Dup, you must keep up!

Audio Grade Fuse Holder
RG

Audio Grade Fuse Cable?

How will we attach our audio grade fuses and holders to the circuits they protect?

How about "powered fuses" that remove any dialectric hash imparted on the system by the glass surrounding the fuse?

Heck, powered audio grade fuse cables, too!

With audio grade AC cable to power them, and special fuse power conditioners to plug the AC cables into.

If we worked at this, we could invent 20,000 dollar fuse systems - per component!

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What do ya think, $30+ for a glass fuse, does it really work? Would you BUY this stuff? http://www.musicdirect.com/products/sear...Btuning%2Bfuses

I wonder how much a Video Grade fuse would cost me? Would it improve the quality of my HDTV? What next, audio & video grade air?

Don't you have to burn in the fuses first? What about direction of placement? Shouldn't there be a little gold-plated arrow embossed on the fuse to show you the way to put it in your fuse-holder?
Maybe the fuse-ends should be treated with a silver contact-enhancer (after appropriate cleaning) prior to placing it in the fuse-holder.
Let's not talk about cryogenic treatment of the fuse first.
I can go on forever!

This may be a silly question, but have any of you TRIED these fuses?

I've heard systems with and without.

Of course, THOSE systems must not have had adequate resolving power to fully flesh out the significant impact they had on the sound.

I've even listened to the magic chips that treat your CD's as they play.

Tried Armour All on some CD's - reviewers should refund our losses on that load of crap.

Played with Harmonix discs, those DB bricks, the little wood Tinker Toy kind of things you were supposed to roll along your baseboards - all of which got glowing reviews, but did nothing.

We are one of the few hobbies that don't allow for calling useless crap useless crap.

No matter the agenda of the proponent, we are supposed to stay lock step and acknowledge and validate the ear opening effects of any old POS that comes along.

We're more politically correct than a Montesorri school for handicapped kids.

Sometimes ya just gotta call BS when it hits you in the ears.

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Don't you have to burn in the fuses first? What about direction of placement? Shouldn't there be a little gold-plated arrow embossed on the fuse to show you the way to put it in your fuse-holder?

Here ya go Mike!

Isoclean audio grade fuse with directional arrow

But which way is the correct direction for a fuse? I bet JVS knows!

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Maybe the fuse-ends should be treated with a silver contact-enhancer (after appropriate cleaning) prior to placing it in the fuse-holder.

Walker Audio Silver Paste

To Buddha...I like your ideas on fuse cable and conditioners, there definitely seems to be a void in the marketplace for such. Then again, I suspect JVS has his fuse holders re-wired and could recommend something appropriate.

Find a need, and fill it?

RG

Idiots. Everybody knows that fuses cause an audible restriction in the flow of energy to the following circuit and should be avoided at all costs. If your equipment has any fuses you should remove them and wrap them with aluminum foil and reinstall. You're welcome.

Unless you are prepared to go back to at least the Sub Station I fail to see the point. It is AC right? Are you the guys who used to put the pennies in the old round fuse holders? I thought so. I would have only used pennies minted prior to 1943.
Copper Pennies

I'd be willing to give specialty fuses a try before dismissing them. When my service was redone the noise floor in my system was lowered, and when I replaced the outlet on my dedicated line, it dropped yet again. Sometimes you have no idea how much better something can be until you're shown. It's nice when upgrades exceed your expectations, which I try to keep low, as a natural skeptic.

Here's a place you can park some cash and wait for the placebo effect to diminish.

I wonder how they work with Brilliant Pebbles and Clever Clocks?

Has anybody tried the plastic surgery on their ears that is supposed to eliminate dips and peaks in frequency response, minimize standing waves and enhance difraction? It sounds good but I have not seen what the ears look like after the modification.

I would agree with service and outlet issues that have contacts that can become corroded over time ( in many cases decades) and that even in older homes wiring should be upgraded. There are no audiophile breakers or fuses that I know of. That is why power conditioning is inserted post outlet and isolating your audio from the rest of the equipment (motor devces) in the home.

I would love to see some testing and scope photos comparing an audiophile duplex receptacle to a Hubbel Hospital Grade outlet. Then I would be convinced that evil electrical mischief is everywhere.

I am not totally dismissing this, I just want some sound scientific data. What is even more mystifying is why in some testing why reviewers find that upping or lowering the line freqency does make an audible difference. I doubt that many know the long term effects of operating that far out of normal range. I would bet that many audiophiles have been doing just that for many years with no regrets...yet.

I eagerly await comments on this last point.

Thanks for that link. I'll finish reading it when I get back. It's not surprising those things would alter sound... they're not unlike Sam Tellig's $1.20 tweak, which I showed a recording engineer friend; he can't listen to his studio setup without the coins in place since. I find the effect pleasing, but, additive, and as such, choose not to use the tweak.

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Has anybody tried the plastic surgery on their ears that is supposed to eliminate dips and peaks in frequency response, minimize standing waves and enhance difraction? It sounds good but I have not seen what the ears look like after the modification.

Back in the late 70's, you could order a pair of soft, lifelike rubber ears that had been molded from Harry Pearson's actual ears.

You'd send away to the company, and they'd send you some wax to make molds of your ears, then you'd send those back and they'd make you a pair of golden ears.

You could hear exactly as Harry would.

I can't find a link, so I suspect they must be out of business by now.

In the late 90's, you could buy leather "ear enlargers" which would increase the reflective area of your pinna(e).

Nowadays, I find the best system enhancers come in a corked bottle.

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I would love to see some testing and scope photos comparing an audiophile duplex receptacle to a Hubbel Hospital Grade outlet. Then I would be convinced that evil electrical mischief is everywhere.

I am not totally dismissing this, I just want some sound scientific data. What is even more mystifying is why in some testing why reviewers find that upping or lowering the line freqency does make an audible difference. I doubt that many know the long term effects of operating that far out of normal range. I would bet that many audiophiles have been doing just that for many years with no regrets...yet.

I eagerly await comments on this last point.

Now you've done it. Let the "my ears are golden, measurements mean nothing" responses begin.
Changing line frequency is most definatly audible when using a syncronous drive turntable.

There are all sorts of devices to enhance body parts, rings and such...let's not even get into those devices that replace body parts!!! As for those audio system resonators that Buddha mentioned, here's a site for cheaper, yet more spiritualistic ones (right up Buddha's alley!):
http://NOTEableBowls.com/
Just attatch them with blu-tack!

Your reply about motors is too obvious. Here is the link you might want to read.
PS Audio Review

I'm so glad that no one is worrying about the little bits of wire coming out of our resistors, transistors, caps, etc being soldered onto the "audiophile" grade circuit board. Whoops!!!!!!!! Sorry. Remember, there is now Lunesta to help.

But, Jim... some of us do think about those sorts of things. Thankfully, I haven't lost sleep over it. Yet.

Jeff,

You are so right. At some point you just have to give it up! We could all end up being "Mr. Monk", the USA Network TV character. I would feel for anyone who would put their door knobs into the diswasher on a weekly basis.

I've been consumed with deadlines and issues in my troubled neighborhood, and unable to comment on the effects of audiophile grade fuses until now. I have installed Isoclean fuses in all my equipment save the Nordost Thor that is here for review (and that is never going to leave, given its positive effects on my system). You can read my initial comments on the vast and easily noticeable improvements the Isoclean brand of fuses makes in my review of the Aurum Acoustics CD player, available at
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_13...06-part-1.html .
Frankly, this thread reminds me to obtain an Isoclean fuse for the Thor. Nordost assures me that they already use a high-grade fuse, so I'm more than curious to find out if I can get yet more out of the unit.
With the help of Brooks Berdan, I've also replaced all twelve of the small fast-blow fuses in my Jadis DA-7 Luxe with ceramic fuses from Roger Majewski. (Pardon any spelling errors here, please). Isoclean doesn't make fast blows, so they were not an option. Brooks also upped the value of the fuses a bit, which he said improves the sound without endangering the Jadis.

jason victor serinus

Man, too bad Jadis is too stupid to design equipment with those sound improving fuses in the first place.

Who knows how good their gear might be if they could listen to these quality fuses during the design process!

Think of alll the vast and easily noticed differences those Jadis designers are missing out on.

______________________________
______________________________

I'm waiting for someone to chime in and tell us about how Hi Fi fuses are too revealing and made his gear sound worse.

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Man, too bad Jadis is too stupid to design equipment [snip]... Think of alll the vast and easily noticed differences those Jadis designers are missing out on.

There is no need to single out Jadis. This is true of virtually every designer. The thing is, audiophile grade fuses cost more. Throw in 13 total, and the cost of an already expensive piece of gear goes considerably higher.

More on the upgrade cost of Jadis products when my article on Jadis appears in the November Industry Update and perhaps online.

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I'm waiting for someone to chime in and tell us about how Hi Fi fuses are too revealing and made his gear sound worse.

I remember, 25 years ago, when I gave someone the gift of a speaker cable upgrade. His speakers were so bad that better cabling enabled us to better hear how bad they were. More extension equally more distortion. Hopefully, no one with low-grade equipment, let alone damaged equipment as was probably the case with my friend's speakers, is going to invest in audiophile grade fuses that cost $30 or more apiece.

Note that I've had better success with Isoclean fuses than Hi-Fi Tuning fuses.

On the subject of upgrades, I have always heard an improvement with Shakti stones. That doesn't mean that they couldn't limit dynamics in some cases; that simply has not been my experience with my particular equipment configuration. Shakti onlines, however, have proven a mixed blessing at best. I have a whole bunch of them that I'm happy to move along.

Shakti holographic stabilizers amaze me. I got a pair, thought they looked cool, but never had the time to set them up properly. One day, I discover my amp is much too bright. I'm also wondering why images are congealing when they never did before. Lots of tube testing, blah blah. No culprit to be found. Then I remember the Shakti stabilizers. I turn them a half degree in one direction, and everything changes. I turn them another half degree, then another, in the other direction, and I go from congealed images and bright to sound too spread out, unfocused, and dull on top. Get them right, and I have a tighter than ever focus, and fine treble. They work. But you have to find the right distance behind your speakers for placement before they begin to kick in. And it's so easy to knock into them while moving around the speakers and throw things off. More than a bit of a pain, but worth it in the end.

Someone mentioned Acoustic Resonators. Darren Censullo will be at our East Oakland home on Saturday to conduct a demo for the Bay Area Audiophile Society. My room will be tuned by Darren on Friday. I look forward to the journey.

Also, Zu Audio is doing a BAAS demo of speakers and cables on October 7.
See http://www.planeteria.net/home/BAAS.

Gracias,
jason victor serinus who has to get back to those deadlines

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...Shakti holographic stabilizers amaze me. I got a pair, thought they looked cool, but never had the time to set them up properly. One day, I discover my amp is much too bright. I'm also wondering why images are congealing when they never did before. Lots of tube testing, blah blah. No culprit to be found. Then I remember the Shakti stabilizers. I turn them a half degree in one direction, and everything changes. I turn them another half degree, then another, in the other direction, and I go from congealed images and bright to sound too spread out, unfocused, and dull on top. Get them right, and I have a tighter than ever focus, and fine treble. They work. But you have to find the right distance behind your speakers for placement before they begin to kick in. And it's so easy to knock into them while moving around the speakers and throw things off. More than a bit of a pain, but worth it in the end...

And I get picked on around here for liking avant-garde jazz? Come on, gimme a break for crying out loud. I keep a small crystal on the top of each speaker to remind me to stay focused on the music because without the music there is no magic.

I'm with Buddha when it comes to exotic room treatments and tuning devices: the level of wine or bourbon in my glass has more of an effect than any device that I know of.

Maybe you should get out more and read some manufacturers websites. Low contact resistance/silver coin swithces are used. Not standard cheap switches.

To hell with switches. One input source hardwired, volume hardwired to the optimum setting. Suprised that someone isn't marketing this.
What about going back to Edisons original? No power supply hash. No tube vs transistor debate. Was the ultimate right under our nose?

If they weren't labled and a box of the audiophile fuses and a box of generic fuses fell to the ground such that they were mixed, how would you tell them apart?

A half degree this way, a half degree that way. Why, it sounds like the bunny hop.

Cyclebrain!

There actually was a brief movement in Hi Fi for hardwired inputs.

I forget which mag talked about it.

I'll see if I can find any of those old chestnuts online.

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Cyclebrain!

There actually was a brief movement in Hi Fi for hardwired inputs.

I forget which mag talked about it.

I'll see if I can find any of those old chestnuts online.

That's OK. I deceided to go mechanical and do away with transistors, tubes and cables. Has to be way cheaper.

Actually, there are different grades of circuit boards.  HP used to use gold plated circuit boards back before they split apart.  A friend of mine worked at HP in their circuit board layout group and even their prototype PCB were gold plated. 

But the wires in resistors and capacitors?  I don't know what the difference is when you compare the seriously expensive versions vs the El Cheapo.  No one has explained that into any detail.

Fuses?  I don't know if I buy into it either.  It's a tough call as to how much they would improve the sound quality.  I'm wondering how many of the expensive amps/pre amps on the market have these expensive fuses.  I think they might actually work better in terms of not blowing as easily.  That might be something I could buy into for some of these fuses, but improving sound quality?   I'm sorry, the fish hook is circling, but I'm not chomping down on it.

But I could believe that SOME of them just might not blow so easily if that's an actual problem, but so far, I haven't had any blown fuses in many years.  

I guess if I had a very expensive amp and pre amp, I might so inclined to buy an expensive fuse if it didn't have one, just to satisfy my passion for wanting the "best" but I wouldn't expect it to have any sonic improvements, just more of a reliability improvement.

Apparently aftermarket fuse manufacturers haven't been paying much mind to the angst and whining of the naysayers as the fuse debate drags on into its tenth year.  You got your Synergistic Research fuse, your HiFi Tuning fuses, your Audio Magic Nano Liquid Super Fuse, Isoclean fuse, Acme cryo'd silver plated fuse and AMR fuse.  Am I missing any?  If there were not a demand for better fuses how could all these fuse guys stay in business?  Must be a big conspiracy.  

Geoff Kait

machina dynamica

I've been using the Hi-Fi tuning fuses with good sonic results on a about half the components I've tryed them on . But recently I blew a fuse in my DAC and was surprised to find the gold colored ends ( conductors ) to be very tarnished , and in only 18 months . After checking the other HiFi fuses found they were all in the same shabby condition , it can't be good for conductivity . I've never seen that on the silver colored ends .

I routinely use Quicksilver Gold contact enhancer on all connections, including fuse end caps. This product not only improves conductivity but protects against oxidation.  I suspect other products will also resist oxidation, for example Caig Deoxit, MG chemicals contact cleaner, etc.

The best sounding systems I have ever had have been the ones "not" using a lot of the audiophile fix it's.

Over the many years we have seen a ton of super conductors and I use to use them all as a listener, dealer and designer. They all make a difference, but do they all make a good difference and more importantly staying difference? About 20 years ago I flipped my mind on this issue and am glad I did.  Still to this day if someone does a system cleaning while I'm voicing a setup the harmonics in the mid section go right out the window. Same thing happens when there is too much gold or silver in the system or oxygen free stuff.  You need to be seriously careful when cleaning and keep an ear out for shifts in the sound when using conduits passing electronic signals. Just because it says audiophile and you hear something sound cleaner to you at first listen doesn't mean you made a good move.

Everytime you make a change in your system (any change) you are disturbing a vibrating electronic flow. This automatically means that the signal alignment is focused on the fundementals instead of the harmonics that come along later after settling. Was it a good change can be tested and if you follow this test you will know. Make the change (cleaning or whatever) then pay attention to the sound of your system over the next 7 days. If the system has settled into a sound that is fuller in range, meaning sounding thicker you are heading in the right direction and can tune in the extra body. If the sound gets thinner or shifts up you have lost signal content and actually hurt the flow of the audio signal. If you keep heading in the wrong direction your either going to end up with a bright sounding system or one that goes dull sounding.

Unfortunately, and I have worked with a bunch of metal specialist who can explain it better than me, every time you do a cleaning you are changing the chemical balance on the surface of the metal which changes the conductivity. How much is what was surprising to me. The only way to really test this was to do the cleaning then compare the surface against the surface of the freshly cut (turned) metal. I was shook up to see that the differences were not small. I thought that cleaners evaporated but when I took a look at the surface under the microscope you could see lots of residue. Not only this but the listening tests were where the big shocks were.

There's also a study here that should not be overlooked. Electron reaction to surfaces. I thought it was me at first when I was hearing all this extra noise in my systems, then the more I listened and started removing things I found that using gold and silver in small amounts was ok but when the conductive surface became over a certain area distortion was being introduced into the audio signal. I started reducing the surface area where the RCA touch another RCA for example and found that we are way over connecting our surfaces and causing a distortion. I also found that if you are passing an audio signal with more than a surface transfer area of 22guage the chance for this distortion goes way up. I tried these same tests on other connectors and with a variety of metals and learned some interesting things. One of the main things was the audio signal does not need a lot of surface to transfer and the more surface you add the more risk of contamination you get.

We are taught that gold and silver is good, but the fact is too much of these or any material that is used in transfering a delicate audio signal can be, not good, but very bad. And on top of this chemically changing the surface through cleaning is not the best answer for long term good sound.

I love that the word electrons is a part of electronics because when we study things more from the avenue of the electron movement, things for me at least make a lot more since.

On the cleaning issue it is much like this, if your going to clean alot than you may want to think about changing out your connectors for new ones after a while. The other option is to look at other materials which is the approach I have gone to, along with a lot smaller surface contact area.

michael green

MGA/RoomTune

In the hopes you might wish to consider changing your mind once again on the subject of contact enhancers, in particular the silver or silver/gold bearing products such as Quicksilver Gold, be advised that at least 100 hours are required for break in, so a considerable time must be allowed to pass prior to making serious judgements as to the sound.  As the break-in process for the silver and silver/gold can be all over the place sonically for the first say 80 hrs, it makes no sense to draw conclusions too quickly, like a lot of things audio related.  Sound familiar?  Cables, fuses, electron tubes, new speakers, new CD player, etc., etc.

Geoff kait

machina dynamica

Sorry if my answer sounded like I did it and never again. Thanks Geoff. The testing never ends of course :-) Being open minded is always a must and I hope people don't throw away their silver and gold before a ton of listening. However my use of silver and gold is now very cautious as compared to before as I become very concerned about shifts in the response and the clustering of harmonics when using too much gold, silver or any other materials. It's really important that we take a serious look at our connections and see how much of a material it takes to pass a signal. This is one place where the industry is in big trouble. More does not mean more, it means un-balanced when too much, and it doesn't take much to be too much.

Now here's a point though that I think is one of the biggies too, and is so many times shoved to the side. As Geoff is pointing to, settling is the tool of tools! My rule of thumb is 7 days of constant play before making real judgements (that's on things already broken in), and to be honest sometimes it takes longer than that. A lot of times people say play time (burn in time) and it's thought that this means a total of time like with tubes (turn on turn off), but burnin time should be, in the case of connections, constant play time. So if someone says 200 hours of breakin that means 200hrs of breakin continuously without turning off the system and the music playing through it. Designers soft sell this point cause they don't want you to be frightened away thinking your stuff will never warm up, but the truth of it is the sound of your components are forever burning in and the sound is forever changing.

One thing we do in testing is leave a system on repeat play all the time, sometimes for months to be able to hear the true breakin of something, but even doing this is really only the beginning. For example, If you take a 10 year old cap and play it against a 2 year old there is a big difference, much more than you would think. And comparing new parts to parts in constant play is shocking. Something else that many might find surprising is, on tuneland you'll read that I usually won't even listen to a recording for the first pass through playing when evaluating. When you put in a CD it takes at least one play through before things start to settle into a harmonic structure in your room and through your system. Try something fun sometime. Put on one of your favorite CD's, put it on repeat, listen to it, then come back after 4 hours and listen to it again. If your system is somewhat in tune the music will sound completely different. The holes will have filled in and the space of image will have spread. If your setup is even more so in tune and you keep the music playing in time the sound will flow all round your head and to the back of the space as well as in front of you. I'm not saying distortion either, I'm saying that the music will fill in and become far more believable. It's at this point of the listening process when I make my judgement calls on materials, parts and pieces. If I do so before the tested piece has a chance to expand to it's somewhat full state, I'm not really listening to the whole development of the signal being passed through. When I do my testing, I have a room setup beside my writing room and let the music play pretty much forever till I hear the harmonics settle then I go in a start to make some judgements on how the music is working and if and what parts are getting along or not. Doing this for over 30 years you get a pretty good idea for how things are going to turn out, but the combinations never stop. For me, you'll hear me talk a lot about musical instruments and that's really what your system is. Things that I thought were the way to go 20 years ago are slightly or sometimes completely reversed from the way I think now. I shouldn't say completely but it feels that way. Now for another example I have a hard time enjoying the sound of anything that is stuck in it's sound. In breaking in materials this is something that sticks out and is fairly easy to point at once you do this long enough. Your system should have the ability to be extremely open and flowing. This doesn't mean you will always listen to your recording that open but it does mean that when you have a recording that needs to be opened up, you can. This industry has one major flaw in my book. It's fixed when it should be tunable. When tunable you can listen to far more of the music and far more music selections. Recordings that you thought were not so good can be tuned in and come to life. A lot of folks say "I just want to set my system and leave it" but after years of all of us listening we know that recording music and replaying it really doesn't work that way. There is not one music factory and one room or system or one band playing the same way. Recordings and the recording and playing back process is as tunable and varied as the musical instruments that are being played are. It all, the whole thing, is about vibrations and if they are in or out of tune and if they are passing or not passing the vibrating electronic signal.

I think it was John, not sure, that made a joke in one of the issues here years ago about I was tuning the white house :-) . Not far off really lol, I've now done over 60 "tunable rooms" where you can adjust the walls, floor, ceiling, speakers, cables, components and electrical. There is an adjustment every 16" or less with these systems built in. It literally is one big musical instrument and can do anything you tell it to. Hearing one of these settle is truely amazing!

Well, now I got myself so excited I got to go listen :-)

michael green

MGA/RoomTune

I purchased a HIFI-Tuning fuse to try out in my Schiit Gungnir DAC more as an experiment as opposed to expecting any change in the character of my system's sound. The entire kit consists of an 8TB PC NAS feeding the Schiit Gungnir via a WireWorld Starlight 7 USB into the Music Fidelty V-Link 192 USB/SPDIF converter with a BlueJeans coax then connected to the DAC. The Schiit Gungnir DAC feeds the analog input of my highly modified (with the help of Bob) Carver C-19 pre-amp. The low level output signal is then attenuated by a modified Rotel RB-1090 two-channel amp. My speakers are DIY. The design is an MTM D'Appolito configuration, 65 liter, 3/4” Baltic birch ply cabinet with a 1-1/2” solid poplar front baffle. All of which is well braced while incorporating bottom firing ports. The cross-over design & driver specifications are from my friend Jon Marsh, who is known as, among his many other accomplishments, the designer of the original Avalon speakers. Twin HSU subs positioned next to each speaker tower are fed by the second set of stereo outputs from the C-19 & crossed over at around 60-70 Hz. All interconnects are CatCable silver RAC’s & all power cables are from Frank at Signal Cable. Speaker cables are Mapleshade Double Helix with mains power protected by the APC S15 battery backup power conditioner - except for the RB-1090 which is plugged directly into the same standard generic wall outlet on the same circuit.

When I performed the installation in my DAC I had my best friend & audio obsession enabler in attendance to assist in evaluating & confirming the effects, if any.

The first thing we did while the stock fuse was in place was to audition a piece of 24/192 Hi-Res music from my PC NAS. Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges – Back to Back was chosen being one we are both V familiar with.

With the benchmark established, I then removed the cover from the chassis and we again auditioned the same section of music. There was no discernible difference.

The next step was to remove the OEM fuse & reinstall it. Why? Simple. To determine if the act of re-seating it would cause improved electrical contact between the fuse holder clips & the metallic barrel ends on the fuse. This mundane exercise resulted in a surprising consequence. Immediacy, extension, detail, separation, focus & depth all were enhanced. On a relative scale, how much? Enough that anyone would have suspected I had upgraded my DAC by one level.

So…WTF..? Well, the Gungnir is 20 months old. But I did re-seat the fuse back in February, when I installed the Schiit USB input card. At the time I did not conduct a serious analysis of effect and will make no comment here on my off-hand impressions of the result. One other factor worth mentioning is that I have not used any contact enhancer such as DeoxIT on of the fuse contacts or fuse(s) in the Gungnir.

Following this somewhat cathartic experience we then reversed the orientation of the OEM fuse. Again, why? Well, the HIFI-Tuning fuse says it is directional. I know. Sounds like a page right out of the book from other goofy hi-end tweak purveyors who tout outlandish claims packed with pseudoscience nonsense. Diodes. Now those are obviously directional. But cables & fuses? Oh well, I am not a doctor of electrical physics so what do I really know for sure? Only what my brain tells me my ears are hearing. That is all. This time, the result was nil. No perceived difference.

Now we finally get to trying out the HIFI-Tuning fuse. After listening to our test track we both noticed obvious increase in the low end. While there was more energy in the low frequency it also displayed a bloated, unfocused character. That unfocused nature also seemed to extend into the mids with a slight loss of imaging & detail despite exhibiting a minor increase in pace & leading edge transient. Then with the HIFI-Tuning fuse reversed we were presented with a much more natural sound stage. Though diminished in energy by comparison, the bass was more tactile, tuneful, focused & natural. The overall presentation throughout the spectrum was one of better detail, smoothness, depth & musicality with V minor reduction in pace. Even though the leading edge transient was the tiniest bit eased, there was better flow of the notes that somehow drew us more into the performance. This may seem counterintuitive as leading edge transient is critical to realism, but in this case our personal preference with respect to the sound from my system was that this configuration presented the most genuine performance of the source material.

Then we went back to the OEM fuse. Missing was the slightly better detail which was accompanied by what I might describe as a more ‘digital’ sound, along with a slim decrease in soundstage.

At this point we went back to the HIFI-Tuning fuse. We had not marked the fuse to distinguish the direction, so in a non-scientific sense, we were – sort of - blind testing. [Note that I have since discovered there is in fact a marking on the fuse. However, my less-than-stellar eyesight was unable to detect it when we conducted this session.] After swapping the orientation of the fuse multiple times it was quite easy for us to identify the same effects and which orientation was the one we both preferred. Then with the fuse positioned to our liking, I buttoned up the cover to the chassis & we agreed that neither of us could detect a change due to the case being fully assembled.

This review is intended only as a casual, amateur evaluation. I have no pretense towards presenting these findings as empirical or scientific evidence. I have described to the best of my ability exactly what we both heard. What I will say is that we both heard the same things & were in complete agreement the entire time during this evaluation. Here again, I make no defense against claims of group influence, expectation bias or other faults associated with not conducting full-fledged double-blind testing. If you wish to argue my findings based on this fact, fine. Have at it. Frankly I could care less. My only interest is in what I hear & how my system sounds to me.

And what did I hear? My good friend & I both heard differences between the fuses & differences in the orientation of the HIFI-Fuse. But differences in and of themselves are not always welcome or beneficial. It has been my personal experience that in some cases these types of ‘tweaks’ may not enhance some systems, while they may provide improvements to others. It is system dependent.

And just how significant where these effects? They were subtle but discernible. In comparison to some other benchmark, I would say nearly about as much as I have experienced with some various interconnects & speaker cables. Will these fuses always provide enhancement? Like I said, it is system dependent as much as anything else, in my opinion. But the way I see it, when compared to a set of $500 IC’s or $1200 speaker cables, there is little to lose by trying at least one of these $40 fuses if you are so inclined or just plain curious. And until you do try it yourself, any opinion about their efficacy will hold little if any worth.

Still, the most surprising outcome was discovering the simple act of re-seating the OEM fuse produced more significant overall performance improvement than the audiophile fuse alone. So let us chew on that one for a while…….

Be well & enjoy the analog.

Bill, aka: practicing curmudgeon & audio snob

Nice article. I'm pretty flush myself right now fuse wise having pulled the trigger on the Audio Magic Super Fuse, the update of their liquid nano fuse. Liquid filled and brimming with goodness.

Geoff Kait
Machina Exotica