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The guru on fuses:

For two years, I have asked why and how fuses could possibly matter. All I got was arguments of faith, pro or con. I needed a real audio guru who actually knows. Here is a link from John Curl’s discussion on Parasound’s website. He engineered and designed some some great equipment, including some Mark Levinson gear, The Grateful Dead’s 30 plus McIntosh amp powered Wall of Sound, and his admittedly, somewhat price compromised Parasound designs. He discusses the electrical properties of standard fuses, showing how they are compromised. The entire article is quite enlightening, but to skip to the fuse section, go to the bottom half of page 6. https://www.parasound.com/pdfs/JCinterview.pdf

128x128danvignau
danvignau's avatar
danvignau OP
935 posts
 
theaudiotweak Please explain what you mean by "devices"  (Electronics?), and "...place them by signal flow".  Next to the signal flow?  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 


You don’t have to agree with all of it, but if it truly offends you, please seek help.

Sorry to disappoint, but anyone that keeps posting about fuses and their sound quality advantages and directionality differences, is the one that really "Needs Help", and you can take that as written in stone.

The day you hear from the "great audio designers" saying they install these $150+ snake oil fuses into their equipment as standard production because they "sound better" is the day you give up audio!

BTW, the John Curl interview you posted in your first post, if you comprehend it, only compares fuses as a "protection device" to save his amps from going up, nothing at all about comparing the ’sound quality" of them, I would stop insinuating John Curl is backing up your own beliefs.

Cheers George
petg60
1,486 posts
 
No conclusion? if you need votes, I am +1 on fuses making a sonic difference also. We know that protection is required and Mr. Curl also honestly stated that measurements cannot be faithful if done statically-no explanation yet (work under progress).
 Mr. interviewer you did not ask the right question whether an upmarket fuse should have value if any. In fact there was no question for any upmarket item, so no answer.
But...
Resistors have other characteristics that effect the sound. One is the
type of lead material used.
Apart from a generally soft interview with a well respected manufacturer I was not enlightened whether an upmarket fuse is audiophoolery since he claims that different type of materials affect the sound. One coin with same side?
And finally he seals it.

Finally I stopped measuring and started listening, and I realized that
the capacitor did have a fundamental flaw. This is were the ear has it all
over test equipment.


G
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nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,544 posts
 
BTW, the John Curl interview you posted in your first post, if you comprehend it, only compares fuses as a "protection device" to save his amps from going up, nothing at all about comparing the ’sound quality" of them, I would stop insinuating John Curl is backing up your own beliefs.
I guess they speak a different kind of English down under. Or maybe it’s the comprehension part that is different.

The whole piece is on distortion and it’s effects on sound.

Curl starts out on protection devices and then goes on to the matter of fuses. On how they fluctuate current and that it hasn’t been measured properly. On how they vary resistance and how much that distorts.

If the piece is about distortion and its effect on sound, why would he mention fuses?
It wasn't mentioned as an aside.


All the best,
Nonoise


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