Tom, you are going to be stunned based on my listening as well as many friends who have upgraded to his amp. IT's a SICK piece of gear. I only hope that someday maybe we will see a smaller version for the other speakers, lol. A guy can wish can't he? Ha...
Cable do make a big difference. I'm astonished at this, but they must be neutral with such a revealing speaker. I don't understand those who match them with cables that run hot (many do). Most companies don't use silver properly and they sound hot on top, but if you work it properly like AQ has learned as has Cardas, then you have a warmer cable than all copper. That's the reality.
As for fuses, you can open up your amp and install an equal value fuse and you'll be fine. It will change the bass a bit, but honestly, for FREE you can use the pots on the back of your speaker's amp. It's an EQ and it's made to be user friendly. No offense to the fuse guys, but just play with your pots a bit if you want to change the bass eq on your speakers. It's not even hard if you read up, use the Vandertones disc that came with said speakers and then use a meter. Much easier to do with a friend helping, but it's not hard like some want to make it out to be. PLUS it's FREE...
I love that word in audio, lol......Also, listen closely to any changes like that as they change the sound and sometimes it's not for the best in the long run. I know of a few amp makers who purposely DON'T use the special fuses when they easily could. Heck Richard uses tech from the Niagara power deals, HRS for vibration control and the built in DBS from AQ in his top designs. That's a huge part of what separates his designs from others. He aligns himself with the top designers of problem areas of an amp or speaker and then uses them to correct problems that others have in their designs. It's what sets him apart from others and keeps Vandersteen on top of affordable great sound in all price ranges. That's not easy and now you can customize your finish to whatever you want from wood to exotic car finishes and all the paint colors are the same price I believe. :)