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Something For The Fuse Guys ...

There are fuses, and then, there are fuses. 

I'm evaluating some prototype fuses that I received in the mail three days ago. 

Over the past few years, I've used fuses from five different manufacturers. The last three were the Red, Black and Blue fuses from Synergistic Research. Each one incrementally improved the sound of my system. My favorite so far was the SR Blue. 

The prototype fuses being evaluated presently raises the SQ beyond all of the others mentioned above. The major improvement to my ears is better tonal accuracy. Instruments and voices are more life-like. The noise is reduced allowing for a more solid 3-D presentation with the musicians more solidly presented on the sound stage. Overall, more information is fleshed out of CDs and LPs. 

The manufacturer, the price and the name of the prototype fuses will come later. I don't have the information thus far. My understanding is, if all works out, the release date is to be mid-October. 

Stay tuned ... 

Frank
128x128oregonpapa
han_n's avatar
han_n
104 posts
 
I'm still quite confident that I prefer to listen to my "whatever's left" with a good glass of wine in hand, than to your "high end" and the worries of directionality. Never mind, I'm fine with that too. You continue to enjoy changing fuses, I will continue to enjoy changing cd's. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
As fate would have it I don’t even have any fuses. Good luck to you sir! 🤡
han_n's avatar
han_n
104 posts
 
We have reached common ground....cheers.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
If it makes you feel good to think so. 🤡
pragmasi
212 posts
 
Had to think twice before posting here as I may be perceived as a heretic. But I think just for the sake of people who stumble across this thread looking to learn something it has to be said that any amplifier which sounds different after you change the fuse has some pretty dodgy engineering.
Fuses are there for one reason - to protect you and your equipment from harm. A design engineer has put them there for a reason and if they've done 1/100th of a decent job they will have no impact on the sound whatsoever.
I would never design an amplifier without correctly rated fuses and I would never put them in the signal path... To qualify what I mean by the 'signal path' I mean the conductors that carry the signal - power supply rails are not part of the signal path (I have a feeling that some people here would claim my fridge is in the signal path because it's plugged into the same ring main).
Let's assume that the fuses we're talking about are between the transformer and the rectifier, that would mean that any small change they make have to survive the AC signal being chopped up by the rectifier, smoothed out by the reservoir capacitors and ignored by the ripple rejection designed into the amplifier... and that's before they even get near the signal path.
Running off batteries is a different matter, they deliver a clean DC supply with a low impedance and regardless of fuses may show an improvement to sound particularly with phono or headphone amps.

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