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HiFi tuning Foo-uses

How can fuses possibly make a difference? I'm in no way an expensive cable believer, but I do think you need to find something fit for purpose. A fuse is basically a few mm of thin tin wire, so how and why do these sell, and for so much!


[TL: moderating comment: it is the firm view of pink fish media that all electrical equipment should be run with the correct fuses installed according to the manufacturer's recommendation. This thread should be read with that in mind.]
 
A fuse is specifically designed to be the weakest point ... if anything is likely to affect the sound of the power supplied to a piece of kit ...

Nic P
 
Fuses are used all over the place. In the 13A plug to protect the cable in the amp to protect power supply output trannies etc and in my speaker to protect the drivers.

In a properly designed and behaving system they make no difference to the sound.

Cheers,

DV
 
The 50Hz hum? That's the only "sound" the mains make.

Chris

Its actually a 100Hz hum that you normally hear.

If you live in an industrial area or somewhere that uses trams etc there can be all sorts of shit on the mains. Good design eliminates these but there is an awful lot of HiFi stuff about that is lacking in this area.

Cheers,

DV
 
Quite a few people (including myself and one RKR) have tried 'uprating' fuses in chasses. Going from the supplied fuse (which can be as little as sub 3A) to a 20A one, and then to a RKR made 'blank' fuse can make quite a significant difference. I remember taking a 555PS from its supplied fuse to a 10A one, then a 20A one than a 'blank' one. The differences were anything but subtle. One person who was *very* much in the know who sat in on these fuse testing sessions opined that he wished all 555PS could be supplied with higher value fuses, but for obvious reasons...they could not.

Those who have criticized the 555PS for being a tad slow and ponderous at its bottom end have certainly not tried a higher fuse value.

Usual (i.e. ALL) disclaimers apply. The rated fuses are there exclusively for the protection of equipment, homes and lives. But not for any sonic benefits or claims of sonic transparency. If you accept that high grade mains, power cords, plugs and main sockets can make a difference (and all of them really have superfluous mechanical contacts that are usually impractical to remove), then why not too fuses?
 
Those little springs inside some fuses are actually small inductors to filter out mains interference..............er.
 
Quite a few people (including myself and one RKR) have tried 'uprating' fuses in chasses. Going from the supplied fuse (which can be as little as sub 3A) to a 20A one, and then to a RKR made 'blank' fuse can make quite a significant difference. I remember taking a 555PS from its supplied fuse to a 10A one, then a 20A one than a 'blank' one. The differences were anything but subtle. One person who was *very* much in the know who sat in on these fuse testing sessions opined that he wished all 555PS could be supplied with higher value fuses, but for obvious reasons...they could not.

Those who have criticized the 555PS for being a tad slow and ponderous at its bottom end have certainly not tried a higher fuse value.

Usual (i.e. ALL) disclaimers apply. The rated fuses are there exclusively for the protection of equipment, homes and lives. But not for any sonic benefits or claims of sonic transparency. If you accept that high grade mains, power cords, plugs and main sockets can make a difference (and all of them really have superfluous mechanical contacts that are usually impractical to remove), then why not too fuses?

I am at a loss for clever things to say when confronted by the brutal cold truth when peering into the bottomless abyss of technical illiteracy.

Your Pal
Louballoo
 
I am at a loss for clever things to say when confronted by the brutal cold truth when peering into the bottomless abyss of technical illiteracy.

Your Pal
Louballoo

The most charitable assumption I can make is that this kit must have a right s*** power supply if the fuse makes a difference.
 
The most charitable assumption I can make is that this kit must have a right s*** power supply if the fuse makes a difference.


Thats far too charitable. Arrant nonsensical pseudo-technobabble, smeared liberally with snake oil & sprinkled with fairy dust.

Sheeshhhh!!!

Chris
 
As with RONTOOLSIE, it doesn't take 20-20 hearing to hear the improvements in dynamics (and, ergo, the s.q.) from uprating a case fuse, even in a humble CDP. However, very few people would do this, purely from a safety aspect rather than an ingrained scepticism.

Mains fuses are there to protect the cabling, I understand; they perform no other function, and are laboriously slow to react compared to RCDs and MCBs, though I admit this is received wisdom rather than academic knowledge.

I neither use mains fuses nor plugs and sockets, as I believe these all degrade the dynamics of a good system, probably by increasing the impedance at each contact.

But then I have full dedicated mains cables and c.u. with separate RCBOs, as I was 'converted' many years ago, as was RKR and many, many other audiophiles.
 
Who knows how many km of grid and local cabling to your kit and a fuse change makes the supply better? I know it is the weakest link.
 
As with RONTOOLSIE, it doesn't take 20-20 hearing to hear the improvements in dynamics (and, ergo, the s.q.) from uprating a case fuse, even in a humble CDP. However, very few people would do this, purely from a safety aspect rather than an ingrained scepticism.

Mains fuses are there to protect the cabling, I understand; they perform no other function, and are laboriously slow to react compared to RCDs and MCBs, though I admit this is received wisdom rather than academic knowledge.

I neither use mains fuses nor plugs and sockets, as I believe these all degrade the dynamics of a good system, probably by increasing the impedance at each contact.

But then I have full dedicated mains cables and c.u. with separate RCBOs, as I was 'converted' many years ago, as was RKR and many, many other audiophiles.


So why have the major studios never done this?

None of the music you listen to(?) was recorded on equipment run without fuses...
 
So why have the major studios never done this?

None of the music you listen to(?) was recorded on equipment run without fuses...

Why do they rarely make outstanding recordings when you examine the bulk of their output? More importantly, why does chocolate taste better than aardvark? What would happen if the first thousand miles of cables were replaced with something better?
 


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