fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

Thank you.

Kirkus...OK. I will try your kind of experiment. The easiest way to do it would be to simply "slap the mic cable around" which goes from an actual mic to my Behringer DEQ2496 spectrum analyser. The analyser is very sensitive and will show sound levels below what is audible when I play my system. I will stuff the mic under a cushon so that the slaps won't be picked up acousticly.

And about the sand, another reason is to prevent violent destruction of the fuse body if it blows. Safety issue.

Be careful, Eldartford -- feedback!! Gain's got to be pretty cranked, and the cushion as you well know is most effective at higher frequencies. Please don't blow something up trying this out . . . the terminating resistor is the best way to be safe to your gear.

Isanchez,

I am sure you heard what you heard and liked what you liked with respect to these various fuses.

1. How long did you leave the fuses in place with current across them for your evaluations? I found that the HiFi Tuning fuses took quite a while to settle down in my amp - much (many days) longer than the amp usually takes to settle down after a cold start.

2. I don't recall if you mentioned anything about directionality in your test. Did you swap directions at all with HiFi Tuning fuses to see if if made a difference?

3. It is entirely possible that the Buse fuses work better to your ears in the Maggies, but may have a completely different sonic signature in a power amplifier. Has anybody tried these fuses in a power amp and compared them to Isoclean and/or HiFi Tuning fuses? In a pre amp or digital equipment?

Knownothing,

1. I let each fuse settle in for about 3-4 days. I agree with you, it takes about 70-100 hrs for the fuses to settle in. This was more apparent with the ceramic fuses for some reason. The glass fuses seemed to settle it much quicker. The Buss fuses needed more time to settle in than the HiFi-Tuning fuses.

2. I did try the directionality of the fuse, but only with the ceramic fuses. I did this after somebody mentioned it in this post. The HiFi-Tunning fuses seem to sound better when the arrow follows the direction of the signal. In my case, this difference was very subtle, so I would say it's inconclusive for now. The Buss fuses seemed to sound better with the UL logo at the end of the signal path, but again I can't tell for sure as the difference was not so noticeable. When going from one fuse to another, the sound difference was very apparent.

3. This makes a lot of sense to me since the circuits they plug in are totally different. As a matter of fact, HiFi-Tuning and Acme Audio fuses seem to work very well with Spectron amps, but I haven't try them in my amps yet. I'm very hesitant to use the HiFi-Tuning fuses in a power amp since they are not UL listed. I don't know the certification situation for the Acme Audio fuses.

I think the results may vary dramatically from system to system. I am extremely satisfied with the results I'm getting with the Buss fuses. In my particular case, the difference is comparable to switching signal cables. The fact that what works for me costs about $1.2 per fuse is the biggest bargain I've come across as an audiophile.