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Audiophile Fuses - Are We Certain They Provide Protection?

This thread isn't posted to debate whether sonic benefits can be recognized from audiophile/after-market fuses.  That topic has been well debated through numerous threads already.  What I'm curious about is whether today's audiophile fuses are certain to provide protection to your gear - afterall, that is the absolute main function of a fuse in a circuit design.

I was struck recently reading a thread dating back to 2014 on the Audiocircle forum where the late Roger Modjeski was absolutely beside himself and angered by professional reviewers and manufacturers alike for leading consumers astray (in his opinion) towards use of these fuses, from a first-hand account of damage inflicted on one of his amps.  

Re-posting his message below:

I had several email exchanges with the maker of Tuning Fuses and got the same Red Herring responses. My first experience with his product was in an RM-9 MKII that came to me for service with eight tuning fuses (one for each tube) in place of my specified HIGH BREAKING ceramic fuses. The tuning fuse's inability to do their job properly had blown the wirewound cathode resistor, which I had never seen before. I study every failure and this one caught my attention because it takes a lot of energy to blow that resistor. Its wire is much stouter and of a very high melting material, any fuse should go first.

Of course I opened up the fuse and looked at its construction. It was made in such a way as to be the worst possible fuse for that application. I called the distributor here and asked is it was a high breaking fuse and suitable for a tube fuse. He didn't know what that was. I said well the fuse specified for my amp is high breaking and ceramic. He said that because his fuse was ceramic also it must be OK. This is very naive. He doesn't know and perhaps the maker doesn't know that a high breaking fuse is made a different way, though from the outside it looks the same.

These fuses are totally inappropriate for any high voltage DC application such as a tube fuse in an amplifier. What also amazed me is that these fuses cost more than most tubes. I felt sorry for the owner who had been led down this path by irresponsible magazines like Positive Feedback. Not only did this fuse not protect his tube but it did not protect his amplifier.

The maker of these fuses, like many makers of tweaks will certainly get no admiration from me. What gets me is why so many people want to play with tweaks rather than make real improvements in their system like bi-amping, adding a good subwoofer and simplifying the signal path.

As this experience is now 7 years old I wanted to survey our forum to see whether high-end audio fuse manufacturers are providing data that would give the audiophile community assurances that use of their fuses first and foremost provide adequate protection.  I welcome any input.
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Showing 11 responses by three_easy_payments

three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@pauly 
Your question/concern is valid for non-audiophile fuses too.

Agreed.  But most will cite conformance with UL standards like this:
https://m.littelfuse.com/~/media/electrical/faq-documents/ul-class-descriptions-applications.pdf

I haven't seen this type of info on high-end audio fuses and I'm wondering if it is provided by most manufacturers.  Maybe I have not dug deep enough.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
MC - what is the method you use to test your fuses to make sure they will actually blow at their specified rating before you place them in your gear?
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
I want to know how to test my fuses to make sure they will blow as specified but need to hear MC's methodology for this.  Short of passing say 5 amps of current through a 3A fuse and confirming it indeed does blow and work as designed, what is the method for for confirming the fuse works w/o blowing it!
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@cleeds

You’re being more than a little cagey here. If you truly seek what you claim, you’d ask the sellers of whatever fuse you’re interested in, rather than rely on second-hand info from this group.

The inspiration behind the OP was reading Roger’s account of what happened when he did exactly what you suggested - ask the seller. And you can see the response he got. This led me to doing some online research on fuses. For standard fuses there’s a plethora of information regarding the UL listings that the fuses carry. Conversely when I looked up Synergistic Research, Audio Magic, and Hi-Fi Tuning I couldn’t find a single reference to UL or any other technical assurance that the fuse would provide protection. This is quite the informed group so I thought perhaps others could chime in and supplement with relevant information. I’m just asking a question that shouldn’t be controversial.

For goodness sake, I’m not asking someone to prove they sound better - I just want to know if they are proven to work like a fuse.  If the answer is "yes, here's the data" then that answers my question and it will make me feel better that the public is protected. 
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
Is it reasonable to expect consumers of fuses to spend hundred of dollars on an accurate power supply in order to test and trust the fuses they place in gear? Seriously, who does this? Please chime in if you’re testing all of your fuses in this manner. Apparently I'm incompetent in that I don't own a power supply like every other audiophile.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@cleeds   Exactly.  The whole intention of my OP was to inquire into what assurances the manufacturers of high-end, audio fuses are providing consumers that their fuses indeed meet spec to provide protection - just like any other generic fuse manufacturer routinely provides.  This advice from MC to test every fuse is wholly unacceptable and impractical - even "silly" as you put it.

@gs5556  provided nice guidance on how to do this but it would require expensive equipment and is unreasonably burdensome for an average fuse purchaser.  I'm certain less than 0.1% of all fuse buyers apply this method (which is the only method of testing offered so far - and is stated as the easiest).  For MC to proclaim "I say test ALL your fuses" is not a reasonable path forward - I'm sure nearly everyone on this forum, other than him, would agree. 
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@turnbowm

Andy Wiederspahn at SR wrote to me indicating that all SR fuses are UL certified. I tend to assign a high level of validity to that and suspect the search criteria or database info isn’t correct. A company is unlikely to make performance claims in writing that are fraudulent.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@cleeds

That wasn’t MC’s "advice," but his sarcastic response to your concern.

I actually thought it was his advice and didn’t read sarcasm into it. If he was being sarcastic then my apologies to him and for getting this thread off track.

And yes, I will take your advice and reach out to the manufacturers of these fuse makers to see if they have information to quell my concerns. I will report back on this thread once I get hear back from them. I realize you believe I’m being disingenuous with my concern as I read more than a tad bit of sarcasm in your last line - which is fine. I’m skeptical of many poster’s motivations as well.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
Good news...Synergistic Research got back to me very quickly and indicated that all SR fuses are UL certified.

I’ve also reached out to Audio Magic and VH Audio and will post their responses as well.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
@turnbowm This is what inspired me to start the thread in the first place - I couldn't find any information on any audiophile fuse maker's website indicating a UL certification.  @cleeds made the very good suggestion that I just start reaching out them directly and that's what I'm doing. Failure to find a spec on a website is not proof positive that the spec doesn't exist.  I do however find it curious that high-end audio fuse manufacturers wouldn't put a bit more effort into marketing UL certification more broadly simply as a selling point.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments OP
2,097 posts
 
I just heard back from VH Audio - the makers of HiFi Tuning fuses.  Their fuses carry the CE designation. On commercial products, the letters CE mean that the manufacturer or importer affirms the good's conformity with European health, safety, and environmental protection standards. It is not a quality indicator or a certification mark.  

What's interesting is that unprompted, VH Audio wrote "...whereas the Synergistic don’t have any designation that I am aware of. That said, the SR fuses are known to actually blow quicker than stock glass fuses…"  I didn't ask them about SR fuses or any other brand other than HiFi Tuning. 

Anecdotally what VH Audio writes matches very well with MC's experience with his Herron.  Yes, a single data point - but perhaps there is something to the statement beyond slinging mud at the competition - which I truly don't care for. 

 

 

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