nonoise2,132 posts04-12-2016 7:00pmI have no doubt about boutique fuses being better than stock simply from my own experience. What I never got my head around was directionality. I really didn't want to participate in this thread but it occurred to me that I had to replace more than a few fuses in my Marantz Reference components (about 6 or 7) and the odds that I put them in correctly, all oriented in the right manner, the first time around, are nigh well near impossible.I learned my lesson and always ask designers for the correct direction.
Once a new fuse sounded better installed in wrong direction. System sounds good but seems out of phase. Friends notice the same and new fuse was never brought up or crossed my mind . Then corresponded with several owners of the same component and they all heard same with fuse in wrong direction. I reversed direction, still sounds tight but after more hours, it opened up and sounded right again.
This wasn't the case in all components but usually with higher quality components.