As usual those that never tried it got the most to say. 😕
A friend of mine import Furutech products, he gave me six fuses for my monoblock amplifiers to evaluate because we also thought it is a joke. I use one fuse in the mains and one each for + and - supply for each amplifier.
For the comparison, I've used two sets of identical amplifiers, replacing the fuses on one set only. (I've compared the amps before we started.) After a few amplifier swops, we could hear that the sound is better regarding soundstage focus and stage detail, making the reproduction sound a little bit more 'real'. I've also tried only the mains fuse or only the dc supply fuses, in each case they were better than the standard fuses but best results were with all fuses replaced.
Conclusion, do they make a difference? If you live for the last bit of detail, yes. Would I buy them? If they were much cheaper, yes. 🙂
A friend of mine import Furutech products, he gave me six fuses for my monoblock amplifiers to evaluate because we also thought it is a joke. I use one fuse in the mains and one each for + and - supply for each amplifier.
For the comparison, I've used two sets of identical amplifiers, replacing the fuses on one set only. (I've compared the amps before we started.) After a few amplifier swops, we could hear that the sound is better regarding soundstage focus and stage detail, making the reproduction sound a little bit more 'real'. I've also tried only the mains fuse or only the dc supply fuses, in each case they were better than the standard fuses but best results were with all fuses replaced.
Conclusion, do they make a difference? If you live for the last bit of detail, yes. Would I buy them? If they were much cheaper, yes. 🙂
Sorry Dave! (and Fran).
One thing that has always bugged me about rail fuses, is that the general recommendation is to have heavy duty wiring from the Power Supply to the amp, but fuses when compared to the wiring we use are tiny strands... I guess they are short.. A fuse by it's very nature cannot be "heavy Duty" Does this requirement to blow give it some higher than acceptable resistance? I don't have test equipment capable of checking this.
There is one area that I can think of that could make a difference with fuses, and that is the holder/fuse clamping (and hence conductivity) if the interface is not so good there could be all sorts of strange effects (I've had faults where there were diode like properties due to dodgy connections).
I guess the other area that could perhaps make a difference would be the material that the end caps of the fuses were made out of. People seem to have a thing about "non-magnetic" parts. I have no knowledge of whether there is any scientific reasoning behind this, but "high end" stuff seems to use copper rather than ferric based leads.
All in all though if the sockets on the amp are standard, how much difference is putting a different fuse in going to have, I'd personally think the fuse sockets would be the better thing to be targeting.
and yes if a normal fuse was say 50c and a super fuse was $2.00 I'd probably get the $2.00 one just in case.... I'm sure *I* wouldn't here the difference though, as some of the things that I know have been shown to make a measurable difference, when I have done them I struggle to really tell 🙂 Probably a combination of not good enough speakers and not being trained to pick the difference.
Tony.
One thing that has always bugged me about rail fuses, is that the general recommendation is to have heavy duty wiring from the Power Supply to the amp, but fuses when compared to the wiring we use are tiny strands... I guess they are short.. A fuse by it's very nature cannot be "heavy Duty" Does this requirement to blow give it some higher than acceptable resistance? I don't have test equipment capable of checking this.
There is one area that I can think of that could make a difference with fuses, and that is the holder/fuse clamping (and hence conductivity) if the interface is not so good there could be all sorts of strange effects (I've had faults where there were diode like properties due to dodgy connections).
I guess the other area that could perhaps make a difference would be the material that the end caps of the fuses were made out of. People seem to have a thing about "non-magnetic" parts. I have no knowledge of whether there is any scientific reasoning behind this, but "high end" stuff seems to use copper rather than ferric based leads.
All in all though if the sockets on the amp are standard, how much difference is putting a different fuse in going to have, I'd personally think the fuse sockets would be the better thing to be targeting.
and yes if a normal fuse was say 50c and a super fuse was $2.00 I'd probably get the $2.00 one just in case.... I'm sure *I* wouldn't here the difference though, as some of the things that I know have been shown to make a measurable difference, when I have done them I struggle to really tell 🙂 Probably a combination of not good enough speakers and not being trained to pick the difference.
Tony.
I believe your question is based on the logo of the mentioned fuse company, it is only a logo, not a schematic of their fuse. I'm quite sure they never claimed or intend for it to show 'direction'.
Andre, thanks for the reply, but I was being sarcastic. The above mentioned guy fond the difference...
Wintermute I get what you are saying and have thought about it before. I believe that because the length of the fuse is very small that it is "acceptable" to have a thin strand carrying the current. During normal duty the fuse is fairly transparant.
I do agree with you about fuse holders, I always roll mine in the holder to make sure it's making good contact. Same with connectors, give them a little wiggle to make sure all is well, not too much of a wiggle to distort the contacts though.
I do agree with you about fuse holders, I always roll mine in the holder to make sure it's making good contact. Same with connectors, give them a little wiggle to make sure all is well, not too much of a wiggle to distort the contacts though.
I tried replacing all my plug fuses with copper rod, and couldn't hear any difference, therefore due to the vagaries of the laws of phsics, I can't imagine anything thinner, and less conductive making my hifi sound any better...
They are a lesson in expectation bias, nothing more, nothing less. I suggest you email Siemens and ask them what fuses they use in the plugs of their medical Imaging devices, CAt scanners, Electron Microscopes etc, one would assume anything built to the outlandish technical specifications that these are, would be most suitable for gaining any benefit from 'hitech' fuses.
(I can save you the bother, of course, my mate Adam is an install tech for them, they use any old fuse they have to hand because it makes no difference.)
They are a lesson in expectation bias, nothing more, nothing less. I suggest you email Siemens and ask them what fuses they use in the plugs of their medical Imaging devices, CAt scanners, Electron Microscopes etc, one would assume anything built to the outlandish technical specifications that these are, would be most suitable for gaining any benefit from 'hitech' fuses.
(I can save you the bother, of course, my mate Adam is an install tech for them, they use any old fuse they have to hand because it makes no difference.)
OK, I have not read that, clearly I have some learning to do. 😀
Wonder if hifituning.com made such claims, couldn't find anything on their fuses when taking a quick look though.
The Furutech fuses I've tried didn't have directional markings, perhaps the reason why I did not hear such vast differences. 🙂
I read it as their company logo.
http://www.hifi-tuning.com/index_eng.html
Littlefuse (among others) makes fuses with gold plated caps for audio and medical applications.
http://www.littelfuse.com/company/news-item.html?NewsID=534
I can accept the need for better contacts (gold doesn't corrode) but I fail to see that sound could be approved in any way, unless your old fuse and -holder are hopelessly corroded.
On a lighter note, I plan a house move since I read that the power plant in my neighborhood uses the wrong type of coal to generate electricity.
Over at my new house they use cryo doped coal. 🙂
http://www.hifi-tuning.com/index_eng.html
Littlefuse (among others) makes fuses with gold plated caps for audio and medical applications.
http://www.littelfuse.com/company/news-item.html?NewsID=534
I can accept the need for better contacts (gold doesn't corrode) but I fail to see that sound could be approved in any way, unless your old fuse and -holder are hopelessly corroded.
On a lighter note, I plan a house move since I read that the power plant in my neighborhood uses the wrong type of coal to generate electricity.
Over at my new house they use cryo doped coal. 🙂
From the website of Isoclean:
http://www.isocleanpower.com/review/review6-12.htm
From the hifi-tuning.com review that Fran posted:
I must compliment this reviewer on a vivid imagination.
As has been suggested, poor contact resistance could have some effect on sound if used on the d.c. side but I'm skeptical as to the claim made for audiophool fuses. What next, aligning your connecting leads with the Earth's magnetic field ;-) [I'm a mere Physicist - one of those annoying people who requires evidence and I worked for the world's largest fuse manufacturer for some years so can bore people to death about fuse technology.]
If you use them for AC, does that mean, you have to reorient the fuses 50 or 60 times a second? Or is it better to have two anti-parallel fuses with series diodes to make sure that each of them is only active, when the current flows in the corresponding direction?
I can hardly wait for the Cryogenically Frozen versions to come out!
If kept in a frozen superconducting state they will never blow!
Maybe Cryogenically Frozen with Peltier coolers attached?
If kept in a frozen superconducting state they will never blow!
Maybe Cryogenically Frozen with Peltier coolers attached?
Just put different connectors on the two ends of the cables. Then they'll only plug in one way.
That Littlefuse makes gold plated end caps, for medical applications, makes good sense. Say it's a life support application, they simply try to rule out any possible failure mode.
Note the term "failure mode", cause that's what the gold plating is about in medical applications.
In audio, I dare to claim that it's very rare, to find failure due to corrosion of the fuses.
Magura 🙂
Note the term "failure mode", cause that's what the gold plating is about in medical applications.
In audio, I dare to claim that it's very rare, to find failure due to corrosion of the fuses.
Magura 🙂
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