Fuses that matter.

Bryon,

You are a brave man!

Will look forward to your findings.

Remember that the primary function of a fuse is to provide protection against current surges. If a fuse sounds great but fails to blow when it should, that would be a no go for me.

Also I would be interested in value proposition as I am with all audio gear. IE is the cost justified? Is the cost of "audiophile fuses" justified compared to similar fuses sold for general use?

Also how can you determine if the same fuse will produce similar results in different designs, or at least reliably positive results in all cases?

THose are my questions. I don't expect you to answer them all for free, but might as well get them out there.

All good questions, Mapman. I won't pretend to know the answers. I'm just trying to do my part to keep the streets safe! ;-)

bc

Bryon, Imagine that you listen to your system at 5:50PM to establish a baseline and again with new fuse at 6:00PM. At 6:00PM radio stations cut power in half according to FCC regulations - you detected improvement. Now you test other fuses. You already know that original stock fuse was not as good as expensive fuses, therefore you believe in differences between them. Once you believe there are likely differences (or perhaps wife keeps adjusted dimmer switch) you will hear it . It is difficult to eliminate all influences including movement/position of cables during fuse replacement, not to mention placebo effect. You move your amp to change fuse direction and cables got better contact - improvement in sound. Now when you change direction again placebo effect is much stronger since you already heard improvement one way.

Yes, good point Kijanki!

I tend to shy away from a/b tests likely involving subtle and unpredictable differences because it is so hard to control all variables that can affect sound in subtle ways.

Now when I hear a consensus that clear major differences can be heard in a predictable manner, I tend to take more notice.

BE careful Bryon. Those streets could be slippery!

It's humorous to read this sort of thing, people getting all stressed out about a simple test. Why it's almost like superstition. I guess if you hear about placebo and expectation bias and unknown variables enough it'll psych anyone out.

Faint heart ne'r won fair maiden.

;-)