McIntosh fuse changeout to make better sound

No sorry you seem to not understand, that a piece of ac fuse wire 1/2 long has no bearing on the sound, as it’s in series with the ac line house wiring along with power points and fuses or circuit breakers in the fuse box as well.

As stated the only time a ac fuse is in question is when it’s seen too many audio equipment turn-on cycles and ends  up sagging, carbonizing/crystalizing or electrolysis and looking like this, and the same will go for your expensive boutique fuses. This "can" lead to a "diode effect" between dirty/corroded fuse holder contacts or in the end cap of the fuse itself because of dissimilar metals.

So to the gullible just do this and save money for better equipment instead.

Just change the fuse if old for a quality brand EE industry standard 50c fuse, as fuses (even the snake oil ones) do age after many turn on cycle surges.

Quick blow fuses aging            and                 slow blow fuses aging left to right.
https://ibb.co/0ZtRv4J                               https://ibb.co/mbzs3RK

Cheers George

It's essentially a myth. But a placebo is not a drug and yet typically has between 20-30% efficacy in many double blind tests. Put simply, when you make a change in your system and then listen for changes there may or may not be actual change, but your perceptions may tell you otherwise-- or nothing.

When I make a system change, like a new cable, I pay little attention to my own initial reaction to whatever I think I'm hearing and commit to live with it for a while. If I perceive a persistent and consistent improvement over time I assume there has been an actual change-- something added, or subtracted, something different but better.

I do not believe for a second that swapping out a fuse and then hearing an immediate and not at all subtle improvement in your system comes from the fuse-- it comes from you. The exception might be that when the swapping was done a dirty connection was cleaned by the action of making the change.

So has anything really changed? If you believe you can hear it, then something has changed-- but most likely that 'something' is you.

Reading this to get some idea if fuses make a difference?

An idea to ignore George and his ilk.
He doesn't believe it does (nor do they).
And will say it 100 times.

I've tried a few iterations of fuses.
All to good effect.

I do not hear differences in fuses. With that being said, if fuses make such a BIG difference, why don’t the really high end manufacturers use them as standard in their equipment?  So, you spent $150.00 or more on a fuse, of course you think it sounds better.  After all, you do need justification for the money you just laid out.  For myself, I will take that $150.00 and buy more music, at least I know I got something for the money.  If PT Barnum was alive now, he would be loving the boutique fuse purchasers.