fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

Call me a fool… Yeah first off I would change tubes, cables etc.. and believe in the results before Fuses.. However, I am one of the few within the last few months to say "Okay its cheap enough why not?"

First I used an ISOCLEAN which has gone up about 15 bucks over the original 20 dollar price which is ridiculous enough.. Anyway I made sure to maximize the rating as far as the equipment manufacture would recommend or allow with warranty intact…

I found for my preamp that it was a 2 amp FAST blow fuse in it.. Called them up and they said yeah we use those as they are on hand and normally fine in most applications, but they are 3 cent from taiwan fuses, you can use 3 amp SLO blow fuses no problem behind our transformer in that unit..

So Of course I did because I don’t want a lower rating first off due to if it did decide to blow its very expensive to replace with another 35 dollar fuse, and now with a 1 amp bigger rating that problem should not occur Plus it will have a larger more conductive element inside…

I immediatley found the Isoclean to sound "Bigger" soundstage, Air, Transient response, Delay and decay of the notes, Bass was faster and tighter, highs were actually much clearer but not over the top.. ISOCLEAN does have direction printed and I followed it although I can not say it matters or not… Beyond that I put back a Cheaper but better 3 amp fuse standard slo blow not the original 2 amp in order to compare.. YIKES!! I really hoped the good Bussman Slo blow which was very much better built and extremely similar to the isoclean element accept for no gold or copper contact would be as good and put this to rest… However immdiatly the soundstage collapsed, became fuzzy, and really was like turning my source into a cheap walkman with the more compressed and distant sound…

I tried this again… The fuse made a bigger difference than you would think or believe. I also have some good power cables, and guess what a 9 gauge silver and copper conductor feeding a cheap aluminum/tin cylinder with a hair thick element in it does not get its optimum performance, so a good fuse feeding your transformer after the fancy power cord does show merit.

I did this test next with the 39 dollar HIFI tuning fuses… I put them in to my monos… First you could tell it was clearer but a bit too SHARP sounding.. Now funny thing again was I called this AMP manufacture and told them my Fuse extravaganza and figured they would laugh, yet they flat out TOLD me it will make a difference and they don't tell anybody but they carry the ISOCLEAN fuses for their units and will sell them to customers on their request for a pretty penny… They also stated we use undersized amp ratings of 4 amp and I could go to 5 amp slo blows with no issue.

Again the HIFI tuning fuses made a difference however was not necessarily all that much better, but different… Then the real mind bender I flipped them over!! BIG smooth sound now, not sharp in the upper vocals and things were really very smooth and integrated not so much separated sound.. They actually sounded like putting your Speakers out of Phase with reversing the positive and negative leads in the wrong direction on the fuse… WEIRD!!! And I tried this over again with a friend to make sure I was not nuts… Its actually true, but HIFI TUNING fuses are not marked like ISOCLEAN but they do have the HIFI Arrow for the logo so you can see which is which and chose yourself.

Finally the 2 dollar 5 amp bussman fuses slo blow strike again this time with the amps.. AGAIN fuzzy and bass was vast and powerful but not controlled like things were "Pulsing" with bad AC power…. Maybe I have some Bad A/C everybody does, but a fuse for whatever reason can help maybe, I can't explain it, but that’s it.. Background noise and hiss was also reduced to next to nothing with the better fuse… You go figure it out!! I really wanted to take these fuses out, because I could not think they could be that effective, but getting inside the equipment now and seeing the fuses directly connected to your transformer primary being fed by your 1000 dollar power cable, they make some serious sense! Good Luck

PS- which is better ISOCLEAN or HIFI? No idea, but my decision was based on trying the Isoclean in my preamp and it sounded excellent with no reason to change off the bat, and the fact is just like using all the same cables or tubes maybe the results will be too much or not enough, I just decided to give the HIFI a shot in the amps for the hell of it.. Both are good.. I did use Isocleans in another pair of amps for sale, and they were as excellent in that application as well.. I might even go to say the Isocleans are best suited for tube Gear... And Hifi tuning are good for both. In the end I rather just mix it up and have both worlds there I guess and its just different.

Mboldda1
Thats actually a very accurate and possible scenario, and I agree with your link.. Fact is they make a difference was the point most don't even get!! Forget about proving if they are better or not, I will not dispute the fact they can have a negative effect on some systems, and it seems mostly systems with a bit too much "hifi" sound and very over steril systems will not benefit from new fuses like they would from adding tubes to the mix, unfortunately most try to do this exact thing and expect getting that "Cardas" cable effect or "Tube" effect doing little tweaks like this for musicallity.

Bottom line they will work one way or the other, however not always perfectly positive in all cases.

I will say this, the Hifi tuning fuses had a worse effect on my amps than the isoclean had a positive effect on my preamp at first, same exact description in the article you posted, I flipped them, and did change a few things in the process which showed how they can be benificial in the right spots. Too much of one thing can lead to another NO DOUBT!

I will go on to say the ISOCLEANS might have a better universal effect than the HIFI's which seemed more finicky, but clearly better in many areas than a standard fuse, mostly background distortion and clarity improves.

What I don't understand is what is there to prove? I can guarantee easily noticed in my system, I put it on a certain volume level, I get a bit of a upper bass "Buzz" for example.. With the new fuses in place its gone, I put back the old, its back.. How much easier do you want it to be? I mean seriously I will not go on to say everything is night and day, but there is some notable difference within the same music I play over and over making it easy to tell when something is out of place or not...

It really sometimes is not that difficult, no doubt several cables and other items can be very difficult to tell one way or the other in some cases, the fuses can be too, but there is about lets say 10 things you listen for, now you go to the better fuse and 5 of those things have changed slightly for the better..

Well simple enough its just a little better device feeding your power and obviously the professionals are right when it comes to audio gear, THE POWER SUPPLY might just be that important in your sound results, and this is directly in line with it being a fuse :-)

Oh and if that is not a good enough reason to try, well here you go, believe it or not dynamically we all probably hear things a little different, so music testing might be difficult for some to hear.. However in the case of the fuses I had the originals in and would always get a pretty distinct and a low audible hum and hiss... Well now the HUM is gone completley and the hiss is reduced to putting your ear on the speaker, put back the old fuses and the hum is back... Basically the effect was like lifting your Ground with a cheater plug in some systems... Probably because the the cheap element and being hair thin robs the system of some kinda mircro level current to the transformer, who knows?

And again I am simply illustrating they are effective, maybe not necessary, maybe not even sonically superior, but they do change something! Thats my 2 cents oh sorry 39 dollars worth!!

Nobody should expect miracles for 39 cents or 39 bucks in this business, for 3900 we will talk...

By the way I think many just won't try them not only due to cost, but because you can't order these as a mistake and return them, meaning wrong size(physically or amperage), not knowing whether you will find the right direction if it is effective, and just can't be returned if you simply don't like them, and you eat the cost, so I understand.

What spec. is there to measure here? I mean fact is they are amperage rated fuses, ones that are or are not rated to protect your equipment, made from a little more exotic and sustantial sized current conducting materials over a very cheap fuse, does the same job, with a better (or at least predicted better) material and quality. So what? Is somebody going to do a crazy test on a 39 dollar expendable component? Which by the way that is a good point to bring up as this is one of the Few EXPENDABLE audio components along with tubes, and turntable cartridges maybe really being the only other… Most other electrical devices are really designed for pretty close to a lifetime use, (Capacitors are arguable) I mean a fuse or tube can fail anytime under the conditions. I don't know what people want proven in this case, its not trying to sell a 2000 dollar power cable… Or a clock that sits in the room and magically changes the humidity and velocity of the air in your room hoping for better acoustics! It’s a small electrical device feeding your transformer and protecting it..

Try it or don't, who cares? This is by far the silliest argument, Tubes vs. solid state, Horns vs. Electrostatic.. Digital vs. Analog, lets go all day there are several factors involved, in this case we are talking about a very small, but possibly significant weak link in power conduction, simple.

I can agree the apprehension on many peoples parts is the cost to outfit a whole system with something like this.. They should be about 11 or 13 bucks each or something...

Krell already charges you at least an extra 50 bucks for fuses in their price anyway as they are WAY overpriced electronics in the first place, might as well get some that might be worth it then :-) Besides I think they just went out of business, I am sure the fuses are the ones that did them in...

Audphile1
a couple months ago there was an article and a couple of threads on Krell finally going out... They might be still operational, I don't know, maybe somebody saved them with a checkbook, again I don't know.

Musicnoise
Gold end caps have nothing to do with it, it is the better element and vibration control inside not limiting the current or something like that which matters in this case I would assume...

What I am shocked by (and again I will argue that the price is still substantially high) that 39 bucks has everybody in a tizzy over this.. First off there is an EASY to discern difference at times hearing these fuses, again just as stated above might or might not be a "Good" difference for music in all cases, regardless they do something is the point, so its obvious enough work can be done to eliminate a cheap link if possible and if it helps great.

That being said, I don't think anybody that even logs onto or reads this site in the has anything less than THOUSANDS of dollars into audio in the first place, or even THOUSANDS into several failed or succesful tweaks over the years which are the sadder cases!! Try it or not, again you will never know, might be worth a shot for some, not for others. Not sure where the argument is here..

Dopogue
That is very good... I did the same, I did not find I liked better or worse at first the new fuse, but it was DEFINITELY different to some extent... Could not place it, however yes 2 weeks later I said guess what, lets get silly, I will play a couple things in the system and see how I feel about them, Sounded great with the new fuses, and I felt they were fine and not negative effects, and then simply put back in the Cheap fuses, and BAM they collapsed and were not bad on their own, but worse than the new fuses all of a sudden...

And this is not some kinda, "Its what I wanted to hear to justify the fuses" or some "Ozmosis of the brain tricking me" it was simple, things were like taking a button on a surround receiver and putting it between a more dynamic and full "Rock mode" setting and hitting the remote button back and forth to the "Jazz Mode" or something actually changing the depth and balance of the sound, and some of the background noise and distortion character was changed... Maybe that sounds like too dramatic of a change, but it was occuring between fuses at this point, unless my A/C from the outlet was changing that drastically from the comed street supply that quickly..

Lets just get the manufactures to stop wasting money on the processor modes and extra remote control buttons and put in a Fuse button to get the same effect with a relay to instantaneously switch back and forth for people to prove it :-)

Dkzzzz
Not sure if you caught the drift, but I was being actually as sarcastic as you… Seems we are not quite that clever, but obviously my comments to you seem to be completely a Fairy Tale so be it…I would suggest however using pink colored cable sleeves then somebody might take us seriously!!

Yeah we are all nuts until Albert Porter enigma of audiogon says so... I will go with that thanks :-) I respect his system and contribution to the site, however if thats what it takes to wake somebody up so be it.

Give me a break this is not rocket science, nor does audio need numbers to support it as such if you have not learned by now the trial and errors on your own have shown you many things, I mean tweaks of Magic rocks, and clocks are pretty insane no doubt, I won't even swallow that, but this fuse thing is not so unreal that people should reject the fact a simple power supplying device can be done better as supposedly Isoclean and hifi tuning has attempted to do..

Weird as I can see why people would fight on some things, but this one seems like more time and money has been wasted worrying about it than ordering a single fuse to give it a shot.. Yeah you will spend the money you could have spent on 2 more CD's, its kinda like oh well..

Albert has gone to the extreme with an extreme system and has probably more money on these fuses than most have in their cables and sources combined!

Dave_b

I think you buttoned it up nicely... Same experience I found in the end, it was at first something different, but could not point toward what exactly until you switch back to the old fuses a few hours later and realize the loss of sharper focus on everything.. And same thing with me and the direction of these things, however not sure its good advice to say that the arrow should point toward the component, this could simply just be coincidence in your components IEC being wired with the output of the power coming in from the IEC being connected to the outer end of the fuse holder, but in many components the fuse holder itself could be wired the other direction which makes on difference..

You could test it by removing the fuses and hooking up a multimeter to check for which end gets continuity from the IEC so you can figure out the actual component direction, however for most I am sure its just easier to pop them in and note if you can hear anything one way or the other, a bit of a pain in the A$$ for sure :-)

Pubul57
I will let the secret out, however its 2 dollars over your price range... but figured you might be able to scrape it together :-) see link, they are the bottom left product.

http://www.acmeaudiolabs.com/products.htm

Problem is I did not know of them myself till well after the others were in my system back in the day… I would not hesitate to say they are probably worth a shot due to the overall logic still used in them for the more reasonable price.

Pubul57
Just like the others ceramic is automatically a "Slo Blow" fuse and some components only come with "Fast blow" type, however most if not all should be able to take a slo blow, but you might want to ask your manufacture, I did and they even said I could go up ONE amp size on top of using a slo blow over a fast, most put the fast because they are super cheap and can be bought in the thousands for about 10 bucks.. Keeps them building components for years on one batch.

Bgordon
Some effect can occur with just the main line in, I mean once you get to the other fuses on the board they are stepped down and normally only DC power at that point, no doubt they can have effect on your sound as well, but I suggest depending on what you want to spend try the main power in fuse first and see where it takes you.