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HiFi tuning Foo-uses

When I built the extension I am sitting in now the downstairs room was due to be for the hifi (and the old lounge for the piano).
Because I had heard that a dedicated mains circuit for the stereo was a potential improvement, and it was no problem to do, I installed one, also using more expensive sockets.
I can not tell which socket any part of my system is plugged into, the dedicated ones or the other ring main.

Ok then F1eng,

Here's a challenge for you, and I have utterly nothing to do with the seller...

Buy this wallplate for £25 odd, solder it onto the end of your isolated hifi radial with Cardas quad eutectic or WBT 4% silver solder and get back to us all with your findings :)

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=130442371857


Although if you do spend any time around F1 engines then you're probably almost deaf
 
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Although if you do spend any time around F1 engines then you're probably almost deaf

That is quite an unnecessary and offensive remark. Are you truly unaware that the use of ear defenders has been standard in some industries for years?

As it happens, I know F1Eng and can assure you that he is one of the most critical and capable listeners I have encountered.
 
Do we need to know what is inside? Our ears are the best test. If its good then its good.

Just like if we are eating pasta, do we care what flour they are using? If its delicious then its delicious. For me the end result is the most important thing.
Being a scientist for a few decades, I find it ridiculous that some people think that science can explain everything, that scientific facts simply cannot be wrong, and that scientific knowledge does not change with time. Let us not forget that 150 years ago, most physicist are so proud of their achievement that they think that all physics in the universe are know. Yet in a short span of 20-30 years later, they could not explain the trend exhibit by the black body radiation, the speed of light being constant regardless of the reference frame, the photoelectric effect, and etc. And later Relativity and Quantum Physics was invented to explain these phenomenon. As the result of these new knowledge, facts that are certainly viewed as absurd by physicist 150 years ago are now embraced as facts by current physicists. For example, which physicists 150 years ago will believe in wave-particle duality?

You're a scientist?

I somehow doubt it sir.

Do you mean 'social' scientist?
 
Sounds like a bit of odd Psychology going on: You come up with an idea that you believe will improve the sound, do the modification, listen, but as you are expecting an improvement, convince yourself that is what you hear.

I suggest that fuses [BS1362 as used in BS1363 UK plugtops] will have no effect on sound quality. The wall plate has bare contacts as does the plug top and fuse carrier in the plug. Most BS1362 fuses have silver -plated brass end caps with a tinned copper fuse link surrounded by a silica filled ceramic tube. And then we have the brass plug connections screwed down onto copper wire that goes into your equipment where it probably goes to a two pole switch/voltage selector/internal fuse. Lots of differing materials where rectification effects can occur especially if there is oxidisation. Internal equipment fuses tend to have a glass or ceramic body but with bright nickel plated brass end caps. In some types the fuse link is soldered and others the fuse link is trapped by the interference fit of the end cap on the body [IEC127] so again, the current has to pass through a number of different materials. As someone has already stated, what about countries that do not use plug-top fuses?

In the years I worked at the World's biggest fuse manufacturer [Bussmann] doing techy stuff [I have an old Physics/Maths degree from the 1970's] before moving to Marketing, not one HiFi manufacturer contacted me to enquire about making special fuses - and we supplied most of the Audio equipment manufacturers.

Sorry if some you have lost the will to live reading this - I must get out more!
 
@Theoldtrout.

Did anyone from any company ever come forward and ask for any special fuse to be used in a plug to be fitted into a wall socket in the UK? Any medical imaging company, maybe a vendor of laser interferometry equipment, scanning electron microscope manufacturer perhaps?

Of course they didn't cos they make f_ck all difference...

Anything who thinks audiophile fuses produce measurable results needs their head examined, or needs to invest now in my bitcoin business.
 
Have anyone of you had problems with the remote not working properly and opened the battery cover and rotating the batteries in its place? (not even removing them)
I have at least done that many times and most of the time I have got the remote to function again.

Could it be possible to achive the same result with fuses? I would guess so, but have never tried it.

What I am getting at is that it could actually be a case of bad or not perfect contact when improvements are experienced when replacing fuses to an "audiophile" grade fuse?!?!
 
@Theoldtrout.

Did anyone from any company ever come forward and ask for any special fuse to be used in a plug to be fitted into a wall socket in the UK? Any medical imaging company, maybe a vendor of laser interferometry equipment, scanning electron microscope manufacturer perhaps?

Of course they didn't cos they make f_ck all difference...

Anything who thinks audiophile fuses produce measurable results needs their head examined, or needs to invest now in my bitcoin business.

Ordinarily this kind of logic would work. You point out the impossibility of something happening or the complete lack of any hard evidence and people listen and take note.
Sadly we have a certain strand of audiophile who'll simply shove fingers firmly into ears so as not to listen.

You could demonstrate that one fuse sounds identical to another a thousand times over and they still won't believe you.
 
Rather than dismissing the claim in improvement (which are heard by many people), why not investigate the reason. It may not be that the audiophile fuse that are the reason, it maybe that a better connection is being made. And there are many possibilities here (which some of you may suggest that these people are delusional).

My personal inclination is that a better connection was being made. One uses a thick power cables and yet at one point of the circuit, there is a tiny thin wire. If this is true, then the best solution is not to have any fuse (or as little fuse as possible that will not compromise on safety). That is the reason why I am working towards a different mains arrangement. Using audiophile fuses is like improving a "substandard" arrangement in the first place, and do not seems like the best solution (Refer to Note 1). However, this is subjected that the hypothesis is correct in the first place.

Please note that I am not train in electrical and electronic stuff, and this is definitely not my area of specialisation.

Of course, one can do a full scale investigation into this matter. But this matter certainly doesn't interest me at all.

Note 1: Suppose a person (in UK) uses a main distributor block, then there will be one circuit breaker in the distribution board, one switch in the socket, one fuse in the power cable to the distribution block, one fuse in the distribution block (maybe), one switch in the socket of the distribution block (maybe), one fuse in power cable to the equipment, one switch in the equipment (maybe), and finally one fuse in the equipment itself.
 
I extolled the virtues of upgrading fuses on another forum and got canned for it, so I'm saying nowt..

You and me both, Robin, though my take wasn't on fuses. This is a different forum which comes without expletives (in the main) !:)
 
Here's the thing about fuses, they are rated at a certain combination of current and voltage, try and pass anything more than this through them and they melt and fail due to a positive resistance curve, the more you pass through them the hotter they get and the more resistive they get and the more resistive they get the hotter they get until such time as they melt.

Now, how do you think a fuse might physically be better than another fuse and still manage to pass the standards test? Is it less resistive, does it have a shallower curve? No of course it doesn't its just the same bloody fuse as you can buy anywhere else but with a sticker on it.
 
Ordinarily this kind of logic would work. You point out the impossibility of something happening or the complete lack of any hard evidence and people listen and take note.
Sadly we have a certain strand of audiophile who'll simply shove fingers firmly into ears so as not to listen.

You could demonstrate that one fuse sounds identical to another a thousand times over and they still won't believe you.

I prefer the sound of standard fuses ;)
 
What I am getting at is that it could actually be a case of bad or not perfect contact when improvements are experienced when replacing fuses to an "audiophile" grade fuse?!?!

You are almost certainly right, Ob. I imagine a corroded or oxidised fuse cap can and does impair electricity supply flow, probably by increasing impedance. Polishing it (and its holder if necessary) with fine emery or whatever overcomes this, and not only on hifi, as you say.
 
Here's the thing about fuses, they are rated at a certain combination of current and voltage, try and pass anything more than this through them and they melt and fail due to a positive resistance curve, the more you pass through them the hotter they get and the more resistive they get and the more resistive they get the hotter they get until such time as they melt.

Now, how do you think a fuse might physically be better than another fuse and still manage to pass the standards test? Is it less resistive, does it have a shallower curve? No of course it doesn't its just the same bloody fuse as you can buy anywhere else but with a sticker on it.

I know someone who may have blown up his mains transformer by using an "audiophile" fuse. . .
 
Does no one else remember the passing fad in the 80s for polishing plug top fuses? Made quite a difference to my then 42/Snaps/110, ISTR.

Cheaper to try than blowing ££s on fancy fooses.



Edit: I see MR above got onto the fuse polishing subject as i was typing....maybe PFMers everywhere should start buffing their bussmanns and report back.
 
<moderating>

I've edited out a couple of earlier posts and added a disclaimer comment to the opening post as I need to be entirely unambiguous as to where this site lies with regards to electrical safety. This is also detailed in the AUP.
 
So I called up one of my dealers and ask about it. He told me to go down to his shop and collect some audiophile fuses (Furutech T-13A. http://www.furutech.com/2013/02/01/3478/). When I was rising my doubt, he assured me that he will give me these fuses for free if I do not hear any positive difference. So I went down to collect the fuses and install it into my system.
simply, well done!

When I played the first track, my jaw just drop. The difference is truly positively amazing! As Mike Reed simply said, it really doesn't take a 20-20 hearing to hear the improvement. It is really obvious. The cost of this fuse upgrade is just a small fraction it cost me to do a Dynamik upgrade for my Linn KCT, but the amount of improvement is way higher that the Dynamik upgrade!
I would play around a bit with the fuses (switch between the 2 types) for a couple of days and then decide. Personally I heard even negative things with the audiophile fuses. "Dynamic" is only one characteristic of sound.
 


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