Fuses that matter.

I probably mentioned this before but if you have the original stock fuses in the component you can play the old reverse the fuse direction game to squeeze some more out of the system. All you need is a good set of ears. If the component has only one fuse reverse it's direction and see if the sound got better or worse. You can tell when the direction of the fuse is wrong when the sound is relatively harsh or strident and moore distorted. When the fuse direction is correct the sound will be more natural, with relatively less distortion and grain. If there are multiple fuses, reverse them one at a time, listening each time to see if the sound got better or worse. Sometimes it might be a close call, if it is leave the fuse as is and go to the next one. After all fuses have been auditioned for directionality repeat the procedure to verify. At the end of all this your sound should be considerably better than when you started.

"An ordinary man has no means of deliverance." - old audiophile axiom

05-06-12: Knghifi
In MF Shunyata Triton review, Caelin Gabriel invented the DTCD Analyzer that can measure anything that conducts current. He found even fuses measure differently. So theoretically fuses should sound differently in a component but like everything else, it's a function of the component.

I haven't reviewed those particular measurements, but as a philosophical observation I would comment that a measurable difference by no means necessarily indicates the likelihood of a sonic difference. It depends on both the amount of the difference, and the sensitivity of the design to that difference.

Every electrical part in every component has specified and/or measurable ranges of variation ("tolerances") for numerous electrical parameters, and measurable differences will exist even between two parts of the same type that were manufactured at the same time by the same manufacturer. That applies to transistors, tubes, integrated circuits, resistors, capacitors, diodes, inductors, transformers, fuses, etc. A good design will minimize or eliminate sensitivity to those differences, within the range over which they can be expected to occur.

Regards,
-- Al

FWIW, during my recent listening experiment, I A/B'd fuse direction in the amp (Pass XA30.5). I must have switched fuse direction 15 or 20 times.

I SOMETIMES thought I MIGHT have heard a difference, but it was well within the category of -yourmindisplayingtricksonyou-. I'm not saying that fuse direction can't have audible effects. I'm just saying that, for me, it did not. That could be because...

1. My ears aren't good enough.
2. My system isn't good enough.
3. My amp is not sensitive to fuse direction.
4. Nothing is sensitive to fuse direction.

About which is true, I don't really have an opinion.

Bryon

"A good design will minimize or eliminate sensitivity to those differences, within the range over which they can be expected to occur"

Exactly. I'm surprised that people can hear difference in DACs and preamps - electronics that has regulated power supplies and draws low and pretty much constant current.

One possibility why differences in fuse direction might be difficult to detect is that the speakers and/or other components that have fuses must be addressed as well. For example, if a given system has eight fuses and only two fuses are replaced with aftermarket fuses, there is a 50% probability that half the remaining fuses are not in the correct direction. So, one might reasonably conclude, assuming that fuse directionality is real, that distortion and noise produced by the remaining unchanged fuses are masking the positive effects of the two new fuses. There is also the real possibility that other undetected problems in the system are (also) masking the effects of the new fuses.