@spenav Thanks for the warning. I know SR fuses are premium in price, and I most likely won’t even consider them.
I noticed that ACME uses a CFC coating/plating on the contacts, which led to my original question. In terms of electrical conductivity, CFC appears to be several orders of magnitude lower than the commonly used contact metals, ranging from silver to rhodium. Rhodium is widely used by several well-known brands such as Padis and Furutech.
I understand the durability advantages of rhodium, but gold-plated fuses are also quite popular. This makes me wonder why those major brands choose to use the harder rhodium plating, knowing that users will inevitably complain about the longer and more difficult break-in process.
The electrical conductivity among them are listed below:
- Silver ≈ 6.3 × 10⁷ Siemens / m)
- Copper ≈ 5.9 × 10⁷ S/m)
- Gold ≈ 4.1 × 10⁷ S/m)
- Rhodium ≈ 2.3×10^7 S/m
- CFC ≈10^2 to 10^5 S/m
The next question that also confounds me is this: once fully broken in, rhodium-plated fuses are often praised for their sound quality. The author you have referred also highly praise the CFC coated ACME fuses, which has poorest conductivity. Would a gold-plated fuse, with its higher electrical conductivity, outperform them instead easily?
