Why? By removing the fuse, your equipment becomes vulnerable to being destroyed should a surge take place. The fuse is a sacrificial part of the electrical circuit rather than a circuit board, capacitor, resister, etc.
Is there a solid fuse-like item that I can use in place of a fuse, to bypass it?
Hi All,
instead of using a "gourmet" fuse in certain situations, I want to bypass the fuse entirely with a solid piece of metal. I also want to avoid soldering-in a piece of wire in the fuse’s place.
Are there solid pieces of silver or copper, the same size as a fuse, that i can swap into a fuse holder?
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Simply wrap the fuse in copper foil. Some foil has adhesive that is conductive.....perfect stuff....been using it for years. Just once around will do otherwise it won’t fit in the fuse holder. If you use a 20 amp slow blow or larger fuse it already has lower resistance. All tweakers need to have a roll of this stuff around....great for shieldng too.
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Yes, red copper, yellow copper, silver, I like red copper. 5mm thick and 20 or 30mm long. First get the video going. Turn the power switch on take the 5mm x 30mm wire or round stock, smile at the camera and plug it in. When you wake up send us the video. :-) I'll pay ya if it's a good one. You remove the protection for your gear. The fire protection is at the breaker anyway. If you think about it there isn't a lot of things that have fuses on them. Christmas tree lights, stereo gear? What else? TV have a breaker, vacuum cleaner? What uses a stupid FUSE? The garbage disposal that's it and stereo gear. It's a conspiracy. :-) |
copper tubing, like used as water line to a freezer ice maker - 1/4 inch OD Stuff it with some damping material, or silicone...or beeswax |
30+ years ago: I tried some of the following*, in my first pair of Magnepans, to see if I could discern an improvement, before simply bypassing the fuse holder/attenuator circuit entirely (moved & resoldered one wire). I'd never consider defeating the protection afforded any of my other components' circuitry. Especially: their high-dollar/unobtainium power transformers. Proceed at your own risk! *https://www.riogrande.com/Product/sterling-silver-round-rods-dead-soft/101980 |
I have an idea, replace the transistors with solid copper bars too! In the event of a short you have spontaneously very very high currents which can explosively vaporize metals. This type of thinking is madness. Fuses are life safety and property safety devices which should not be compromised. Ever. |
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Many years ago I picked up a Dan Electro guitar amplifier, a small tweed combo. I brought it to a friend’s house along with my guitar. (Les Paul BB) He had an EB3 (no amp) I was nice to leave it with him, first mistake. Second mistake was I brought a Big Muff given to me, which I forgot. A few days later he dropped the amp of at my home (not working and without the pedal, I wasn’t home) So I phoned him, "did the fuse blow"? "Uh ... yes" "Did you replace it with aluminum foil"? "Uh ... no. Uh ... I mean the fuse didn’t blow" 🙄 End of story is I donated it to my Amp Technician. Lost a good amp and lost a bad friend. 👎👍 |
WARNING: there are several people here on this thread that are recommending replacing a fuse with solid material (whether they are serious or joking). This is not a good idea. The idea of a fuse is not to protect your equipment, but to protect your environment against fire. When a fuse in a preamp/amp blows, it means the device is trying to draw more current that it was designed for. For example, if an electrolytic cap burns through, it will "short to ground" and cause the device to pull as much current as possible. So, many people are saying "your fire protection is at the main circuit breaker". This is only partially correct. For things such as a garbage disposal - this is a motor and will definitely trip the main circuit breaker because of how much current it can actually pull down the line. Now let us look at something like a preamp. It has an internal transformer that will convert the 115 volts A/C to something like 15 Volts AC - a voltage that can be used by the DC regulators. The transformer is also not that big - usually not larger than 50 VA. This means that the transformer will only be able to pull and provide current for 50 watts. So, if something shorts inside the preamp and causes it to pull everything it can, it will still only pull a limited amount of current. The main 15 amp circuit breaker is NOT GAURANTEED TO TRIP (since 15 amps is basically 1850 watts of power). This means your little preamp can start a fire if you have a "solid block" in place of the fuse. |
Big fan of this idea. If you are able to spend thousands of dollars of disposable income on the smallest nuance of sound improvement, and you are convinced that the fuse reduces sound quality, then you can afford to buy a new component if it fails when the fuse could have protected it. I have a lathe and can turn you a piece of copper the size of your fuse. It would be better to get it silver plated. Alternatively it could be coated in anti-oxidation grease. Send me a message if I can help. Jerry |
If you think the fuse has that significant and adverse effect on the sound, such that it is worth risking the component and a fire, then don't stop short by just replacing the fuse--bypass the fuse holder by directly wiring the power cord to the internal wiring of the amp. This would mean removing any IEC power cord plug as well. Any kind of junction is, at least theoretically, a source of degraded transfer of power, so these should be removed along with the fuse and fuse holder. Personally, I would NEVER remove something as fundamental to protecting gear and preventing fires as the fuse. I consider this the first line of defense, and would only consider adding more, not less protection, such as surge protection, soft start, etc. |
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It appears the amplifier i’m using has two 7A fuses accessible from the outside, and 5 or 6 lower amperage fuses on a PCB in the amps power supply. In a potential sound-enhancing compromise, I can replace 5-6 lower amperage fuses with solid copper cylinder shaped objects, and leave the two 7A as is...for safety...
...but actually perhaps swapping the 7A fuses also, for some aliexpress "Fever-grade" fuses that make extravagant promises. |
The fuses are there for protection, so I would not bypass them even if they are not high amperage circuits that are being fused. Why risk ANY damage to the amp at all? Clearly the designer thought it was important to protect these circuits and you would be second-guessing as to whether the designer was being overly cautious. If you think it matters that much, bite the bullet and buy exotic fuses; don't by-pass them. |
lots of gloom-and -doomers in this thread. I'm sure you think this is my first rodeo. I'm not going to argue with you. This is America, you're entitled to your opinion. Please make sure you have fuses, surge protectors, and breakers all to keep your home from burning down the next time you're playing music. Jerry |
Your house is protect by the breakers. You are protected by ground fault circuits. The fuse is to protect the amp. Houses don’t burn down because of fuses or breakers in equipment. The neighbor did manage to burn 1/2 her house down behind an electric mickey mouse clock in the basement with a 2 wire plug. The wire caught on fire and NEVER blew a breaker. It was ruled improperly wired. A licensed contractor and the CITY signed off on it 11 months before. It was suppose to be a GFI or some weird protection circuit. Like for a swimming pool. Their basement floods it has a sump and pump.. Usually fires are heaters, or kitchen fires. I’ve seen caps blow. BUT I’ve never seen amps catch on fire. Tube fires are pretty cool.. LOL My stuff just dies. I have dropped a couple boom boxes off buildings.. That’s cool. They explode. |
@fai_v I don’t know what type of device you are looking to bypass the fuse in. But I can tell you from experience that if you have Magnepan speakers and want to bypass the fuse with Mike Powell’s silver tube upgrade, it is safe. Just be sure when turnng your system on and off that the preamp is turned all the way down and the power amps are turned off first. |
Why do you want to do that ? Do you want to give your insurance company an excuse not to pay you if your equipment starts a fire, albeit a small chance ? Besides, contrary to almost everyone who think they can hear better than a dog and believe that a fuse changes the sound, the claim is snake oil, it has absolutely no effect on the sound. So, by bypassing it, you will not actually improve anything. |
INCREDIBLY STUPID BY OP. The fuse is there to protect your equipment, your home, your family and you from being burnt to death if the equipment fails or there is a surge on the line. Not the first time this idiotic proposal has turned up here. Get some school physics for God's sake. And don't believe all this fuse nonsense.
If you insist on going ahead form a fuse shaped bar from solid copper, insert and stand back. If you want the best sound quality you need to use gold instead of copper. |
That dancing in the animated gif is actually an extreme version of electro-mechanical resonance. This is another factor that affects sound quality. The electro-mechanical resonance in the fuse creates a bright/harsh sound and can reduce bass. The sand/power/oil filler is also to dampen this resonance and improve sound quality and current stability. |
Fuses do not affect the sound. If they did, do you think manufacturers of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment would not already put some 'audiophile' fuses in them to make their equipment sound better ? They do not because fuses are there for protection. Unless they are corroded, they do not under any circumstances affect the sound. |
Sorry, but I disagree from extensive listening and testing experience. That's all I will say because this is a subject that is very susceptible to a flame war. As far as why manufacturers do not use audiophile fuses, there are many reasons discussed, but I would probably think it comes down to part availability and manufacturing expectations. There are some boutique equipment manufacturers that do indeed have had a fuse upgrade as part of the standard options. |
Someone who's been taught (conditioned) to know that fuses are for protection only and cannot have an effect on the sound should not go around saying that corrosion of a fuse will have an effect on the sound, when they've just said it's there for protection only. A fuse either works or it doesn't. One can't have it both ways. All the best, |
