Al, cogent thoughts, as usual, and with cordiality. I wish all discussion on Agon was like this.
My statement was intentionally hyperbolic. However, I do not believe - at least I have never encountered in 12 years of reviewing dozens of components of a wide variey, and building literally hundreds of systems - there exists any HiFi component which is absolutely insensitive to cabling. I suspect the same is true of fuses. I have no reason to doubt it, and hopefully with time I will have a tremendous amount of experience to either correct or affirm my guess.
My point is that if sensitivity to external hardware was so low, the component would be awful. My evidence is the dozens of components which vary in sensitivity to external gear, as you have explained, yet every single one is easily influenced by cabling.
I really need to get some more fuses and push this through. I'm smart enough to know that if one or two more fuses produce a mediocre to nil effect, I'm wrong and they are a complete crap shoot. I'm also smart enough to know that if four or five unique, random systems with aftermarket fuses produce efficacious results, then the odds diminish rapidly that aftermarket fuse benefit is system dependent.
My statement was intentionally hyperbolic. However, I do not believe - at least I have never encountered in 12 years of reviewing dozens of components of a wide variey, and building literally hundreds of systems - there exists any HiFi component which is absolutely insensitive to cabling. I suspect the same is true of fuses. I have no reason to doubt it, and hopefully with time I will have a tremendous amount of experience to either correct or affirm my guess.
My point is that if sensitivity to external hardware was so low, the component would be awful. My evidence is the dozens of components which vary in sensitivity to external gear, as you have explained, yet every single one is easily influenced by cabling.
I really need to get some more fuses and push this through. I'm smart enough to know that if one or two more fuses produce a mediocre to nil effect, I'm wrong and they are a complete crap shoot. I'm also smart enough to know that if four or five unique, random systems with aftermarket fuses produce efficacious results, then the odds diminish rapidly that aftermarket fuse benefit is system dependent.