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What is the science behind audiophile fuses?

There were many threads on the topic of "audiophile fuses" on this forum, and I sure don't want to open old wounds and trench warfare. The fuse on my preamp blew suddenly two days ago, which prompted me to search for a replacement. That's when I came across the term "audiophile fuse" and the fact that they demand far-out prices. Deeper curiosity brought me to several other fora, where users posted glowing praises about their Zero fuses and other exotica. Now I am a scientist, but not a physicist or electrical engineer: so please enlighten me! How can a fuse have an audible influence on the signal, when the signal does not even pass through it? How can a fuse be "directional" when it deals with alternate current? I mean, if I recall my university physics, a fuse is basically a safety valve and nothing more. Am I completely missing an important point here? My scientific field is drug discovery, and because of this background I am thoroughly familiar with the power and reality of the placebo effect. I that's what I am seeing here, or is it real physics? I need objective facts and not opinions, please. I really appreciate your help!

 
reimarc
riccitone
236 posts
 

Something to do with electron flow around (not through) affected by different types of conductors and materials, yada, etc. I tried them, did notice quite a difference. Wish I hadn’t, because I did not believe they would until I swapped even just one.

Too clear and palpable to be my brain lying to me simply for having purchased something more expensive than one dollar. Sorry, just another opinion! I didn’t follow the rules here 😣 
 

 

tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

Not to be intimidated by costly errors, I pressed on with my inquiry into fuses. I made two copper (99.9% pure) slugs, 5x20mm for my mono bloc amps. The engineer in me, being all too well acquainted with Murphy’s Law, was a bit reticent but I pushed on. With the two copper slugs installed in place of the slow blo fuses I listened to several songs. I detected no difference in sound. I put the fuses back and listened again and everything still sounds the same to me. I have two new slo blow HiFi tuning fuses arriving tomorrow but now I’m not sure it will be worth the trouble to swap out the factory fuses.

Now the fuse swap in my DAC made a noticeable difference in the sound- for the better. But in the case with my amps, I’m not expecting to hear a difference since the copper slugs had no impact on the sound. We will see.

So I ground the cap off of one end of my blown hifi fuse and peaked inside. I see a ceramic tube with the two metal end caps. Inside the ceramic tube is a piece of white shrink tubing that fits snugly within the ceramic tube. Inside that shrink tubing are the remains of a filament. It looks like silver wire and has a small shiny ball on the end. I’m sure that’s due to the current draw melting the wire when I powered up my amp. I don’t see any foo foo dust- unless it vanished when I ground the end off.

Anyone willing to sacrifice one of their $400 fuses to peak inside?

noromance's avatar
noromance
10,498 posts
 

So, anti-vibration damping? 2c for $49? 

Inside the ceramic tube is a piece of white shrink tubing that fits snugly within the ceramic tube

tonywinga's avatar
tonywinga
844 posts
 

I'm guessing the shrink tubing is it.  And even that is necked down just at one end.

 

mitch2
4,754 posts
 

"And even that is necked down just at one end."

Maybe from the heat of the solder used to connect that end of the wire to the end cap?  The other end was probably connected prior to installing the heat shrink tubing.

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