fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

"Engineers and Technicians have spent years catching up to good eared persons and it is NOT clear that they HAVE indeed caught up. The Best designers /executers do have good ears and distinct taste in voicing equipment." I do find myself agreeing with this to some (a great) extent, but I also wonder if it possible to design a great piece of gear without being also being a really good engineer grounded in a scientific approach to development, especially new design approaches not from the DIY cookbook. I respect listening and voicing as part of good design, especially if I like the designers sonic goals. But if 10 out of 10 engineers said that it is "technically" impossbile for something to have a sonic impact, would you still beleive. Under those cirumstances I would take pause about what I "think" I'm hearing. I find it strange that I'm leaning towards the scientific view of this since I am far from being technical or scientific. As much as I respect the art of audio design, and I do, I think that at he end of the day it is generally all grounded in good engineering principles. Of course, I have no idea of fuses making a difference in sound is or isn't grounded in sound engineering.

Please keep us posted, Albertporter, about the differences you hear.

Pubul57

Of course, I have no idea of fuses making a difference in sound is or isn't grounded in sound engineering.

There is no free ride, a fuse represents a bottle neck in the otherwise fairly substantial network of electron flow that's necessary for the circuit to work.

Replacing the fuse with a solid piece of copper would be best, but I doubt your insurance provider would pay when you burned down the house.

Bottom line, if you can improve the "weakest link" by even a tiny amount, it can make a nice difference. The stock fuses work fine, provide equal protection as the expensive ones and are easy obtainable as well as being cheap.

Whatever the construction of ANY fuse, it contributes ever so slightly to the end sound. In some components and some systems the change will be small or inaudible. In other systems it can be enough that the end result is a very nice upgrade.

No, it's not like swapping speakers or even speaker cables. Even small improvements are hard won when a system has evolved over a long period of time, to the point that tiny tweaks become important to end result.

I'm making these statements based on experiences with Isoclean fuses, which I like very much. From what I've read, the Hi Fi Tuning Fuses should contribute equally to end results.

Jdec, I read your comments too. If this thread is still alive and kicking, I'll post results after I try them.

I guess that is one reason Ken Stevens designs the CAT amps with no fuses for the tubes. I can't argue with his results sonically, but if a tube blows it helps to know how to replace some resistors.

Ken Stevens is a quality and resolution freak, and his CAT gear proves he knows what he's doing.

I've owned amps that had only resistors and breakers (no fuses) but no way to compare to identical design with and without.

I've done my share of flipping over big amps and soldering resistors after a tube went bad, probably a better design than fuses but with my VTL's, there is no choice but replace fuses and I love the way they work with my speakers :^).