Something For The Fuse Guys ...

aux you actually gave a constructive response earlier about how fuses are used in various gear and I don’t hear anyone complaining so not sure what you are fussing about. Would you prefer all assertions no matter how much based on conjecture be taken as gospel? That’s called the road to nowhere.

Frank,

Notice that in the post you alluded to I didn’t say the doubters CAN’T hear. What I did say was that perhaps they don’t know what to listen FOR. That’s a big difference, and not intended to be a slight in any way. 

Sure, you have a point.  It's at least possible that the fuses make a certain sonic difference that a skeptic isn't listening for.
I'd say, ultimately, that can't take this very far though.  Plenty of people with sharp ears, and who have technical knowledge, are skeptical of the claims.

Thousands upon thousands of aftermarket fuses sold by various manufacturers, and thousands of happy customers attesting to the viability of these fuse tweaks. Are they all just "imagining" an improvement in sound quality?

YES.  Really.  That could easily be the case.
If it's a normal part of being human to experience bias effects, we can expect a lot of people to experience bias effects. And so long as we are talking about people taking a "subjectivist" approach along the lines of "I don't need this to be objectively verifiable, if I hear it I know it's true" then that very approach self-selects for the pattern of people who "hear differences." They are all using the same problematic methodology.

Again, it is this same reliance upon subjective experience, without objective evidence or controls, by which people in the millions come to believe...anything! 

Anyway, that's all I mean to comment on this here.  If you want to test fuses and find you hear a difference, and it's all worthwhile for you, enjoy.  We all practice this hobby our own way.   And I'm not actually saying fuses can't or don't make a difference.   Cheers.

Just for the record, I agree with prof.

Also I have stated multiple times in the past that fuses can make a difference and even described scenarios I have encountered over the years where changing a fuse did.

So based on that guess what? One might consider me to be a "fuse guy".

A" fuser" comes out!
😇😇😇😇

Yea well the problem is Op offered to send me a fuse to try and I accepted because I was genuinely curious. When I reported back and did not get the advertised results I was marginalized and my ability to listen questioned.  One particular "pest" suggested my findings were an outlier and should be disregarded. Not preaching the mandated fuse product gospel did not go over well with anyone.

Good news is I know from experience just the act of reseating a fuse can make a difference so changing one surely can as well. Of course nobody ever factors that in rather any positive change reported is automatically attributed to the fuse. I may have even heard some difference with the fuse sent but if so it was very minor and hard to confirm. I ended up going back to the stock fuse in my Arc pre-amp which appears to be of very good quality.

To me its like wires and power cords. They can make a difference but not always. Some are just designed way differently than others and some are cheaply made and some not. Maybe replacing a cheap or partially blown fuse with a new or higher quality one can make a big difference in some cases. Most likely when directly in the audio signal path like with Magnepan speakers but that is usually not the case with most home audio electronics.

So that’s the story. mapman out.