Someone please explain to me...


A lot of back and forth in the threads about fuses and how they stifle current, degrade the sound, etc. Get rid of the fuses, get rid of the bottle neck and get better sound. Simple and logical. A lot of talk about products that do just that where internal fuses are replaced by slugs and your gear is protected by a special external breaker such as the Swiss Digital Fuse Box (no idea what makes it Swiss), in wall breaker, etc. Question: If you have a dedicated line running to your gear and you decide to take out the internal fuses, put in slugs and incorporate one of these devices, how does that external protective device outside the circuit prevent something from going wrong inside the circuit? I understand it will cut off the flow of electricity when something goes wrong, but how does that prevent the internal damage that caused the breaker to trip in the first place as an internal fuse might? Also to my main question: What do these devices do that the circuit breaker at your panel doesn't? Seems to me they all do the exact same thing. It can't be proximity, electricity moves at worst half the speed of light. Please explain what I'm missing...

128x128thecarpathian

The circuit breaker in your panel is designed to protect the wire in your wall, not the components plugged into it. If your wire is sized for 20 amps, your breaker will be 20 amps. The breaker will trip before the wire heats up from overcurrent and starts a fire.

Your amp is a much smaller load, perhaps 1 amp. So the OEM will size the fuse at perhaps 3 amps. (these are just typical numbers, your current and fuse may be different). This fuse is to protect equipment, not to prevent a fire in your wall.

So if you want your amp to be protected against an overcurrent transient--say a tube develops a short, you have a fuse. you hope that your fuse or breaker will blow before it takes out, let’s say, a transformer (it usually won’t). So the 3 amp fuse will blow long before the 20 amp circuit breaker trips. I put a wrong tube in an amp once and it was shorted across 2 pins that shouldn’t have been. a resistor acted as a fuse but nothing else blew.

So how can you move the protective device from the fuse holder at the back of the amp to the SDFB, 2 feet away? The answer is that electrically, these two locations are the same. the fuse will blow or the SDFB will trip providing the same level of protection.

Jerry

Ah, so they’re designed to trip at a much lower amperage and will trip well before your breaker box breaker will. Didn't think of that. Makes perfect sense, thank you, Jerry!