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The secret to a great amplifier...

Is a $150 Orange fuse from Synergistic Research. Seriously, extreme boost in sonic performance. Blacker background, larger soundstage... if I wanted to make some bucks, I’d put these is cheap OEM compnents and start letting the accolades and purchasers come calling.

Mind you, I have a high value-oriented $20k system, so it was nice before, but damn!
redwoodaudio
redwoodaudio OP
414 posts
 
another gem from prior thread:


auxinput2,235 posts09-09-2017 11:54am

Wow, this thread went to a black hole in a hurry!

Several things we need to be aware of:

- If you have looked inside a fuse (like the glass fuses), you will see a VERY thin wire. Say a 1 amp fuse. The internal wire is extremely small, something like 26awg or 28awg (not entirely sure). If this is for a preamp, would you ever put on a power cable smaller than 18awg? (that’s stock, and I don’t think they make them smaller). No, you would upgrade to something like 14awg or even 12awg -- so that there is less current restriction. All A/C has to go through this tiny wire, even if it’s less than 1" long.

- The wire in the fuse has electrical resonance as well. Different upgraded fuses will sometimes do things to combat this resonance. The same thing happens inside electrolytic capacitors (during charge/discharge). The material/filler used in capacitors has a definite affect on electrical resonance and sound quality. Poor resistance to electrical resonance in caps will result is harsh sound that lacks solidness.

- People who say that the fuse and power cords are not in the signal path are not entirely correct. The actual waveform signal that starts at the source is never the actual signal that makes it to the amp. For anyone who doesn’t realize this, the basic idea of a transistor or op amp circuit is to "regenerate" the incoming signal. It never truly "passes through". There is always a resistor that the signal passes through and then a opamp/transistor gain circuit. Well, the gain circuit uses voltage/current from the A/C power supply to re-create or "add to" the output voltage for the signal. The power cord and fuse has a definite impact to the quality of this power supply voltage/current.

- Since A/C power is used to create/add-to this signal, the type of power cord or fuse will definitely affect the "flavor" of the sound. Just like comparing gold-plated connector to rhodium plated. Comparing silver wire to copper wire, etc.

- There are things that our ears are hearing which we cannot measure for at our current level of technology. Granted, electrical engineers will "nay say" this, but ask yourself this: What can we measure today that we couldn’t measure 10 years ago? 20 years? 35 years? (when they were making tube based electronics).
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Granted electrical engineers would not "nay say" this in the same way they don’t nay say when someone claims that unicorns and fairies exist. They just look at them, sort of shake their head and move on.  To those that ask, though, they may be willing to describe the actual circuitry in a power supply and why that little fuse has far less impact than you think it does.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,883 posts
 
Unicorns and fairies.....what a pertinent analogy, and typical of a naysayer.

These same engineers say that the fuse cannot impact the sound but that correct orientation of the fuse in the holder can affect the sound. Well, which is it? If all it is is a sacrificial device and it's placement in the design of the amp doesn't matter, why does the fuse holder not having that exact grip on the fuse matter? How can a speck or mote of anything on the fuse end cap make a difference if for the same reasons a fuse can't?

I would contend that a fuse made of highly conductive metals, on the order of what you'd find in a cable or trace, would have more effect than the god awful, non conductive metals used in a bog standard fuse, and that that would account for a greater difference in what possibly couldn't affect the sound whereas that speck or mote of dust would. 

Why does using a solid bar of copper result in better sound? Don't do it, but many have tried it and reported back about it for decades. Why do amp designers go to all the trouble of designing a great sounding amp, only to have to add the fuse element afterwards, as an after thought, and find the amp to not sound as good as before?

With all those E.E. degrees comes a lot of conventional wisdom about the role of the fuse, but not the possibility of it's contribution to the sound, since it's role is that of a sacrificial one. To do so in such a blithely ignorant manner without trying it for oneself, to see if a difference can be heard, is an insult to the first and greatest scientific method: direct observation.

All the best,
Nonoise
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Right. The signal path is not what we think it is. If it was then power conditioners, and even power supplies, would not matter. Heck even speaker cabinets would be irrelevant. Hard to get more outside the signal path than a speaker cabinet. Then again, maybe not. The room is even further outside the signal path. Yet there are people who say the room is the most important component.

One thing we can say for sure, anyone who says a fuse can’t matter because its outside the signal path, or whatever, when all these other things do, well they have at the very least not given the subject much thought.
tubebuffer
417 posts
 
Redwood, I like your original idea to make money on these.  I may buy 10000 and market them and resell them for more.  Would you like to go in on the business early before it take off?
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