Fuses ( I’ve never tried them for sq improvement)

[Barry]

I was being sarcastic about supposed fuse directionality and about Country and Western music in general. In my view C&W is maudlin and mawkish - it's all about your girlfriend walking out on you and the dog dying. Now what what would happen if things were reversed?

[MartinS]

The report is well and good except it doesn't tell the reader why so it's best use is chip wrapper. For all of you who think fuses or the lack of them makes any difference at all remember that your incoming mains supply has an electricity board fuse which is commonly 60A, or 80A or 100A which doesn't belong to you so legally you can do nothing with, even if that made any difference. Fuses are just about the worst hifi con perpetrated on the gullible and I will continue think so until anyone can prove a physical phenomenon that's measurable. This is electricity and nothing to do with the brains perception of audio quality. If the mains has spurious noise or Dc offsets I would expect the power supplies in the equipment to deal with it.
Yours in engineering knowledge.

[Qwin]

Along similar lines to Marco's hard wired, no fuse......
I use IEC C13 distribution block and IEC male to female leads to each appliance, drastically reducing the number of fuses.
The distribution block has a fused plug where it is connected to the mains supply for safety.

[zanash]

Oh dear ...as a fuse skeptic for 40 years, please do not make the same mistakes I've made.

I firmly refused to even try anything other than the tesco special 25p 13 amp fuses ...because everyone know fuse don't and can not possibly have any effect on the final sound. I mean even thinking about it is simply ludicrous.

I was asked about fake fuses by a member of my face book group ....I did a little research and then ordered every 13amp fuse make I could find on amazon, b and q, homebase etc

I ended up with about ten brand which included SEM Bussmann vernon Marbo etc ...

I broke open of each to see if they contained a flame retardant and to look at there internal construction. None appeared to show the characteristic of fakes... [Google fake 13 amp fuses if your not certain what to look for ].

Having all these fuses I decided to see if I could possibly hear any differences ...fools errand we all know without trying fuse can't possibly alter the final sound of a system. How stupid to even waste my time ..

First fuse in the single wall socket plug that feed my whole system, was a marbo [all system settings remained identical] .......WTF who's stolen my music ?
Examining the removed fuse this was an ancient bussmann that had had its silver plated end caps polished to bright copper [ I'd forgotten I'd done that ]

So out comes the marbo in goes a new bussmann [ a tesco 25p] bang music back WTF ..no longer was it turgid grey music tones

Back in went my original bussmann, the top end had a little more sparkle but it was close.

After testing all the fuses its abundantly clear not all fuses are equal ...and some are down right detrimental to the final sound..

The only fuses that gave a similar performance to the bussmann were SEM you can forget all the rest.

My carefully long preserved dogmatic views of fuses has been overturned in the space of ten minutes .

I Wrote up my experience for my fb group ....

A member who is a far eastern hifi dealer contacted me and asked if I would do the same "analysis" on some of his "power House" brand Fuses..

He gifted me Six fuses ranging in rrp from £30 to £300 not a small outlay !

My Report can be found in HIfi tips tweaks and treasures on FB

Lets just say that everyone of them made the humble bussmann sound dull and undynamic.

The star performer was the Power House Zero fuse that has wow a great many people over the last five or so years. The downside of course is that this was the £300 fuse.

Now I'm not saying this to change peoples long standing ideas......Just don't do what I did leave it 40 years before trying just to make certain the Hurd was correct.

Ive now tried hifi tuning and a number of others that also have a marked effect ..

I'd warn you to stay away from RA super fuse and HD power fuses as they are just busmann 's with sticky paper labels !!

trading standards intervened on my behalf and RA was asked to change the wording on there website regarding certain claims they were making ..though they still sell a 25p fuse for £25 ...is it no wonder people think fuses don't make a difference.

you can read a report here including my comments in the section beneath.

https://theaudiophileman.com/is-it-a-bird/

[wee tee cee]

Try it for yourself. Borrow a few fancy fuses from a dealer.

Make your own mind up.

[CageyH]

I can’t physically fit a 13A fuse in my system. I also don’t see how a 20mm long section of special wire will affect the power feed in my equipment, when it still has all the cables, PCB tracks and components to negotiate.

To try them would be very expensive, as surely I would need to replace all of them?
So to listen to Vinyl, 5 fuses, so about £500…
I am sure that could be spent more effectively elsewhere?

[walpurgis]

Just a reminder, we respond respectfully here, regardless of whether we agree or not.

[zanash]

I can’t physically fit a 13A fuse in my system. I also don’t see how a 20mm long section of special wire will affect the power feed in my equipment, when it still has all the cables, PCB tracks and components to negotiate.

To try them would be very expensive, as surely I would need to replace all of them?
So to listen to Vinyl, 5 fuses, so about £500…
I am sure that could be spent more effectively elsewhere?

Its a shame ...you don't need to spend more than a fiver .................just go and buy some different standard brands. Even cheap fuses sound different !

[CageyH]

“Fuse rolling” is something I am going to give a miss.
£500 could give me a new arm wire, a new streamer or something substantial, that will give me a noticeable difference.
Maybe even a preamp upgrade.

I am not going to blow £500 on 5x20mm fuses.
I have seen enough of these fuses to realise that it was another potential fad.

Like all things in HiFi, some people will love them. We are all different after all.
Different systems, different rooms, different ears etc. but no thanks, not for me…

[CageyH]

Before I fit a HiFi fuse to my system, I would also want to be sure it does the job it is intended for.
To protect my equipment/House in the event of a fault.

I don’t fancy checking a “top end” fuse for electrical safety, as if it did work correctly, you would be pretty disappointed in having actually blown £100+.