2. cables
  3. 124345-1776

Direction of aftermarket fuses (only for believers!)

It is with reluctance that I start another thread on this topic with the ONLY GOAL for believers to share their experience about aftermarket fuses.
To others: you can call us snobs, emperors w/o clothes,... etc but I hope you refrain posting just your opinion here. If you did not hear any difference, great, maybe there isn’t.

The main driver for this new post is that I am starting a project to mod my NAD M25 7 ch amp for my home theater. It has 19 fuses (2 per channel, 4 on the power supply board, 1 main AC) and I will try a mix of AMR Gold, SR Black and Audio Magic Platinum (anyway that is the plan, I may try out some other brands/models). As it is reasonably difficult to change them, esp the ones on each channel module that requires complete disassembly, I would like to know what the direction is for these models mentioned and of course, others who HAVE HEARD there is a difference please share your experience on any fuse model you have tried.

Fuses are IME directional:
Isoclean is one of the first to indicate the direction (2008/2009) on their fuses. Users of HiFi Tuning (when the awareness rose quite a bit amongst audiophiles) have mostly heard the difference.

As an IEEE engineer, I was highly skeptical of cabling decades ago (I like the speaker design of John Dunlavy but he said on many occasions that cables nor footers matter at all, WRONG!). Luckily, my curiosity proved me wrong as well. I see the same skepticism that I and many others had about the need for aftermarket cables many, many years ago now on fuses and esp on the direction on fuses.

Another example is the direction of capacitors (I do not mean electrolytic types). Even some manufacturers now and certainly many in the past did not believe it can make a difference sonically. Maybe some do but it takes time in the assembly to sort and put them in the right direction/order (esp as some of the cap manufacturers still do not indicate "polarity") so that maybe is one argument why this is not universally implemented.








128x128jazzonthehudson
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

jazzonthehudson OP
254 posts
05-23-2016 8:23pm
"My experience tells me differently. Before I insert after market fuses, I clean the contacts - as all contacts - if they look clean, with Gold DeoxIT, otherwise first with silver polish, then DeoxIT. I always reverse back the direction to ensure my findings are consistent.

Whenever possible, double blind tests are conducted by wrapping Teflon around the fuses."

Right, and the use of paste type contact enhancers such as Quicksilver Gold (pure silver spiked with gold) ensures a consistent and thorough contact of the fuse end caps with the fuse holder. And guess what? The fuses are still directional. Is this a good time to mention the elephant in the room - wire directionality? Not just fuse directionality, but directionality of interconnects, speaker cables, the wire in transformers, the wire in capacitors, internal wiring in electronics, the wiring in speakers and speaker crossovers, you name it. And power cords - even though they are in an AC circuit. Perhaps even RCA connectors and other stamped, rolled or drawn metal used in electonics. Maybe even fuse holders, though not for the reason suggested yesterday.

cheers,

geoff kait
machina dynamica

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,597 posts
 
I meant if you wanted to get to the truth you would eliminate the fuse holder from the equation. You know, for the experiment. Capish? Whether or not aftermarket fuses meet UL, etc. is irrelevant to the question of directionality. You don’t really think audiophiles care if their fuses are UL listed, do you?

UL is a directive? You make it sound like a requirement.
I'm chalking this one to not having read my last post.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

atmasphere
4,819 posts
05-24-2016 4:54pm
Geoffkait: "I meant if you wanted to get to the truth you would eliminate the fuse holder from the equation. You know, for the experiment. Capish? Whether or not aftermarket fuses meet UL, etc. is irrelevant to the question of directionality. You don’t really think audiophiles care if their fuses are UL listed, do you?

UL is a directive? You make it sound like a requirement."

To which Atmasphere responded,

"I’m chalking this one to not having read my last post."

I read your last post. I read your last two posts. Did I err? Did I misinterpret something? If so, what? Did you read my post suggesting not using the fuse holder in the experiment? Don't you agree that's the best way to get to the bottom of the fuse directionality issue.

cheers

almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
I would think that it is not necessary to start modifying hardware and perhaps invalidating warranties in the process of getting to the bottom of the fuse directionality issue. IMO the methodology I suggested earlier should suffice, if done in an honest and careful manner.

Furthermore, if you are suggesting soldering wires directly to fuses in lieu of using holders I would wonder if the heat that is applied to the two ends of the fuses during the soldering process might change their characteristics sufficiently to invalidate the results, and/or might shorten the lifespan of these often expensive fuses.

Finally, my suspicion is that underlying your response to my suggestion is the goal of attacking my advocacy of thoroughness in the investigation of the causes of seemingly implausible and/or unexplainable tweaks by suggesting that the rationale underlying my proposed methodology suggests going to extremes, extremes that I however would consider unnecessary. It comes down to a matter of judgment, judgment that is hopefully as informed as possible, and as I say I would draw the line at what I originally suggested. I’m sure, though, that YMWV ("Your Mileage Will Vary").

I have nothing further to say on the subject.

Regards,
-- Al

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

almarg
6,398 posts
05-24-2016 10:41pm
"I would think that it is not necessary to start modifying hardware and perhaps invalidating warranties in the process of getting to the bottom of the fuse directionality issue. IMO the methodology I suggested earlier should suffice, if done in an honest and careful manner."

Huh? I’m not suggesting that anyone modify hardware or invalidate warranties or any such thing. I’m just saying that you can eliminate the variable of the fuse holder by eliminating it from the test. I’m referring to an independent third party tester. That would be an honest and careful manner, no? Or maybe you’re insinuating that any person who doesn’t get the results you’re looking for isn’t honest and careful, it’s hard to tell. The method you suggested earlier actually doesn’t suffice since some people will jump to the conclusion that it’s the fuse holder that’s directional, not the fuse itself.

cheers,

geoff kait
machina dynamica

More to discover