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Best fuses for under $50?

I need six of them for a power amp therefore I need something more economical...  say $50 or less. Any suggestions?


robertsong
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,903 posts
 
Well, I can't wait for the 200 hour mark so I'll deal with what I'm hearing up to  hour 45.

Everything was great until around 18-20 hrs in and the highs receded and everything else took on a most mid-fi of expression.😫 I seriously considered taking the PADIS fuses out and put the HiFi Silver Stars back in. 

Put the 'ol SACD player on repeat for the night and 9 hours later all was very well indeed. Around hour 36 I got the most expansive soundstage yet. There is now a wealth, if not surfeit of musical info coming at me.

@auxinput informed that it would go through some ups and downs and he was right. He also said how revealing it can make of things upstream. I'd like to add that they are ruthlessly revealing of recordings as well. There's no where the music can hide now. Everything is ferreted out yet nothing draws undue attention to itself.

There's also not a hint or trace of "digital" in the presentation. No grate, bite or hash: very clean yet natural sounding (to the point of actual neutrality?). It can be warm, detailed, bombastic, expressive, nuanced, etc. all at the same time. Very easy to listen to. It's amazing how when the music is out of balance (leading edge here, bass up there, mid range in your face) that other aspects of music takes a big step back and you don't notice it until balance is restored.

I've yet to put one in my integrated and will still wait a bit for that. If you have any fuse that's in the signal path (like my SACD player or a speaker like a Maggie) then you owe yourself to try this PADIS fuse. I haven't heard the SR Red or Black fuses and am going to compare the SR 20 with the PADIS (in the integrated) when I get a chance.

Again, for about $25 apiece, these fuses are the bee's knees. 🐝

All the best,
Nonoise
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
@nonoise - what components do you have in your audio chain?  What fuses are in each component?
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,903 posts
 
@auxinput, as of now I have PADIS fuses (all 4) in my Marantz SA15S2b SACD player and a HiFi Silver Star in my Marantz PM15S2b integrated. 
That's about it. 

What I appreciate about the PADIS fuses is the no nonsense way they advertise them. All they say about them is that they're:
audio grade
high pure copper
OFC
extremely low inductance
non-magentic
have a surge capacity of 1ns @ 1500A
rhodium plated (with no nickel substrate)

No voodoo or metaphysical claims. Just a well made component (that some here seem to confuse with a wire) that sells for a reasonable price. I seem to remember that they used to be available, stateside, over a year ago (or more) for the same money and then, they were only available overseas. I wonder if they were squeezed or incentivized to move on. It's probably my imagination. 🤔

All the best,
Nonoise

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Thanks Nonoise.  I believe you may go through a few more areas of burn-in pain with those Padis.  Rhodium is like that.  There could be times you turn it on and listen and say "I just can't listen to this!".  Sometimes it can be bright, sometimes hard-edged and brittle, sometimes the high frequencies go away and it becomes messy.  The last 50-70 hours is typically the hardest where the rhodium works through the brightest and hardest edge tones.  At about 200 hours is where most of the pain is worked out, but the rhodium can continue to mature and refine until about 300 hours.

What I have found recently is that some components do not work well with full Furutech rhodium (also depends on power cords / interconnects).  I use all rhodium plated power cords as well as interconnects.

In your situation, the Marantz equipment is typically voiced to be warm.  I think This can work very well with the rhodium plated fuses in getting the most resolution out of these pieces of equipment.  I would say burn the SACD fuses in fully and then listen to see if you're happy.  The Hi-Fi Silver Star is going to be a more forgiving fuse when compared to the Rhodium.  It will not be as revealing.  You can always put Padis in the integrated later if you decide you want more resolution/detail there.

In my situation, I recently determined that my very strong/fast Emotiva XPR-1 class AB solid state amps where just too fast in responding to the waveforms.  I have  Krell processor with just one Class A analog stage.  This was not enough to smooth the waveforms out before it hit the Class AB amp.  The sound was just too thin (revealing the character of Emotiva without remorse).  I went ahead and put back in the Isoclean fuses I used to run in them.  The result was an improvement warmth and better midbass and body (more volume).  However, I lost too much high frequency clarity and the sound became a little "lo-fi".  Very pleasant, but not enough detail. 

The Emotvia amps use 2 fuses (one fuse feeds into the second fuse).  I found using a combination of 1 Furutech + 1 Isoclean made the amp sound absolutely amazing.  However, 2 Furutech or 2 Isoclean made it slant too far in those opposite directions. 

If you have a Class A preamp going into a Class A amplifier (or a very warm equipment like Marantz), then all rhodium can be a good thing.

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,903 posts
 
@auxinput, I'm not looking forward to the ups and downs to come so I'll continue to put some CDs on repeat overnight to speed things up. I'm so impatient having to wait to try the PADIS in my amp.

The frustration one goes through when everything "sounds right now"to "what the heck happened" can be off putting but to anyone who tries these fuses, they're worth it. It's really no worse than cables or DACs.

After hearing of your plight, I'm glad I only have one fuse in my integrated. I don't know if I have the patience to experiment to the extent you have but in the end, it's worth it.

All the best,
Nonoise
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