What is the science behind audiophile fuses?

Of course, an audiophile fuse is not just a "straight wire." It's a straight wire within a sheath. I have to wonder if it is that interaction - wire in a very unusual sheath - that is involved in the sound results. Just for starters the fuse wire, which is very close to the component power plug junction, is probably being shielded from EMR effects.

@carlsbad2 - I can’t for two reasons.

First, the manufacturer and model are being held close to the vest by SMc. They apparently tried more than a few before finding the one they believed sounded best with their equipment.

Second, in addition to their request for confidentiality, there are no manufacturer’s markings of any kind on the two breakers they sent to me. There is a T10A sticker that appears to be something the SMc folks use to label their stock and a "QC passed" sticker and that is it.

What I can show you is that the breakers look very similar to this, but they were much more expensive to me than the Amazon price indicated in the link. I had to give the installation some thought before deciding how to configure them, and I am now very close to doing the work (hopefully this weekend).

@mitch2 I totally respect the value of intellectual property. that is why I asked it how I did. I didn’t realize you are working with SMc.

It is tempting to buy one of the amazon breakers and take it apart. but if inside I find a thermal overload (which I have found in most of the breakers I’ve disassembled), we won’t really know if it is the same breaker you have.

I toyed with installation of that style breaker designed to fit into a rack designed to accomodat it and it isn't easy to do it without quite a bit of construction.  Easy to hook up but you need to cover all conductors for safety.  

Best of luck,

Jerry

I hear you on trying to figure out what works. I am wiring them to the hot wire of the incoming 20A line with the two separate load side wires going one to each half of a duplex, that I will separate by cutting the tab between the two hot sides. The neutral and ground should be fine as-is since this is basically the same as wiring a switch.

If I decide to do something for the remainder of my gear, I will likely try the SDFB, and especially if I end up going the Grimm MU2 route since that will take the place of three different components for me and only require one SDFB. However, I am struggling to get around Grimm’s omission of a remote volume control and the inability of at least one reviewer to read the numerical volume level from their listening chair. I am far from lazy but not making it easy to change volume and read it while seated seems a huge oversight on an $18K component that is expected to serve as a preamp, unless there is an easy app intended for that purpose. I need to dig deeper.

@mitch2 

I think the Grimm has an IR sensor so one could use a programmable remote. Alternatively you could control volume via roon if you use that.