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
Of course one has to decide on whatever choices one makes.
You decide whether anything is worth trying,and hopefully you try before you buy.

But if you've already made up your mind and refuse to try something just because you know there can be no difference,that doesn't prove anything to you or anyonelse if there is a difference or not.

It's just an opinion based on the opinions of others with the same mindset as yours.

So who is following the Pied Piper?

We are all followers,if indeed we are in this hobby for anything more than to kick back and enjoy the tunes.

Which I feel is the more recent take on this hobby.

It wasn't this way when I started out, and old habits are hard to change.
Those habits ,like critically evaluating one component to the next(without measurements or DBLT)were all I had back then as now.

I am quite certain that a chunk of wire compared to a stock fuse will pass a square wave,as will an esoteric fuse.
But can those measurements show the differences between each?

If the square wave for the solid chunk of wire is better than for the others, and I find that it also sounds better, then my ears must be good measuring devices.
If there is no measurable differences between any of them, and I hear differences,am I better than the machine?

There's so much more to this than just assembling a system according to how well they spec out.

Simple things like a fuse,do have an effect,I've heard it, and way before there were esoteric fuses, I bypassed the stock ones, not because they measured better,but just because it sounded better.

Had I not done so,I would have never guessed that it would.
If I had a measuring device and it measured the same as the fuse then I would have stayed with the fuse and the protection it provided.

One doesn't have to listen to everything,most of the time substitutes to the esoteric stuff are right at your fingertips.

You don't have to spend a penny.

You have a choice to just listen to the tunes as they are and not try anything to improve the sound.

Or you can try and improve that sound.
You have the choice.

But the more times you decide to try something,and it works, the more you are prone to try other things.
If you are not prone to experimenting with the simple things, and instead feel that it makes more sense to buy something new than improve what you have, then you will always follow that path.

I wonder about the negative comments some have made when a tweak doesn't meet their expectataions.
Were those expectations too high in the first place?
Were they expecting to transform a sows ear into a silk purse?
Was there something in their system that wasn't functioning properly that was obscurring any differences,a blockage of somesort? A lack of attention to some small trivial detail,something that shouldn't make a difference?
It's all about the details and small stuff, because when you add them all up,they do make a difference to the end sound.

One thing that is indisputable is that in my experience, everytime I improved my sound, my enjoyment of the music was increased.

And as far as I know,there isn't a device that can measure how much more I am enjoying it.
Lacee,

Determining the happy path to enjoying the music is what its all about.

No two are likely to be quite the same.

Some might involve fuses. But many may not.

I've agreed on several occasions that no two anything sound exactly the same and acknowledged that a fuse change could make a difference.

But I am not going to insist that it always will, even if were to try one and find that to be the case.

There are many other things I know will have a big effect that I would likley consider first. But that's just my case.

ALways best to keep an open mind...
The next thing you know, there will be discussion of on which day of the week or hour of the day provides the best electrons & if they sounded great today, can you have the same ones back for tomorrow. Or maybe someone will start selling canned electrons like the canned air in the movie Spaceballs.
Blowing both "upgraded"fuses sets off some red flags for me.
First,were they the correct ratings for your amp?
Sounds silly, but I confess to mixing up the spots where the 5 amp fuse was with the .5 fuse.Of course the .5 amp fuses blew.

That's been the only time I've ever had a fuse, upgraded or stock ever blow in over 35 years of using them in hifi and as a professional musician.

For you to have two "upgraded'fuses blow can't be just random bad luck.

Something is wrong somewhere.
If they were upgraded fuses, send them back for a refund or replacement,it's worth a try, but again two malfunctioning fuses may pose a problem.

I would appreciate, as others,what was the manufacturer of the "upgraded"fuses?

Since you haven't had any of the stock fuses blow, that suggests the fuses were not up to spec.
GVasale,have you never read about how the sound is so much better in the wee hours of the morning when there is less demand on the grid?

If not, then here is a very simple and cost free experiment for you to try.

If you are allowed,stay up and listen around 2 AM to your music.

You may not hear any difference, some folks don't due to a number or reasons like bad hearing, low resoulution systems,inability to discerne differences at any time of the day with anything "new" introduced into the system, or you don't trust your ears.

On the other hand if the system sounds fuller, you feel less stressed and the music is more smooth,you may then discover that the power that drives your system does influence how it sounds.

And from this you might even conclude that anything, even a simple fuse,that is in the signal path can also have an effect on your sound.

The next step if you hear the system sound better late at nite is to try an upgraded or treated stock fuse late at nite and listen if it makes more of an improvement.
If so, then it will be doing it's job during the normal times you listen,but may not be as audible.

I have never stated that an upgraded fuse is 100% guaranteed to improve everything it's plugged into.

I can only state that it's never failed the test for me.

Why some folks are so reluctant to try is beyond my comprehension,some fuses offer money back trials, so there's nothing to lose.
Or lend them to another audio friend who has the same voltage requirements, let him have a listen and evaluate them.

It would be nice to pass some of these fuses around,but they are fragile, and if someone got one that was damaged in use or transit and it took something out, that wouldn't do anyone any good.
So let's not go there.

There was a time on another forum when these fuses first came out that I offered to buy and send an IsoClean free of charge to a sceptic and post his truthful findings.

He declined the offer.