High Quality Fuses: Real Gains?

Hi-Fi Tuning fuses are not intended for speaker protection, but rather as an upgrade for AC power supply, or B+/rail voltages(though they MAY provide some audible differences in speaker apps). Best place to begin experimentation is the AC mains fuse on your power amp. If you can't hear a difference there: Forget about it!

I changed from glass body to ceramic power fuse by default because I only had the correct value on hand in ceramic. I forgot all about it and didn't even run the rig until several days later.
Initially I could tell the rig sounded different even when cold, but went outside to do yardwork leaving the tuner playing. After a couple hours came back in and was *really* wondering what was up because the musicality was better overall with clarity and bass definition especially notable. Couldn't figure out why it sounded better although there was plainly a significant improvement.
It wasn't until a week or so later that I remembered the fuse change, so I reverted to glass and sure enough that was the proof. Restored the ceramic again and it's been better sounding ever since. So there you have it; I had done my own blind listening test without even realizing it.
Have never tried the really fancy fuses myself, but wouldn't be surprised if they are even better yet based upon this interesting experience.

I had the opportunity to chat with the head of the service department at said high end company and he had some interesting insight I thought I would share. He said that they have tried all the available aftermarket specialty fuses and that while they may sound "different" they don't necessarily sound "better". In some areas there were performance gains, in others losses. At the end of the day they decided that their stock (inexpensive) fuses were no better or worse than the expensive ones. But there is a big BUT....that how the fuse is positioned in the holder actually has more of an impact than the type of fuse itself. They do extensive listening tests with each product that comes off the line and part of this final production process involves changing the fuse direction and rotating the fuse until they get the best possible sound. Then they put a piece of electrical tape around the fuse holder so that it isn't moved during packing, shipping etc. I thought this was very interesting. So, while I had been leaning toward trying one of these aftermarket fuses, now I'm leaning the other way.

Thanks Dodgealum, That puts a whole new view on the subject. I can't speak for anyone else but, if I'm to the point of rotating a fuse to get better or differant sound from my system, I've lost it.

Dogealum,

Your report indicates that careful evaluation by professional engineers showed them that these higher grade fuses do indeed change the performance of their equipment by making it sound "different", adding support to the notion that there is indeed a real effect. Furthermore, the engineers found that orientation of even off-the-shelf fuses was critical, consistent with the claims of HiFi Tuning which actually prints the desired circuit direction on their fuses. I have only very rarely read here or elsewhere reports that these higher grade fuses actually resulted in a reduction in sound quality or anything other than a perceived improvement in sound quality when end users applied them in their systems. As noted previously in the thread, my personal experience was that HiFi Tuning fuses provided a significant and noticeable "improvement" in the audio quality as perceived by me when used in my amplifier in place of stock glass fuses.

Your sharing of the comments made by the head of the service department of the high end manufacturer is interesting to me in other ways. Their perspective is similar to that of most manufacturers when it comes to aftermarket or upgraded power cords - they just don't come with. I have heard the same comments made by the service department head about fuses applied by industry professionals to aftermarket cords, essentially "they do sound different, just not necessarily better". I wonder if in the case of higher grade fuses, manufacturers are hesitant to break convention and design their gear around fuses that are only available from mail order specialty houses and cost tens of times more than standard issue, even if the higher grade fuses might be a little or even a lot better than the cheaper ones. If one of these fancy fuses blow and the end user replaces it with a convential product from the hardware store, there is a risk that the equipment may no longer perform to spec or expectation, a clear potential headache for the service department in the end.

My experience with power cords and HiFi Tuning fuses - applied at least to my amplifiers - indicates to me that next to room treatments and isolation, they are the most profound and effective tweaks I have tried, providing more sonic bang than new interconnects or speaker cables, and actually allowing me to better resolve differences in the latter two items when they are changed.