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Direction of aftermarket fuses (only for believers!)

It is with reluctance that I start another thread on this topic with the ONLY GOAL for believers to share their experience about aftermarket fuses.
To others: you can call us snobs, emperors w/o clothes,... etc but I hope you refrain posting just your opinion here. If you did not hear any difference, great, maybe there isn’t.

The main driver for this new post is that I am starting a project to mod my NAD M25 7 ch amp for my home theater. It has 19 fuses (2 per channel, 4 on the power supply board, 1 main AC) and I will try a mix of AMR Gold, SR Black and Audio Magic Platinum (anyway that is the plan, I may try out some other brands/models). As it is reasonably difficult to change them, esp the ones on each channel module that requires complete disassembly, I would like to know what the direction is for these models mentioned and of course, others who HAVE HEARD there is a difference please share your experience on any fuse model you have tried.

Fuses are IME directional:
Isoclean is one of the first to indicate the direction (2008/2009) on their fuses. Users of HiFi Tuning (when the awareness rose quite a bit amongst audiophiles) have mostly heard the difference.

As an IEEE engineer, I was highly skeptical of cabling decades ago (I like the speaker design of John Dunlavy but he said on many occasions that cables nor footers matter at all, WRONG!). Luckily, my curiosity proved me wrong as well. I see the same skepticism that I and many others had about the need for aftermarket cables many, many years ago now on fuses and esp on the direction on fuses.

Another example is the direction of capacitors (I do not mean electrolytic types). Even some manufacturers now and certainly many in the past did not believe it can make a difference sonically. Maybe some do but it takes time in the assembly to sort and put them in the right direction/order (esp as some of the cap manufacturers still do not indicate "polarity") so that maybe is one argument why this is not universally implemented.








128x128jazzonthehudson
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
"The Audio Magic fuses are just the stock "Little Fuse" brand. They are decent industry stock fuses, but nothing special (like $4 a fuse). Audio Magic drills and fills the fuse with an anti-vibration solution, which acts to reduce electrical resonances. Resonance definitely plays a part in sound quality, but I have never tried an Audio Magic. Also the Little Fuse wire element is nothing special (just tinned copper at best). These were just too expensive for me to audition."

I had both the Isoclean and the Audio Magic Super Fuse (the model just prior to the Beeswax Fuse) and the Audio Magic Super Fuse was better. I used them both in a Woo Audio all tube Headphone amp with super modded Oppo 103 and naked Sennheisers 600s. The Woo Audio amp used 1942 Tung Sol rectifier and ’52 Sylvania Badboy output tubes. With the high cost of fuses these days, e.g., Audio Horizon, HiFi Tuning, SR Black Fuse, nothing should be off the table especially if you only have one fuse; the fuse on my Oppo was bypassed. ;-)

Here's the blurb for the new Beeswax Premier Super Fuse. Note the anti RFI/EMI blackout powder in the Premier Super and it's probably in the Beeswax too.

Audio Magic latest fuse in the Premiere line - The "Beeswax" Premiere Super Fuse. The Beeswax version is identical to the Premiere version the only difference is Audio Magic uses Beeswax instead of the normal anti vibration fluid, this gives the fuse a very organic flavor but maintains the detail, dynamics and everything the Premier does. The production of this fuse is very difficult, very hard to get the Beeswax into the fuse but the organic sound is too good to ignore.

Audio Magic Premiere SUPER fuse:
The Audio Magic Premiere SUPER fuse incorporates Audio Magic's anti vibration fluid to stop the element from vibrating at 50/60 hz and then the blackout powder super mix to absorb all EMI and RFI riding the element as well as ambient sources and insert a new HRC core which allows the signal to travel through the fuse in a more cohesive and linear manner. The Premier SUPER fuse is 30% better than the Audio Magic's original SUPER fuse in every way!



danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
This reminds me. I haven't been able to find the correct green color magic marker for my CD's, nor a $650 wood volume knob.
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Jazzonthehudson 4-29-2016
Al, have I fallen for a SR marketing trick? Their website states repetitively "... By applying a two million volt signal to a cable at a specific pulse modulation, and ultra high frequency for an exact duration of time, we transform the entire cable at a molecular level through a process we call Quantum Tunneling...."
Well, it seems safe to say that he is using the terminology in, um, a creative manner.
FYI I was part of the AP/MTT chapter and worked for a large telecom equipment manufacturer so no high voltage experience. I did had fun with Microwave oven trafo powered arcing in labs though...
Cool!  To clarify for others, AP/MTT refers to an IEEE Chapter on Antennas & Propagation/Microwave Theory & Techniques.

I was never active in any IEEE Chapters; never had the time.

Best regards,
-- Al
 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Hi Jazz,
It's very possible that there could be some degree of marketing hype involved,  it wouldn't be the first time for an audio product. That's why I try to keep it simple,  I just listen to a product and form an impression based solely on what I hear. 
Charles, 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Al wrote,

"Cool! To clarify for others, AP/MTT refers to an IEEE Chapter on Antennas & Propagation/Microwave Theory & Techniques."

Hey, whaddya know? I was in antennas and propagation for quite a while. ELF, HF, UHF, EHF, strategic communications, MILSATCOM, that sort of thing. Spread Spectrum a plus.


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