Oregonpapa, let's suppose that in an automobile-related forum someone were to claim that changing the wiper blades on his vehicle from Brand X to Brand Y improved his gas mileage by 10%. It would seem safe to assume that pretty nearly all of us would conclude that the person making the claim is either mistaken, or deluded, or has a financial interest in Brand Y, or that something other than using Brand Y was responsible for the improvement.
And unless there were indications to the contrary I for one would tend to presume the most likely of those alternatives to be the last one, that something else was responsible for the improvement. For example, perhaps it had been raining frequently, and the better visibility provided by the new Brand Y blades, compared to the aged Brand X blades, resulted in the person driving a bit faster, at a more fuel efficient speed.
To those of us having an extensive background in electronic design, or to at least most of us having such a background, and who have a better than average understanding of how this stuff works, assertions that fuses can have directional characteristics that are audibly significant (especially in AC applications), engender similar reactions. In my own case, though, as I stated in one of my posts in this thread dated 4-13-2016, the degree of my skepticism is "limited only by respect for perceptions that have been reported by a few members I consider to be particularly credible."
Now, why should it matter that none of the assembled experts can come up with an explanation for fuse directionality that we consider to be even remotely plausible, beyond the several possibilities that have been cited involving extraneous variables. (And btw I would have no problem if anyone who so chooses were to put the word "experts" in quotes). Well, as I said in the SR fuse thread, in a post dated 3-28-2016:
...one reason I attach significance to the lack of a confidence-inspiring
explanation is that it lessens the predictability of whether a
particular tweak will benefit a particular component in a particular
system. And one reason I attach significance to a reduction in
predictability, despite the existence of return privileges, is that ... assessment of a tweak involves an
investment of time even if it doesn't involve an investment of money.
Regards,
-- Al