Geoff...
Hey, didn’t we solve the directional thingie a while back in this thread with Warren Gehl’s input about wire extrusion?
"Solve" is such an absolute word in audiophile land where so much is uncharted and unexplainable. Do we need to revisit our previous discussion regarding not confusing testimony with fact?I hate to judge before all the facts are in but it appears a bunch of dudes on this thread, without mentioning any names, were somehow left off the distribution list for the memo regarding Warren Gehl’s input about wire extrusion.
As an update to all the "dudes," are you referring to this memo...
"Warren Gehl of Audio Research,
who listens to every product before it leaves the factory, not only hears
differences among different fuses, but he has found that they sound different
depending on the orientation within the socket, and he changes their direction
as he sees fit."
or this one....
“I spoke with Warren Gehl at ARC
this morning and the conversation eventually got around to the directional
property of fuses and why they sound their best in one direction and defused
(no pun intended) in the opposite direction.
Warren said that its a metallurgy
situation and not an electrical one. According to Warren, when metal is
extruded (drawn) to make wire it affects the direction of the grain in the
metal. When the fuse is orientated in the direction of the grain, the sound
will be the best. When the fuse is in the opposite direction, it will sound as
though the system is out of phase.”
Does Warren ever explain how the "metallurgy situation" ends up manifesting itself as an "electrical one" so it can actually affect what someone hears from their system?
I don't doubt that the grain in a wire could be affected by the extrusion process, and you may even be able to see that effect under an electron microscope, but given that the typical resistance variation of the one inch of thin wire in the typical "audiophile" fuse (such as the HFT gold or the Isoclean fuses measured and reported by HiFi Tuning) was about 1 mOhms or in some cases much less, which is about 0.001 Ohms or less, it is still a mystery to me how that minuscule amount of difference could possibly account for a noticeable, much less "dramatic" or "repeatable," difference/improvement of the sound of one's system, especially given the much greater resistances attributable to all the other wiring, parts and power supplies in a system's components, resistances of cables connecting the components, and variations in residential power. And yes, I have tried multiples of the fuses including HFT, Isoclean, Furutech and SR Red, and yes I have rotated them, and yes I still have my hearing, and no I am not listening on a walkman, but yet - nada.....
Roger Modjeski may have put it best,
"If a butterfly flew by.....we might see a bigger difference"
Happy New Year to all