Hi-Fi Tunig Fuses & Parasound A21

Like most anything that impacts the electrical circuit of a piece of kit, break-in is necessary. Obviously this requires patience, a virtue few of us in this hobby possess in abundance. I don’t have an electrical engineering degree that might help inform me as to why things in this quizzical hobby happen as they do but they do occur. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of such all over this site. Perhaps the mystery is part of the appeal.

As far as Steve McCormack goes, I know what my stock amp sounded like and what it sounds like post SmC Audio mods. Nuff for me!

It took about 4 days for my HiFi Silverstar fuses to break in. I kept the amp on 24/7 and would turn up the volume now and then to get a handle on the sound. I still don't know or understand how anyone can hear an immediate improvement, but that's been my experience. By the way, I replaced all the fuses at the same time, if that helps to clarify anything.

All the best,
Nonoise

Indranil

Your experience is an exact replication of my results. The silver in the main was excellent but when I added the four golds in the rails, the overall sound was way too warm with a loss of upper mid-range detail for my tastes.  It was warm to the point of getting a little muddy.

I would recommend burning them in for at least 30 hours before you start making any decisions. Like I said above, whether your burning in tubes or fuses, after about 30 hours of burn in, you'll have a pretty darn good idea what they will ultimately sound like. 

If after 30 hours of burn in, you still don't like the sound, try replacing two of the gold fuses with your original fuses. So, each rail side L & R will have a gold fuse and an original fuse.  That sounded better to me.   Now I have a silver and a gold on each side of my rails, which is a very nice balance.  I see where you can't get silvers anymore, so hopefully the gold & original combo will work well for you.

If you somehow can get a couple of silvers, if possible I would only buy two and do a silver and a gold combo in each side of your rails.  Four silvers in the rails plus a silver in the main fuse might become too bright rendering details like female vocals and brass instruments a little harsh.  Too much of a good thing.

Do you have any tube equipment in your set-up?

Just remember it's not whether you have all of your fuses upgraded or half of your fuses upgraded.  If you like the resulting sound, you're the big winner!  So then just sit back and enjoy the music.

Toolbox

I don’t have an electrical engineering degree that might help inform me as to why things in this quizzical hobby happen as they do but they do occur. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of such all over this site. Perhaps the mystery is part of the appeal.

Its the voltage drop across the fuse. You can hear it and measure it when the fuse is correct in its holder. Its easy to measure. If the fuse is on a circuit board, I find it more expedient to spin the fuse in its contacts until you see a lower voltage drop rather than reversing it.

The variable voltage drop caused by the fuses and fuse holders not being perfectly dimensioned is what has given rise to the idea that they are directional. They aren't (and can't be, if they were they could not be used in AC circuits); its just that sometimes when you reverse them you're getting a better connection. Its really that simple- no mystery and easy prove through measurement. If you want it to remain mysterious though, just don't measure the voltage drop across the fuse :)

I think it's dangerous to introduce actual scientific facts into the Fuse Voo Doo world as it is VERY important to retain the mystery of fuses as entire business models rely on this. Atmasphere continues to toss these facts into the mix willy nilly regardless of being utterly ignored by the fuse magic faithful. Those who insist that their uber sensitive ears verify directionality as well as other Incredible Things provided by Inherint Fuse Magic (IFM) are nothing less than fragile souls seeking to make life better through imagination…no explanation is needed regarding how or why these fuses were developed to do whatever they do as long as they A: cost much more than those lame "non magic" fuses, and B: have somebody else reporting on the astonishingly positive sonic results ("Cellos sound better") of IFM while remaining oblivious of the lack of any rational explanation of how it does that.