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Hi-Fi Fuses - SNAKE OIL? - or something in it?

There's a lot of chatter about the benefits of those high prices gold plated fuses with silver conductor etc. etc. all over the web and the consensus ranges from FANTASTIC!!! to much more subtle observations.

It makes sense to me, epseically in light of spending lots of $$$ on good power cables, that having a skinny piece of aluminum conductor in a glass tube (i.e. a cheap fuse), in the power loop would be detrimental to the performance of the components.

I decided to revamp my DIY power supply I'd built for the Cambridge Audio 640p phono stage and DACmagic in order to test this out - and since it's a DIY project there is no UL Certification to void.

First, I bypassed the fuse link completely to confirm there would be an improvement and give me the best benchmark to compare against - YEP - BIG DIFFERENCE - much more this, that and the other :-)

So then I started looking for hi-fi fuses - WOW!!! - talk about pricey.

Two fuses for the power supply was going to cost $120+ AND I thought I'd probably have to buy a better quality fuse block to make the most of those fuses.

Then a moment of enlightenment - most power supplies and conditioners are protected by pushbutton breakers and not fuses.

I found breakers of the required current rating and installed them into the power supply. I imediately noticed that there was no deteriation in fidelity when compared to the same unit with the fuse link bypassed - GREAT!.

On reflection, the fuses I had in place were rated at 3 amps - so they use a pretty thin fuse wire in them. If I had used a fuse of a higher rating, i.e. it uses a thicker conductor, then I believe that there would be less of a difference between the fused and bypassed implementations

SO - do the expensive fuses work?

Well the empirical evidence out there would suggest they do
- I do know the cheap fuses are not good!

I know bypassing them does improve the sound - a lot in my case
- BUT THAT'S NOT SAFE FOR ONGOING USE

I know breakers work as good as bypassing the fuse
- BUT MESSING WITH A POWER SUPPLY VOIDS UL CERTIFICATION - NOT GOOD!
- FYI a couple of licensed technicians I know WILL NOT change the design of a power supply at all.

I believe the amount of benefit is related to the fuse rating
- but don't go replacing 3 amp fuses with a 20 amp fuse - that's not safe either.

Whilst looking for fuses I discovered AMR Gold fuses priced at $20/fuse.

Now that's definately more affordable than most others at 3-4 times their price.

One supplier I know of in the US is Avatar Aacoustics

If you have had experience with quality fuses please share - especially if they are "modestly priced" i.e. $20-$30 per fuse. And please provide a source :-)

Also, can anypne confirm that Slow blow fuses are better than regular?

And Remember - IF YOU AIN'T LICENCED - GET A TECHNICIAN!

Many Thanks
williewonka
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,198 posts
 
"When does it ever stop?"

An appropriate albeit rhetorical question.
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Since I'm not interested in Fatherhood, I'm thinking of having my testicles replaced with Brilliant Pebbles... the Large ones!
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Geoffkait, your question is an excellent one and I have asked myself this question many times. Apparently, my answer is as follows:

When I can close my eyes and believe I'm sitting row 8 center Severance Hall, it will stop. When I run out of money or go deaf, it will stop. When I lose my love for music, it will stop. Until then, I will keep running prudent experiments to try to get just a little closer to Severance Hall from my living room.

I have found that spending a reasonable amount of money in order to test the validity of my own preconceived notions has afforded some rather nice, and in some cases substantial, gains. Electrical engineering is not an area where metaphysical arguments should have a place. Unfortunately, there are things going on with this whole business of supplying AC and turning it into music that are beyond my understanding, though I am a pretty bright guy. There are things that the human ear can hear that can't be correlated with things that I can measure.

I am a scientist by training, but I have found that there are times when a deliberate exercise in anti-rationalism can be the fastest way "out of the box." This is not the same as a headlong plunge into irrational spending.

On the other hand, we need to be realistic. If a manufacturer, say, Cary, Pass, CJ, whoever-- could turn a $5000 amp into a $15000 amp using $300 worth of tweaks, I'm just guessing they would do so. Some of this tweaking and spending is just part of the fun(or frustration) of this hobby. It's unfortunate when people allow their natural skepticism to turn into vicious attacks or rude affronts of other's intelligence or integrity. A bit too much of that here and in Audio Asylum lately for my taste.
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
Brownsfan brings up an interesting point. Tweaking, or refining maybe does more to dial in a particular system in it's own setting than offer a generalized improvement across the board for everyone. That's probably why we see different responses from people for a given tweak. Wires are still pretty much a mystery for me but other tweaks related to vibration control I can pretty much wrap my head around- that goes for electronic components too like capacitors, resistors and switches. I guess it comes down to capacitance and micro resistance of wires. Different variations are needed to best suit a particular system. In the end, we become very intiment with our gear and grow sensitve to the slightest changes. The one tweak that I still marvel at: Using a bulk tape eraser on my CDs. It makes a difference but I have no idea how or why. Sure, it probably removes static charge or something; but why would that affect a laser?
rodman99999
6,131 posts
 
Mr Mental- My entire system(CDP, phono stage, preamp, monoblock mains, woofer amp) takes 12 fuses. That's only $720.00(minus the 12% Frequent Flyer Discount I get from The Cable Company). Less than I paid for my last power cord, less than a third the cost of my last interconnect and the expense was spread out over 12 months(did everything a stage at a time and analyzed the differences). I hardly consider that expensive, when weighed against the improvements to the system's presentation. Every piece of gear that I own, is heavily modded and the simple/easy tweak of these fuses, is icing on the(overall) cake. Why would I by spares, when I haven't blown a fuse in years, can get a replacement in two days and listen with a stocker while waiting? Happy listening!
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