Fuses that matter.

THE RESULTS ARE IN… AGAIN…

I completed the A/B’ing of the various fuses in my possession.

-------THE METHOD-------

--For the preamp (an extensively modded Meridian G68), the contenders were: stock fuse vs. Hifi Tuning Silverstar vs. Isoclean

--For the amp (a Pass Labs XA30.5), the contenders were: stock fuse vs. Hifi Tuning Silverstar vs. Furutech

--All fuse endcaps were first cleaned with Cardas contact cleaner. I was careful not to touch the endcaps when swapping fuses.

--Nearly everything electronic in the house was turned off. House lights were turned off. Air conditioner turned off. Very little ambient noise at the time of the test.

--The amp was never unplugged during the test. The preamp was unplugged for each fuse swap, because the fuse could not be accessed otherwise.

--Down time while swapping: 45 seconds for the preamp, 30 seconds for the amp.

--Fuse direction was noted during every swap.

--Volume was never changed.

-- 3 auditions of each fuse in each direction

--Music used: 1. J’ai Deux Amours on Careless Love by Madeleine Peyroux. 2. L’Estate 2 from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Drottingham Baroque Ensemble, BIS Original Dynamics Recording

-------THE RESULTS-------

The preamp fuse winner is… Isoclean by a nose! The Isoclean fuse had slightly better resolution, imaging focus, and overall naturalism than the stock fuse. The stock fuse was better than the Hifi Tuning Silverstar in those same categories.

The amp fuse winner is… a tie! The stock fuse and Furutech were indistinguishable. And boy did I listen close. Both were better than the Hifi Tuning Silverstar, which had a strange phasiness, as I reported in an earlier post, and heard again in this test.

AND ON THE DREADED TOPIC OF DIRECTIONALITY...

I could not hear any differences when changing direction for any of the fuses. Make of that what you will. Bad system. Bad ears. Bad method. Bad attitude. I just didn't hear it.

There it is. My not-particularly-scientific experiment in fancy fuses is concluded, and I am happy to be done with it. I can now move on to more important things, like A/B'ing capacitors!

Bryon

Good test, good method, good attitude, good system, good to know.

I realize subjective nature of this test but my ears and my gear are not better than yours while we're not subjectively evaluating change if there is none (or almost none). Great job!

Very nicely done, Bryon. Your disciplined and thorough methodology, and your carefully stated description of the results, in my mind makes your conclusions more persuasive than just about any other fuse comparison I can recall seeing.

And as far as the conclusions themselves are concerned, as you probably suspect I don't find anything about them to be surprising.

One piece of data that I think might be worthwhile appending to your report would be what your line voltage is, for the conditions under which you ran the tests (time of day, things turned off, etc.). While unlikely, it seems conceivable to me that if future reports by others were to include that information some sort of correlation might become apparent.

Best,
-- Al

Bryoncunningham, to bad you weren't able to test the High Fi tuning Supreme fuses, they really did make a difference and you don't need to listen very closely like you do with other fuse comparisons. I've tried most, It's the first one I would indorse.

Bryon,

I nominate you for the next nobel fuse prize! :-)

Nice job.