2. tech-talk
  3. 1392953041

why do hi-end fuses keep blowing, while std don't?

I've had my McIntosh MC275 for several years running flawlesly. Up until last Nov I was using stock KT88 and rolled small tubes and had a Hi-Fi Tunning fuse without issues.

In Nov-13 I upgraded the KT-88 to Psvane black bottles measuring 60mA plate current. A few power-ons after I rolled the tubes, I turned on the amp to let it warm up, but returned to a blown fuse. I thought a tube might be bad so used a std fuse, but never had a problem again.

Two months ago I bought a new high-end fuse, replaced it, and soon thereafter the same happened: blown fuse. I replaced it with a std fuse again, which is still running.

So I want to upgrade the fuse, but chances are if I use the 2A fuse it will happen again. Yet I don't want to use a higher value fuse. I'm thinking the Psvanes might be drawing significantly more current than the stock KT88 and the Hi-Fi Tunning fuse might have a tighter spec, driving said fuses to fail while the std ones survive. Would you agree?

Suggestions as to how to resolve this?

thanks much!
lewinskih01

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
bdp24 writes:
You’re missing my point, Mr. Kait.


If we could just pin this, maybe next to the Forum link, cut and paste, save an awful lot of time.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I tried reading the AudioCircle Forum discussion on fuses. Modjeski is there and keeps talking about science, but after reading and reading never once did he mention any actual science. He did mention microphonics, only to say that can't be a factor but again without any actual science. When it got to where he was dismissing burn-in because nobody reported it prior to 1950, well totally lost interest. Only so much baloney I can take.

Possibly in spite of my initial impression the guy is not totally out to lunch. Don't know. What I do know, so much of what I saw is no better than any other guy with a keyboard and internet connection could do. So if you have a good link, something of actual informational value, please provide it.

Meantime, it is totally amazing how much improvement I heard immediately from just one SR Blue Quantum Fuse. Not that great at first, but reversed it and... awesome! One of them did blow on turn-on. Synergistic (well, technically high-end electronics.com) did replace it for free. After talking with Keith Herron we decided to go with a little higher value, and that one has been in there several months now. None of the others has blown. If any do, another call to high-end for another replacement. 
More to discover