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So done with audiophile fuses

The journey started with a medium priced ($50) fuse in my power supply.  A failed rectifier tube blew that one out.  Not a fuse problem.  Next up was a blue fuse in my pre amp.  It blew and was not caused by a pre amp problem.  Apparently they sometimes are more sensitive and it was replaced by an orange fuse two values higher.  Things were going along fine.  I replaced the pre amp with a newer version of the pre amp and it has the same fuse value.  Five months latter (today) I turn on the pre amp and nothing.  it's a five month old pre amp so I suspected that it was the fuse.  Sure enough, I replaced it with a ceramic Littelfuse of the lower correct value it works fine.  No more wasting my money on unstable fuses for me.     
goose
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,926 posts
 
Does saying they weren't necessarily provide an escape of sorts from the fact that some of them most likely were? Would you have anyone other than an engineer swapping parts to get to a particular sound? They were voicing the unit when the fuse broke. I thought that engineers did that sort of work.

That, and they heard enough of a difference that they wanted to know what the repair guys did to the unit to make it sound so different compared to what they were working on. A fuse, according to the manual, is just there as a safety device and shouldn't have any effect on the sound. And yet it did.

All the best,
Nonoise
mitch2
4,084 posts
 
A fuse, according to the manual, is just there as a safety device and shouldn't have any effect on the sound. And yet it did.
That, of course, is the perplexing part.  While I don't Know and won’t say that fuses have no effect whatsoever on the sound of a system, I still can’t buy that the magnitude of the effect (or improvement, or whatever) would be great enough to make me want to spend big money on a fuse.
prof
3,479 posts
 

Congratulations!
One more high end monkey off the back ;-)
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,926 posts
 
That, of course, is the perplexing part.  While I don't Know and won’t say that fuses have no effect whatsoever on the sound of a system, I still can’t buy that the magnitude of the effect (or improvement, or whatever) would be great enough to make me want to spend big money on a fuse.
The great part of it is that you needn't spend anywhere near the cost of a SR fuse or something even more dear in price. There are still some HiFi Tuning Silver Star fuses to be had (in dwindling numbers) for a fraction of what they initially went for. Maybe one of a value you need is still available.

I've personally tried about 4 different brands and they all had a distinct sound characteristic and didn't cost that much to experiment with. I'm of the opinion that a fuse made up of metals that are on par with what you'd use in a cable are the way to go and to stop using the cheap, low cost fuses made out of a witches brew of poorly conductive metals.

All the best,
Nonoise


georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
low cost fuses made out of a witches brew of poorly conductive metals.

This is just something someone would say that has absolutely no idea.

You need to be schooled in Ohm’s law/s, Kirchoff’s laws etc etc
They have to have a certain level of resistance, (as you say "poor conductively"), to blow at a certain amperage drawn through them. If they didn’t they would never blow!!!

I’m of the opinion that a fuse made up of metals that are on par with what you’d use in a cable are the way to go
🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ OMG!! fuse has to have resistance to blow.

I’ve personally tried about 4 different brands and they all had a distinct sound
Just more fuser snake oil voodoo talk from someone who’s out there in fairy land.
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