Audio Grade Fuse, Anyone?

Having been influenced a long time ago by Lloyd Walker to try checking which direction of the fuse sounds better, as well as to try SST on the fuse, I firmly believe in both tweaks.

After look for silver fuses, I did learn of the gold IsoClean fuses at CES. I ordered what I need, but there was so much demand on these that I was only able to get one fuse. It should be here this week. After treating it with AudioTop, I will replace the existing fuse in my Exemplar 3910. I do expect a substantial improvement, but time will tell.

I got one IsoClean gold 1 amp 20mm fuse today. It fits my Exemplar 3910 universal player. It has a directional arrow on it and the instructions warn you to align it properly. I don't know which direction the arrow is supposed to go so I assume it was from the wall to the board being fed by the ac.

It does not take any time to hear the difference over ordinary fuses. Noise is lower and there is extension in both the bass and top end. What is most striking is the sense that you are at the recording even. This has got to be the best $25 tweak I have found.

Thanks for all the response. I just had the fuses in my Sonic Frontiers Power 3 pair replaced with the Isoclean gold 7A slow blow and I have to agree with Tbg that the results were rather amazing. Background is quieter and images become clearer. If you don't mind a cliche here, it is really "veil lifting". I am going to replace the fuse in my front end equipments next.

Tbg,
The funny thing is I was just as confused as you in terms of the direction and I made the same assumption the the arrow should be pointing from the PC to the equipment. Did you try the opposite direction to comprae the sound?

Opusone, I have not tried the opposite direction. I did have some difficulty in establishing which was the direction going from the wall to the Exemplar. If you trace the path from the power cord to the fuse holder, it appears that the fuse holder's side near the wire from the IEC would be the one from which the arrow should point, but that is not the case. When I removed the fuse and checked with a meter, I had continuity with the other side.

I have since been told that indeed the arrow is to point from the wall to the unit.

The fuse actually does break-in??? It has been better each of the last two nights. I don't understand this phenomenon.

I seem to recall that Mission, the UK audio mfr, didn't want to "corrupt" the signal from its amps and built one without a fuse. Since the little thing would put out 60 amps, I believe they also demonstrated, at one point, use of their amp to weld with the speaker cables.

I, personally, would not go this route. ;)