QUALITY AND SECURITY OF "LITTELFUSE" PRODUCTS

The following was composed prior to seeing Bdp24’s post just above:

Regarding Bdp24’s statement which Joecasey quoted above, according to Stereophile’s review of the RM9 the amplifier’s main B+ supply is 450 volts. That would be DC of course. Although Bdp24’s reference to the HFT fuses not being "suitable for use in a DC circuit" was perhaps worded a bit ambiguously, I suspect that what he was alluding to is that the HFT fuses didn’t blow when they should have because they did not have sufficient "breaking capacity" for a 450 volt application. NOT that those or other audiophile-oriented fuses are unsuitable for use in **any** DC application (which appears to be what Joe interpreted the statement to mean).

If that same fuse (or a similar fuse differing only in its current rating) had been used in an AC mains application, it would only have had to deal with 120 volts (in the USA and other 120 volt countries), rather than 450 volts, which it presumably/hopefully would have been able to "break" reliably.

See the Littelfuse link in one of my earlier posts in this thread for the definition of "breaking capacity."

Regards,
-- Al

Exhibit A, this just in...

from Steve Hoffman’s web site, date 2004,

"Here is what Bill Low (owner of Audioquest) says about directionality:

"Directionality: All cables are directional, from hardware store electrical cable to the finest pure silver cables. All AudioQuest cables are marked for direction. With other cables it might be necessary to simply listen to the cables in one direction and then the other. The difference will be clear-in the correct direction the music is more relaxed, pleasant and believable. While cable directionality is not fully understood, it is clear that the molecular structure of drawn metal is not symmetrical, providing a physical explanation for the existence of directionality.""

geoff kait, machina dynamica

Good points Al. The only thing I would ad is that I myself am not comfortable installing fuses designed by someone unfamiliar with the concept of breaking capacity into my $5000 amplifier, and I am glad Roger brought the information about the Hi-Fi Tuning Fuses being inappropriate for my amp to my attention. I shared that information here for the benefit of anyone else who might have made the same mistake as Roger's customer, thinking I was doing a good thing. Joe apparently disagrees with me!

Now Geoff, could I ask you to explain how a fuse in an AC circuit can be directional? AC, you know, for Alternating Current. Ralph Karsten must have skipped that chapter in his electronics engineering books. Of course, perhaps they weren't "New Age" textbooks.

Bdp24 wrote,

"Now Geoff, could I ask you to explain how a fuse in an AC circuit can be directional? AC, you know, for Alternating Current. Ralph Karsten must have skipped that chapter in his electronics engineering books. Of course, perhaps they weren’t "New Age" textbooks."

You might consider not adopting the snarky attitude. Let me ask you a question, do you think that all of the fuse customers, you know, the ones who actually installed aftermarket fuses, reported right here on this forum hearing the difference between when the fuse was installed in the correct direction and when it was installed in the wrong direction were high on PCP? Or that there is a global conspiracy to drive pseudo skeptics crazy?