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Have you ever spoken with a designer or audio engineer

I'll never forget I was doing an audio banquet some years past. At my table were 2 audio engineers. At the banquet they had a lottery for audio accessories. I happen to win a power cord from a fairly well known companies. One of the engineers laughed when I was showing it to people at my table. He said power cords are totally hocus pouch and there is no scientific studies proving there any better than stock cords. He said there basically made for insecure audiophiles. I had mentioned I already had some after markets cords in my system and they definitely made an improvement. He just laughed and said a sucker is born everyday in the audiophile world.


Now the guy I am talking about isn't some unknown schlub. He works for one of the biggest high-end companies in the world and is fairly well known. In fact some people think he is a great designer of audio equipment. I have only talked to a couple of audio engineers in my life and they were both skeptical.  I wonder if this is common among engineers and designers?
taters
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,898 posts
 

And thanks to ct0517 for providing the link! Taters, you have proven you are sincerely interested in hearing the truth about the Tuning Fuses, as unpopular as that truth may be here on Audiogon. And intellectually honest enough to actually consider what Roger Modjeski, apparently a polarizing figure here, has to say about them. Roger took the trouble to investigate the fuses and share what he discovered, and all we have to do is read what that discovery was. I really don't know what to say to anyone who claims to care about the subject but either can't be bothered to read the thread, or worse, refuses to, for whatever reason.

I realize Roger's skepticism (at least!) of many audiophile notions precludes him from being an audiophile "darling", but he is seriously knowledgeable about tubes, circuits, and amplifier design. He has no axe to grind on the subject of fuses---he doesn't make and sell them. But he knows a design problem when he sees it, and he sees one in the Tuning Fuse. Why would anyone take a defensive position about that without even bothering to read what the problem Roger found was? I don't get it.

taters OP
1,149 posts
 
Bdp24,

I am wondering if all tuning fuses are created the same? Are they all made by the same manufacturer and sourced out to the individual companies that make them? 

I understand what Roger is saying. What I don't know is the background information I posed from my first paragraph. I think some deeper research is necessary at this time. 

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Are they trying to say HiFi Tuning Fuses? Who knows? If it’s HiFi Tuning, that German company has been around like forever as has Isoclean from Japan, whose fuses actually ARE UL approved btw) and actually has data sheets on the HiFi Tuning website illustrating directionality of fuses and the measured effects of cryogenic treatment of fuses as well as measured differences among some well known brands of fuses. Are they (Audiocircle and Roger) trying to say that many aftermarket fuses are not UL approved. We already knew that. Duh? This is all a tempest in a teapot most likely and a favorite subject for the uber skeptics ever since aftermarket fuses appeared what 20 years ago?  And ever since the whole subject of wire directionality reared it's ugly head. There appears to be quite a lot of misinformation and disinformation floating around out there. I suspect Roger Modjeski probably actually does have an ax to grind. Who knows what it is?
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,898 posts
 

There may be one---I'm sure Roger would prefer the owner of the Music Reference RM-9 that sent the amp in for repair (a result of the eight $49 Hi-Fi Tuning fuses the owner had installed on the output power tubes in the amp not performing as they should but don't---the very reason for Roger's warning about them) had spent spend the $400 ($400---on fuses?!) on more MR product rather than the fuses! Then there was the approximately $400 in replacement tubes and $350 to repair the amp, all because the Hi-Fi Tuning Fuses failed to act in the manner they are supposed to---to blow when they need to, the very reason for fuses. If you want a power amp without fused tubes, buy an Audio Research!

The design and construction of the Hi-Fi Tuning fuse prevents it from performing it's intended function when put in the signal path of an output power tube. And what's worse, the manufacturer does not appear to be aware of what performance characteristics a fuse must possess to make it appropriate for that application! That's all Roger's warning was about---very simple. If that's not of interest or significance to you, you're free to ignore the warning. But to impugn Roger Modjeski's intentions?

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Difficult to say what happened in the case you described.  But it sounds like operator error. In any case it would appear to be an isolated case; if this problem with amps blowing up were systemic I'm pretty confident we would be hearing about it all over the Internet.
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