My original question should have been more focused perhaps: "Can anyone in this esteemed forum share experiences - good or bad - with so-called audiophile fuses?" Formulating my question in this way should exclude theorizing on either side of the opinion-spectrum, namely dogma without supporting or damaging evidence. And to satisfy this demand, we do not even have to resort to Einstein or Maxwell, or Lord Kelvin with his infamous statement about human flight. No, we just have to sit down and listen: do we enjoy what we hear? Do we enjoy it more after exchanging one fuse for another? Do we perhaps hear new things in a familiar recording? It's really simple, actually, and quite down-to-earth. But it requires ear-wax removal - in the literal and metaphorical sense - to lead to accurate and valid and reproducible results. That's the only information I was after when posting my original question. Only AFTER we have the data from these experiences - hopefully with more users having similar experiences (moving towards statistical relevance here), should we begin to make sense of our observations, and perhaps even formulate a new hypothesis trying to explain what we observed that cannot be accurately explained by existing theories. That's how science works, not the other way around.
Why didn't you say so?
If you're looking for a survey regarding whether others have found them efficacious: I'm certainly not alone in my experience and enjoyment of improved fuse technology.
It's only logical; if audiophile fuses didn't serve to improve the presentation of more than just a few folks' systems, there would be no supply and/or demand, AT ALL.
Personally: my experience began with the Hi-Fi tuning Gold, which was the least expensive and easiest to obtain, installed in the Mains and B+ protection of my Cary tubed monoblocks. The improvement was obvious, with a marked difference in what I term "organics" (more real/less electronic, across the board).
Next were their Supreme fuses, with which I found even more openness, naturalness and texture of presentation.
Those last were experimented with, next to a pair of Synergistic Research SR20 fuses, only in the amps' B+, which I thought imparted an unnatural effect on my system's high freqs. Back to the Supremes and relaxation.
Last time a power tube went South and took out a B+ fuse, rather than wait to enjoy my sounds: I reinstalled an SR20 in that amp and found it to excel in presentation, over the other (RT to LT). However: by then my main speakers had morphed from Magnepans to a pair with coincident horn tweeters. A happy combination/variable. In went the other SR20 and: they've remained
I've always simply been certain to install all fuses in the same direction (according to labeling). So: never having experimented with swapping them, I have no experience to discuss.
I do have science to explain WHY such MAY make an audible difference, which will follow.
Were I not familiar with the theories, hypotheses and experimentation, that's gone on for so many decades before and since my years of higher education; I might never have tried a more expensive fuse.
That's just my experience with the fuses in my Main amp. There's been much more, in every other of the system's components, which have all had power supply modifications/upgrades (ie: faster/quieter rectifiers, capacitors, etc), before and after fuse swaps.
It's been my experience, the better the rest of the power supply: the more obvious the fuse's contribution to sound.
