Something For The Fuse Guys ...

pragmasi ...

• "... just select the right ratings and take a few sensible precautions."

Agreed, pragmasi ... but what prompted me to ask the question was this statement you made:

• "...(other than you shouldn't expect the audio performance to change at all)"

What evidence do you have, or what experiments have you conducted, that would lead you to the conclusion that there won't be any improvement in audio performance if you haven't tried the more expensive after-market fuses? This would include fuses from HiFi Tuning, Beeswax fuses and/or Synergistic Research fuses?  

With the exception of the Beeswax fuse, I have used all of the above fuses in my system over the past few years. Every one of them has been a substantial improvement in sound quality. This includes four different incarnations of SR fuses ... The Blacks, the Reds, the Blues and now, the Orange fuses.

Going from stock fuses normally supplied by the various manufacturers to the new SR Orange fuses would make a profound improvement in performance in my opinion. And ... that opinion is not based upon any scientific acumen I may possess, as I possess very little knowledge in that area. All of my opinions have been based upon actual experience with said products.

Looking forward to your response.

Frank

I'll try and answer your questions as well as I can.

I design and build amplifiers, and although I shouldn't admit this given my previous sermon on health and safety - I have tested designs with no fuse at all during the early prototyping stages. I have a two stage approach with testing a design, the first uses lab equipment to ensure the design performs as designed and is stable in all likely scenarios. The second is extensive listening tests (I think I'm well over 200 hours on my latest design that hasn't even made itself into a proper chassis yet). 
My engineering knowledge tells me that fuses will play no discernible part in the sound of the system and my experience bears that out.

I guess an analogy is that when I play pool I never feel the need to move the beer chiller further away from the table in case it's gravity affects the balls' trajectory. If someone told me I ought to then I'd not be pressured into doing it and if they told me that they'd done it and it improved their game then I'd just move to another table and try to ignore them.

Just out of interest and I don’t know the answer to this... do any ’high-end’ manufacturers use boutique fuses in their amplifiers?..'he says failing to walk away from the table.'

Good question. No, actually they’re just like you. They’ve never heard of audiophile fuses, either.

Audio manufacturers certainly have heard about "Boutique" fuses...just ask one of them (and stand back...some of these designers get pretty testy about this subject)...pragmasi is exactly right in his sober and reality based comments, and it's easy to see that the overwhelming majority of manufacturers clearly don't care about Magic Fuses, and clearly know full well that the fancy fuse market is rife with illogical hyperbole designed to appeal to those who desperately need to be regarded as Golden Eared. Marketing something that costs peanuts to make that sells for 150 bucks is a potential goldmine...if you can fool enough of the insecure faithful to buy in.