What is the science behind audiophile fuses?
There were many threads on the topic of "audiophile fuses" on this forum, and I sure don't want to open old wounds and trench warfare. The fuse on my preamp blew suddenly two days ago, which prompted me to search for a replacement. That's when I came across the term "audiophile fuse" and the fact that they demand far-out prices. Deeper curiosity brought me to several other fora, where users posted glowing praises about their Zero fuses and other exotica. Now I am a scientist, but not a physicist or electrical engineer: so please enlighten me! How can a fuse have an audible influence on the signal, when the signal does not even pass through it? How can a fuse be "directional" when it deals with alternate current? I mean, if I recall my university physics, a fuse is basically a safety valve and nothing more. Am I completely missing an important point here? My scientific field is drug discovery, and because of this background I am thoroughly familiar with the power and reality of the placebo effect. I that's what I am seeing here, or is it real physics? I need objective facts and not opinions, please. I really appreciate your help!
Let's assume for a moment that we know what the "filler" is in an Audiomagic M2 fuse. Some rumor that it is graphene loaded beeswax. Can anyone here scientifically speculate about the effects thereof? I know how the fuse sounds, but how would it be achieving that sound and why would that sound be different from a bare fuse wire? |
I will be happy to share how my installation of the breakers turns out, but I probably wouldn't categorize this as an "experiment" since SMc Audio are currently and successfully using these breakers in the amplifiers they construct and also in the amps that they upgrade. In fact, I have the same type of breaker (in a lower 1A rating) in my SMc DAC-2, that I received from them last year. Pics posted on my system page. The only difference with the install for my amplifiers is that we decided it would be a cleaner and equally beneficial application for me to use the breakers outside of the amplifiers while replacing the fuses with slugs. Even though I am fairly comfortable self-performing such things, installing the breaker internally is much better accomplished as part of a new amp build, or an upgrade (a process that involves SMc removing all the inside components anyway) than as a customer-installed retrofit. After discussing what was involved with SMc, I decided not to fiddle around inside of the amp and especially if I can achieve pretty much the same result with an outside installation mounted in a box adjacent to my wall duplex. I will share here in advance that, unfortunately, the breakers used are proprietary as SMc Audio spent quite a bit of time figuring out which breakers worked well and sounded best with their equipment. Therefore, I will not be sharing the manufacturer or model, although it is a 10A magnetic breaker. I suspect a similar type of breaker is used inside of the SDFB, and it is probably not that much different from breakers that other manufacturers may use currently. I remember my first experience with a breaker on/off switch was the thermal circuit breaker in the BPT 2.5 power conditioner I formerly owned. |
@mitch2 I don’t know if you have seen the inside of a SDFB but I added a photo of one on my systems page to view. Thought it might be of interest to folks. I have trouble posting pics on forum threads…😩 |
@tksteingraber I have taken mine apart many times. I know the design inside and out. |
@devinplombier I worked to develop a way to adapt the SDFB without an extra power cord and it isn't hard to do for a specific amp. but every amp uses a different IEC receptacle on the back and every receptacle has a slightly different fuse configuration. So if you adapt the SDFB to plug into the fuse compartment on one amp, it likely won't fit onto another amp. Just too much work to make it custom for every amp. Add to that the fact that there there is no performance improvement. I was attempting it solely becasue there are a very large number of audiophiles with zero electrical knowledge and they can't get it through their head that the way SDFB is delivered provides the same, or better, protection. They think putting the slug in the fuse location is heresy. Jerry |
