2. cables
  3. 124345-1776

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
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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.


spentwatts's avatar
spentwatts
9 posts
 
Madness! it's all Madness!  No one ever talks about the human ear.  You would have to be a mechanical robot with everything electrically perfect, to detect any difference in a response of frequencies reproduced from a speaker. by changing a fuse, let alone wax in a fuse!  I think wax in your ear would be a better clinical trial for sound differences. 95% of people cannot even hear the full audio spectrum of 20 20.000 Hz let alone fuse direction, which incidentally makes absolutely ZERO difference.  Next thing I will hear is fuses made of gold retailing for 5K is what you need for your Amp.  Madness!   But I guess when the neighbor next door comes over, you know the one, the poor slob that has a Radio Shack sound system, and you're sporting your Krell knockout ultra spectacular Power Amp, coupled with your mind boggling Martin Logan reproducers.   You can boost!  I have gold fuses pointed in the right direction, and hey! can't you tell the difference from your puny Radio Shack job?  Madness!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Charles1dad wrote,

"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."

I would probably not call it marketing hype.  I'd call it good marketing.  The whole idea is too catch people's attention, no? Let me give you an example. I call my tourmaline anti static gun product a Particle Accelerator. Is that wrong? 

Geoff Kait
machina dynamica
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