"Fuses" or "Better late than never" (long-ish)

Posted by johntoste (A) on May 25, 2015 at 15:58:27

I know that over the past several years this subject has been discussed on various internet sites. Reading that information helped me to make my choices. I'm posting this for the benefit of anyone else still on the fence.

My experiences in this hobby bear out the truism that "everything makes a difference." I have good cables and power cords, bamboo shelves, modest room treatment, etc. Yet... I remained skeptical about possible sonic improvement from aftermarket fuses.

I recently located some Hi-fi Tuning Silver Star fuses at a discount and decided to find out what I was missing. Only the values of the four internal fuses for my integrated were then available, so I ordered them and figured that if these proved positive, I'll find something for the fuse at the IEC.

Well?

Well... yes. Yes indeedy! Why did I wait so long? Sonic performance improved in every way. I know that these things are hard to quantify and one man's "night and day" is another man's "incremental". But let me put it this way; it was like I started by listening to a $3,500 amp but after switching the fuses, I was now listening to a $5,000 amp. How do they do it? I don't know but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment.

Of course this is a classic YMMV situation. But, at least in my case, risk to reward ratio proved to be a hell of a good bet. After a couple of weeks with no apparent down-side, I ordered more fuses.

Next to arrive was a Hi-fi Tuning Classic Gold for the IEC of my CD player. At first I thought "that's worse" and felt a bit deflated. Transients were rounded off and dull. Then I remembered that these are purported to be directional, so I pulled the fuse and turned it over. You know what I'm about to say: these things ARE directional, at least in this circuit. I'm pleased to likewise report across the board improvement, though of a less dramatic degree compared to the amp's internal fuses. Still well worth the expense.

Finally (for now, at least), after a couple of days passed to allow the CD fuse to burn in (these things can't take very long to burn in, can they?), I placed a Hi-fi Tuning Supreme fuse into the IEC of the amp. As I now expected, further improvements ensued.

Though I've described previous improvements as comprehensive - and they are - I noticed that frequency extension, transparency and soundstage expansion particularly benefited. Curiously, with the addition of the Supreme, while overall performance again improved, it was natural timbre, image density and musical flow that were the most notable winners.

I'm sold. Better fuses are the most cost-effective "tweak" I've tried. They've far exceeded my expectations. Tweak? Well... no. For me, they're essential.

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Topic - "Fuses" or "Better late than never" (long-ish) - johntoste 15:58:27 05/25/15 (2)

Fuses: Better late than never - Luminator 07:03:40 05/26/15 (1)

RE: Fuses: Better late than never - pc123v 10:48:14 06/03/15 (0)

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