Synergistic Red Fuse ...

Charles, you have been and are the solid and reasonable rock for this thread.

As is the case in many a thread.

George (Jetter), your 13 point summary (as amended) gets my nomination for best post of the month.  Perhaps the year!

Best regards,
-- Al
 

Ya gotta love it when one troll fluffs another troll's feathers. 

@mac48025 

"...a fuse CAN'T effect (affect) sonics? Why not? Doesn't AC quality do so? Don't quality power cords do so? Why not the spot where all that AC current is condensed into a frail wire designed to disintegrate upon too much amperage? If that's not the weak link, what is?

You all miss the point - including Wolf. Anything could indeed affect sonics if equipment is badly designed or poorly maintained or malfunctioning. 

A power supply is supposed to be designed to provide clean power to the audio line signal and amplification and processing circuits. A great power supply design should NOT be affected by simple differences in a fuse under normal operating conditions and if said fuses are both adequately specified. 

Audio equipment should be designed to amplify and preserve the detail quality of the AUDIO signal (low S/N, low distortion etc.)  under normal operating conditions (includes significant variations in A/C power during the day as well as from location to location). This includes replacing the fuse! 

Audio equipment should NOT be designed to amplify minuscule differences in a fuse or an infinite number of other extraneous factors (room temperature, humidity, vibration etc.) Just look at all the isolation and various designs to minimize vibration pick up and rumble from a turntable!!! A great turntable minimizes distortion from the pick up of extraneous vibration a poorly designed or malfunctioning turntable picks up too much vibrations. 

Faulty or poorly designed equipment or poorly executed equipment setups are the reason a mere fuse can make a huge difference.

So there is No Can't - anything is possible in this crazy boutique world of high end audio  - only there should Not be big differences in fuses on excellent equipment.

A fuse can have a significant effect on the sound of an audio system when that fuse melts. Suddenly, no sound. All fuses that hew to proper ratings, and are made by reputable companies (Littelfuse…been around forever, their stuff is first class), do the same thing…contain tiny wires in either fast or slow blow configurations, and somehow manage to NOT degrade anything in any meaningful way in countless piles of well sorted gear ("Marge, back away from the Magicos, I think the fuse in the Diavelet is degrading!"), regardless of what Paul McGowan might believe (they "can" lead to better sound? Not exactly a ringing endorsement...And exactly HOW do they do that, Paul?). You may be led to believe they do improve everything by reading posts loaded with astonishing claims and ZERO explanations of why they do a better job and that's fine for some, but In the face of the hype and my own experience with SR fuses, I simply call baloney. Also, blind testing, the suggestion of which does strike fear into the meek Faithful, isn't useful for all things but for this would at least be interesting and the results could be ignored if they rocked anybody's emotional boat. However, unless the "break in" instantly wears off when a Magic Fuse is removed and replaced by a less precious fuse back and forth in such a test, I bet it the results would be very revealing. 

The consensus on the use of alternative fuses in audio will never be reconciled here. What I'd like to know is if anyone has replaced the fuse in their TV and did the picture/image improve. If so, then all can be laid to rest and we can move on from here. 

Picture quality improvement can, at the very least, be seen, if not measured, by anyone. If the fuse in the TV serves no more nobler purpose than that of an amp (or source) and the picture quality improves, than it follows that there is an improvement in audio gear and it's just that we're not up to the ability to measure it yet. 

I know, from personal experience, that a power cord upgrade improved the picture on my Plasma by a noticeable margin. As skinny as TVs are getting, they'll always have a decent PC on them in my house, looks be damned. It's just too daunting for me to take apart my TV but if someone already did, and replaced the fuse inside for a better one, I'd like to know what the outcome was.

I also know that if the TV picture improves the debate will turn to whether it's enough to warrant the cost of the fuse but that is an entirely different kettle of fish. 

All the best,
Nonoise