We Need A Separate Forum for Fuses

Just to mention the AC fuse in some units, such as my former all tube Woo Audio headphone amp, is located externally where the power cord enters the component. Ditto speaker fuses in my Fultons, external. In my previous player, the world’s most thoroughly modded Oppo 102, I bipassed the fuse with a pure copper slug, figuring what the hell, I’ve already broken any warrantee I might have had. 😛

I am a fuse adopter, with a digital front end. After the improvement, I replaced the fuse in my integrated. (this is beginning to sound like a 12 step program).

As far as voiding a warranty, come on. I grew up in a household where most of the work was done by ourselves, from repairing cars to opening up HiFi gear and TVs and replacing fuses, tubes, dials, belts, etc. If we couldn’t get it to work, then we called on a neighbor and if that didn’t work, we called an electrician, who was the guy down the street or a friend in the business.

All the best,
Nonoise

Hi Doug, 
To your question, the stand-mounted Aerial LR5s in the first two photos are the new speakers and the floor-standing Aerial Model 9s in the later photos are my former speakers.  Unfortunately, the LR5 photos did not come out well so I plan to repost new photos soon.  

I have enjoyed Mike Kelly designs from back to his A/D/S days (I owned several of those) and was happy to own the 9s for over 10 years.  After consulting with Kelly, I have found the Model LR5s along with dual SW12 subs to be superior overall to the Model 9s.  I am not sure what intended buyer Kelly designed the LR5s for but they were used as sort of a HT speaker because of their dynamics and ability to play powerfully.  However, the crossover components and drivers are equivalent to the best used by Aerial and the boxes weigh about 105 pounds each!  Kelly believes the LR5s are about as good as it gets from 40Hz and up, with the exception of those who like ribbon tweeters (as in the 20T).  I like the wider dispersion of a dome tweeter (vs. a ribbon) and the dome used by Aerial is a good one, which is why I opted for LR5s instead of the 20Ts.

The main benefit of the LR5 over the Model 9 is bass control.  The LR5s are sealed box (i.e., acoustic suspension) speakers and the roll-off down to 40Hz is better controlled and more natural sounding to me than with ported bass reflex speakers, even good ones like the Model 9s.  The improved bass also improves the rest of the frequency range.  The dual SW12 subs can be tailored to provide just the right amount of low bass extension and slam, and they do it better than most large speakers alone by controlling the room better, not that I had a particular problem with the room.  Adding the second sub was a significant improvement over having just one.  I am considering adding a third SW12 sub on the other side of the room.

Back to the regular programming.......

Just to be clear, I'm not advocating copper slugs.  That will have to be dealt with in the COPPER SLUG AS REPLACEMENT FOR AFTERMARKET FUSES, WHICH ARE DEBATED AS EFFICACIOUS, OR AS SNAKE OIL forum.  ;)

Possible reasons changing fuses could make a difference:
- fuse socket is contaminated. Metal to metal junctions become semiconductors over time. R&Ring the fuse a couple of times can restore metal to metal contact.
- fuse element has degraded over time from ’near misses’ in thousands of heatings and coolings

IMO, the #1 reason ’fuses have sound’ is lack of rigor on the part of evaluator. There are 1001 other things that introduce ’differences’ far more audible than a couple of mΩ. See WinterBlues
Unless the DUT can be changed without the CBLF’s knowledge, AFTER a clean contact / standard fuse baseline is established, and note changes concomitant with either device when unknowingly substituted, then it’s just fantasy.