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Higher amperage fuse for sound quality

I apologize if this question is either (1) ridiculously stupid or (2) already been beaten to death. And I'm definitely not looking to re-litigate whether aftermarket fuses are anything other than b.s.

I've read that people sometimes choose higher amperage fuses. This is because aftermarket fuses are supposedly built to tighter specs and therefore prone to blowing. Supposedly SR is noted for this.

Recently I was looking into some SR fuses and the dealer told me that higher amperage was also better for sonics. I'd never heard that before.

 

So last night I was looking through my stuff and discovered an unused 3.15a fuse. (I used HiFi Tuning throughout.) I decided to try it in my transport which takes a 1.6a. Everything is plugged into a Shunyata and there were no signs of t-storms so I figured I was safe for an hour or so.

It made the single biggest difference of any "tweak" I've tried. For one, the bass went significantly much deeper, became more authoritative, more controlled, more precise. The treble lost whatever edge it had and became golden and bell-like. Aside from those things, the music generally became more musical, which is difficult to explain. The music "might" have lost a tad of nuance and subtlety but I'm not sure. It's a small exaggeration to say that it sounded like a different amp. 

Being risk averse, I switched the fuse back, but I'm still so surprised. Has anyone had a similar experience? 

rfprice
mrskeptic
262 posts
 

You've never heard that before because it's patently ridiculous. As others have said, it's not good to put in a higher amp fuse than what the manufacturer specifies. Would you put in a higher amp circuit breaker for your oven so it could reach a higher temperature despite having the same wiring and insulation in the appliance?

pingstonsmile
43 posts
 

Yes, but he is asking WHY it sounds better not how to cook a pizza faster. A little different I think. One is for fire protection (the stove).  The other is for equipment protection. There are No fuses on my TV. I have a reset button on my table saw and the garbage disposal. That's so I don't burn the motor up if something gets stuck. There is not much of a chance of a fire though. Why is there a fuse in them to begin with? Not required by law is it? Equipment protection is for stereo equipment. Maybe something left over from using valves..

Rolling ON with a Variac helps a lot with my old tube amps. They never pop fuses. You flip a switch they will. They sound bad when you start them like that too IF you don't blow a fuse first. Citations and Marantz both sound better with a soft start..

1971gto455ho's avatar
1971gto455ho
477 posts
 

Try pulling the fuse out sticking solid wire stock in its place, Bingo same sound ? Then try different copper, steel, silver, same sound ? Make sure the right spec fuse is then installed to do all that a fuse is designed to do and that is to protect from an overload !! The rest is just plain BS.

artemus_5's avatar
artemus_5
1,926 posts
 

I can understand that an improvement may be made. But isn’t it akin to running nitrous in your car? Yes, that car will run much faster with the nitrous. You may only get it to run for few thousand miles before a rebuild, but you can have fun until then. But you will have to pay a good sum for the fun you had.

If you have the money to spend, then fine. It's your toy. But warranty is  void because it is abuse. Unfortunately some abuse and damage their equipment and then sell it on A'gon to others as gently used 

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

The fuse is there to protect your equipment and its amperage is determined by the manufacturer from his knowledge of the equipment.

Don't mess with it.

There are some people here who in the past have advocated replacing the fuse with a solid metal bar.  I hope we all know not to go there.

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