Should we upgrade high end fuses?

I do believe Dopogue and others when they say there is an audible difference. But from what I know about electronics, it shouldnt make a difference. 120 Volts AC comes thru the fuse/power switch/power transformer primary circuit, and through a magnetic field only (no other direct electrical connection) to the transformer secondary, which has fewer(more) turns of wire (usually fewer for solid state-sometimes more for tube gear).
The secondary is connected to diodes which convert it to varying DC. This is then filtered with capacitors to smooth out ripples and then there is a voltage regulator to make sure that the DC voltage stays the same. This DC voltage is then used to power all the transistors/tubes/IC's etc.

My point is, after all this processing the voltage is transformed from 120V ac (which is really 340 Volts when measured on an oscilloscope) down to, say, 12 Volts DC. There is plenty of power (usually about 1875 Watts) available from the plug end, but maybe the component only uses 35 watts. So theres plenty of 'push' if needed.

Fuse materials: Silver is the best conductor of all metals, Gold is less so, but unlike silver won't corrode (unless you put cyanide on it ;) ) Cheap fuses use (I think) Chrome-plated steel. Poorer conductors will cause more resistance, hence more voltage lost in the fuses internal resistance. BUT the difference in resistance between a gold-ended fuse and a chrome one is infintesimal. So you would get 120 Volts on the component side with a gold fuse, you may get 119.999 Volts with a chrome plated one.

So logically speaking, you would say it makes no difference. But if you have heard the difference with your own ears, then I cannot argue with that (and I am not). I am just pointing out that it don't SEEM like it would matter even though it does.

Also the above tech info can be applied to Power Cords as well. The energy loss in a cheap 20 cent Chinese power cord should be not much different than an expensive audiophile cord. But I know that there are just too many 'Goners here that swear that there IS a difference.

I believe them. It just don't "compute".

Joeylawn3611
I agree it just does not compute BUT just like you give 6 cooks a dozen eggs some butter a little flour the same utensils and viola you get six different cakes. They may not even taste close to each other but they all have the same ingredients and have used the same ovens, and utensils. How is that possible? It just is and so it is likely to be with fuses and anything else someone can cook up as it were. I know this doesn't answer the question but it was the best analogy I could think of.

Good point, Uru.

Fuses do make a difference and are simply another tuning tool. The main difference is between Ceramic and glass cases. Glass is more open sounding but brighter with it (Glass resonating?).
Ceramic fuses are cleaner sounding but can tend toward dull with the wrong make or in the wrong system. most of the so called high end fuses are ceramic so are cleaner immediatly which is nice as they can now charge more for them. however I will probably buy some because the better "high end" fuses use silver elements instead of a tin alloy and hence are more open which may offset the warmer sound of ceramics and just lift the sound slightly.

A cheap fuse is much like cheap tubes, cheap sockets,cheap interconnects and cheap speaker wires, cheap power cords etc.

They all work.

If that's all you want stick with them.

Some of us have found out that upgrading the fuse makes an improvemnent, just like upgrading the other things i've listed.

While you're at it, upgrade to dedicated 20 amp lines, and better receptacles, better IEC connectors and RCA inputs.

The total end result is well worth the extra few dollars.