that create complexities. The rotation of the record only affects the energy traveling in it, not the energy going from the stylus to the magnets in the tone arm (the arm is not moving much).
I suspect that the platter ground creates the greatest effect when the stylist is on the outside 1/2 or so of the record.

More discussion.

We see that the needle is creating a diagonal side to side motion creating the information of stereo. That diagonal has a shear component and a compressive wave component moving through the record. The weight on the center removes both. The slit in the Platter Ground allows the compressive waves to go into the air (not big enough to hear)
The shape of the inverted cone with the slit. It fans out the waves that then interfere with themselves which can’t go around the cone because the slit breaks up their travel. Those that may escape will travel the height of the cone. The energy is dissipated as a very small amount of heat.

Mechanical grounding of the speaker is real because the movement (vibration) of the center of the speaker sets shear waves moving through the speaker membrane as well as the speaker cabinet. Only one of the polarities of shear makes music the other interferes.


I have no direct experience but some of what I see with the hex mat will reduce shear wave interference on a record similar but different to our Star Sound Technologies Platter Ground. http://v2.stereotimes.com/post/star-sound-technologies-platter-ground https://www.hexmat.net/

That’s all for now.

Tom


So, you of course have measurements confirming your hypothesis, not to mention calculations putting some bounds on the effects?  You are pretty much stating the obvious, like cables have resistance, but without quantifying it does not mean much.
bluemoondriver

Fuses are tiny pieces of low value resistors which when heated to the correct temperature by excess current passing thru them, melt and avoid damage & a possible fire.

They contribute ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the sound.

I just measured the resistance of 2 ’normal’ fuses:

a 500 mA fuse had a resistance of 0.7 ohms. Meaning, that the power dissipation on it will be I^2 x R = 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.7 = 0.175 watts as it is about to blow. It means that the fuse will melt at such a very low power dissipation, when its limit current is reached. And the voltage drop across it at that current will be 0.5 x 0.7 = 0.35 volts. Absolutely negligible. This fuse is obviously for a very low current circuit.

A second fuse I measured was for 8 Amps, more typical of a 2 x 200/250 watt 120 VAC typical amplifier. Its resistance was 0.3 ohms. This means it would dissipate about 8 x 8 x 0.3 = 19 watts. And the voltage drop across it at that current would be 2.5 volts just as it is blowing. Again totally negligible voltage drop.

What makes them different is the melting point of the material used in them. Note that the one that passes 8 amps must withstand a dissipation of about 20 watts before it blows whereas the 500mA fuse is required to blow at only 0.175 watts.

Note that I did not mention temperature. When a fuse is working at less than its maximum limit, it is obviously still dissipating power and is likely to get warmer/hotter. This typically will increase their resistance, meaning the power dissipation on them is likely to increase FASTER than I^2xR with increasing current, meaning they start actually dissipating more heat as they get closer to their blowing current.

Here is a link which explains that relationship, towards the bottom of the page, which headlines "PTC characteristics", if you really want to understand them deeper:

https://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/electronics/application_guides/littelfuse_fuseology_application_g...

Basically, fuses HARDLY affect the currents passing thru them. They are almost ’transparent’ as they should be, not to affect any operating parameters in the rest of the circuit.

Fuse believers are just hearing things which are not there. They need urgent help.




blah blah blah blah, etc.  Only direct experience will give you any TRUTH.  Create Audio Fuses cost $20 from Parts Connexion.  You try, you like, you don't like, you hear a difference, you don't hear a difference.....but at least you listened.......instead....you guys just blah blah blah blah, till you die.  Not much truth or happiness in that game.  Have some fun.....open your mind.....try something new.......the ego does not like new.....it likes the same thing over and over again.....define and defend.....that is what the ego does.  Whereas an open human tries new things and knows that "not knowing" is really fun......and sharing new things that you try is even more fun.  So, what are you sharing?.....your ego?.....or your soul?  The choice is yours....every second.   Thank you for listening to my sermon.....please come back next Sunday for another edition......however, it will say the same thing.....the only thing to say......which is, we are infinite, we are beautiful, we are love, we are joy.....and that is forever and ever......bless us all.