Fuses that matter.

04-28-12: Almarg
...my own "a priori," subjective, and certainly fallible judgment is that the possibility of a fuse making a sonic difference falls within the realm of a Possible Unknown Parameter, while its directionality does not. In saying that, I certainly do not exclude the possibility that cables (as opposed to fuses) may have directional sensitivity...

I agree. As I said in my last post...

...the idea that wires are directional or that fuses can affect sound quality, while they may be outside the scope of prevailing knowledge, fall within the scope of possible knowledge.

I mentioned *cable* direction but I deliberately left out *fuse* direction, which I doubt is a Possible Unknown Parameter. But I don't have a particularly informed judgement about fuse directionality either. Speaking of informed judgment...

IMO it comes down to judgment, hopefully judgment that is as informed as possible. Informed by a combination of technical understanding, experience, and inputs from others. While judgments will certainly differ considerably from person to person, it is all that we have to go on.

I agree with this, Al, as a general statement of what we must rely on to distinguish Possible Unknown Parameters from Impossible ones. Your last post also gives me a better idea of some of the specific factors that influence your judgments. I'd be interested to hear from other folks as well about what specific factors influence their judgments. It interests me both as a philosophical question...

--How do you decide when something is worth exploring?

...and as a practical question...

--How do you decide when something is worth experimenting with?

There's of course a great deal of variation among audiophiles on these two questions. Personally, I like to explore and experiment with a wide range of things, including some things that fall into the category of Magic. I like to think it's out of curiosity, though some will say it's out of gullibility. So my own answers to the questions above are...

--A thing is worth exploring if it is reported by either (a) a single source of known credibility OR (b) multiple sources of unknown credibility. And...

--A thing is worth experimenting with if (c) it meets condition (a) or (b), AND (d) it doesn't strike me as deception or insanity.

IMO, both cable directionality and fancy fuses meet conditions (c) and (d), and so fall into the category of Possible Unknown Parameters. But I respect that other people arrive at these decisions differently.

04-28-12: Geoffkait
The problem with the argument that "innumerable" people, even experts, are wrong is that there only needs to be one person, expert or not,that is right to prove the thing works. There are obviously many reasons why someone might not get the expected results, including impaired hearing, lack of listening experience, faults somewhere in the system, failure to follow instructions, etc. Thus, negative results mean precious little, except to support claims by naysayers that the device under test disobeys all known laws of science, is fraudulent, or is simply a placebo.

This makes it sound as though the intuition I was challenging in my last post was the intuition of BELIEVERS, when in fact I was challenging the intuition of SKEPTICS. It is remarkable, Geoff, that although my last post was in effect a DEFENSE of your views that cable directionality and fancy fuses might affect sound quality, you chose to treat it as an ATTACK of your views. No good deed...

Bryon

Almarg - Positive results don't mean anything to Skeptics, that much I agree with. Since it's probably true that anyone who hasn't tried one of these controversial devices, like aftermarket fuses, will be Skeptical of them - who wouldn't be? But for those who can hear the difference, who have tried them in their system, unde whatever test conditions they prefer, blind, double blind, A/B, whatever, then a Skeptic will have a difficult road to hoe trying to convince him that he didn't hear them. It's partly a question of how much you trust your hearing, how much experience you have listening, how developed your skills are listening.

B C - not sure why you use the word intuition, that appears to be your way of saying this whole thing is psychological. I am saying that at some point one has to trust his ears and saying, well, I'm not really sure what I heard. Even the manufacturer of Hi Fi Tuning fuses steadfastly refused, for many years, to believe fuses were directional, even his own. His theory was that fuses will eventually adjust to be "correct" no matter which direction they are inserted. About three years ago guess what? His fuses come out with those funny little arrows on them. He finally saw the light. You could say he was a reconstructed die hard Skeptic. By the way, fuse directionality is not difficult to prove, it's ridiculously easy. Any old fuse will do. Just reverse fuses one at a time and go with the direction that sounds best. Mystery solved.

There's a lot of talk about how great these fuses are by some people. The way the metal is drawn, the structure of the burn wire, and endless ways of stating they must be better.

Here's one for everyone. When metals are continuously heated and cooled, their structure deteriorates. The burn wire in these fuses get quite hot, cool down, over and over.

With that thought in mind, what is better. A month old fifty dollar designer fuse, with its abused burn wire, or a new fifty cent shiny burn wire fuse, that has a burn wire that has not been exposed to all of these heating and cooling cycles yet. I'd guess the new fifty cent one is superior...

04-28-12: Geoffkait
B C - not sure why you use the word intuition, that appears to be your way of saying this whole thing is psychological.

No. I used the word intuition here...

For those who acknowledge the likelihood of Unknown Parameters, what is the standard by which Possible Unknown Parameters are distinguished from Impossible Unknown Parameters? Since by definition it cannot be the standard of prevailing knowledge, it must be something else. But what? Intuition?

As should be clear from that paragraph, I was asking people how they decide what tweaks are plausible and what tweaks are nonsense. I asked that in response to the people who have said, in one way or another, that fancy fuses are nonsense.

As far as my own view, I made it clear that I DON'T believe that fancy fuses are nonsense, though I acknowledge that it is a possibility. So you could put me down as a Tentative Believer. That is a far cry from saying the whole thing is psychological.

04-28-12: Audiofeil
And make sure you check the polarity of the dilithium crystals. The humanoids say it makes a difference.

Dilithium crystals? I will Paypal immediately. Better yet, I will send a Cashier's check for twice the price, and you can refund me the difference.

bc