The funny thing is nonoise, not one of "strong" advocates of boutique fuses can offer any solid explanation of why a fuse could be better or worse. I mean like literally, I don’t think I have seen any of these so called experts make a claim for it ... (well other than a misunderstanding of how electricity works leading to an erroneous conclusion ... ).
You will probably find the people who are not advocates of boutiques fuses can better articulate how they could make a difference:
- They could have a better surface treatment that offers a better low resistance bond to the fuse holder, and one could claim reduce modulation of the contact resistance from vibration
- They could be lower resistance: Which may make your power amp sound better, but then again it could, likely even would, make your pre-amp and digital player sound worse.
- It could have less thermal modulation (you can actually measure distortion due to thermal modulation of a fuse when pushed hard, about 0.001% - going off memory for speakers. In a power line it would be much less).
- It could have more or less inductance
- If placed over sensitive circuits, it could have more or less shielding and less capacitive coupling into that sensitive circuit
- Installed in one direction, and not the other, it could have a better mechanical/electrical coupling.
- Due to the way the holder is implemented in the equipment, coupled with defects and/or mounting variations of the fuse element in the fuse, the effects of thermal modulation could vary more with the fuse mounted one direction than the other.
And yes, simply taking the fuse in and out would be like sweeping contacts on a switch or plug and can lower resistance, but that could have been done with the low cost OEM switch.
I have seen some pretty crazy explanations for fuses and fuse directionality here and on other forums .... rarely (almost never) real world engineering reasons and never with the effect quantified. All the things I described above are relatively easy to measure and their contribution to the electrical signal determined.
People skilled in the art and honest don't refute that a fuse and its holder is part of either a AC power supply path and/or signal path (speakers). What they are skeptical about, and rightly so, is whether, you have to admit, the significant benefits attributed to boutique fuses is warranted given the difference in the electrical/thermal performance parameters possible between basic fuses and boutique fuses. I have seen articles where people have measured parameters for boutique fuses (well reviewed) and while better than your basic $0.10 OEM fast blow fuse, it was no better than the other $2.00 fuses they tested.
What also creates skepticism is the claim that they are "always" better and while admittedly a lot of amateur and professional reviewers do not make that claim, most do, and with claims of huge performance improvements in all equipment, high and low powered. That simply does not cut the mustard based on how these equipment are designed.
ME
Report thisnonoise5,037 posts10-23-2019 2:11pmIf one were to go through all these fuse threads, they’d espy a glaringly overlooked matter. The naysayers say a fuse has no effect on the sound of an amp and that it’s just there for safety reasons.
They also say that the sound differences heard can be attributed to some microscopic piece of dirt and that simply removing and reinserting the fuse will result in different surface contact and that that is the reason an amp will sound different.
Full stop.
If the fuse is sacrificial and has no impact whatsoever on the sound of an amp, how can a piece of dirt or different surface contact result in a change of sound?
All the best,
Nonoise
