Fuses that matter.

Hard to say as it's over my head. I believe someone already posted here a link to measurements that show a difference.

BTW, I have practically no technical expertise, yet alone a working knowledge of these things. Just my own ears and the curiosity that came with them.

All the best,
Nonoise

Tom, I'm not sure that I understand your last two posts, but I believe that the implication of what you are saying is that any effects of the AC line fuse on the current flowing through it will be directly and identically reflected in the current that is sent out to the speakers.

If that is what you mean, I would beg to differ. As I said in my post dated 5-31-12:

... the effects of power anomalies on what ultimately goes into the speakers (or at least those effects that are explainable based on generally recognized science) will be greatly reduced by filtering and smoothing that is provided in the power supply, by filtering that is (or at least should be) provided at or near all circuit points where the outputs of the power supply are used, by the power supply rejection ratio of the circuit stages that directly process the signal, and in many components by voltage regulator devices and circuits.

Also, the visual differences that you observed on the RTA do not necessarily imply audible significance, especially if all frequencies are affected equally (for example, if a gain change resulted from a slight difference in the voltage drops across the fuses), and of course depending also on the magnitude of the differences.

Regards,
-- Al

The audiotweak,

Forgive my ignorance, but do you replace a fuse with a powerful magnet?

I have used various cables which use magnets for shielding & have found them to be excellent. If I understand you correctly, you put the nickel or whatever theses magnets are made of in the path rather than the fuse?

I am not an EE ( though I do have expertise in other areas of engineering) but what AL says makes sense. I would tend to think that if a fuse did make too much difference in sound quality that this might be an indicator of certain design elements lacking elsewhere.

Just because every component in the signal path can have an effect on the sound does not mean it should.

I'd like to think that my gear performs at a certain reputable level as long as quality components are used (including fuse). SOme audiophile fuses might qualify, some might not, but I do not even want to have to be concerned about how my fuse sounds, just that it does its job reliably and does not negatively impact what the design overall is supposed to accomplish.

Mapman wrote,

"I'd like to think that my gear performs at a certain reputable level as long as quality components are used (including fuse). SOme audiophile fuses might qualify, some might not, but I do not even want to have to be concerned about how my fuse sounds, just that it does its job reliably and does not negatively impact what the design overall is supposed to accomplish."

While it may be true that a "certain reputable level," as you say, can be achieved without paying attention to fuses and such, it all comes down to what one is trying to achieve and how one defines "a certain reputable level" of quality. A lot of folks would say Bose achieves a certain reputable level of quality. The same argument can be made for any audio component or cable or speaker, depending on the level of sound quality one hopes to achieve by selecting X speaker and Y amplifier or Z cable. Most of us lay our money down and live with whatever sound we get, then perhaps system engineer things a bit to squeeze some more out. Is't it a little premature to write fuses off in light of all the positive press and customer testimony? With the potential of 5-10% or more improvement to the level of sound quality at stake, I'm not sure I completely understand all the handwringing and nonchalance. It can't all be anti tweak sentiment, can it?