VAC Renaissance Pre-amp owners - Help

Dev,

It takes one 5 x 20 mm, 4 ampere, slow blow type. Fuse holder is below the IEC on the Power Supply unit. Facing the fuse holder, the direction worked best for me is right to left.

I have 550+ hours on my preamp and broken in. I ran it 24/7 for the first 300 hours ... didn't want to begin tinkering until it's fully broken in.

I'm using ASI Liveline power cord. I replaced all SR Tesla Apex, Hologram ... in my system to ASI Livelines. My next focus is my room, component stands, isolation platforms ...

I asked Kevin at VAC about which direction the fuse should go in. Here is his reply:

"the current through the fuse is alternating current, is it goes in one direction for 8.33 milliseconds, and then the other direction for 8.33 milliseconds, and so on.

In terms of which end of the fuse connects to the 'hot' leg of the wall current, it is to the right side of the chassis when viewed from the front."

So that would mean looking at the back of the unit putting the fuse into the holder, the arrow should point left-to right. But I suppose one should trust their ears versus this.

Just did A-B comparison on fuses with digital and analogue. For vac 300.1a in rank order best sounding to less best:

1. Stock fuse (most ambience and roundess - front to back depth)
2. Hi-fi tuning left to right facing fuse holder (reduced some glare but flattenned front to back)
3. Hi-fi opposite direction (flattened and deadened sound)

In all other applications hi-fi wins (all other components incl speakers) but with vac amp i am not feeling the love.

Hi Podeschi, thanks for the info.

What Hi-fi fuse are you using and do you have some hours on them, I know that sounds funny but they do change sonically over time. I haven't figured out why but they just do.

What are the stock fuses in your 300.1, glass or ceramic

Hi, Dev. I have the Hi-Fi Supremes all the way around -- they have probably 100 hours on them. The 300.1a came with ceramic fuses while the power supply to the Renaissance Mk III preamp came with glass. I just took out the Hi-Fi Supreme from the preamp power supply. The stock fuse slightly lost some of the harmonic weight and richness and delicacy the Hi-Fi Supreme provided. So go figure -- works like a champ in preamp but not so much in 300.1a.