PS Audio PWD MKII HiFi Tuning fuse direction

"Electrons don't carry the signal so I suspect we can probably rule that particular theory out. In fact, electrons in the conductor are kind of just sitting there, drifting along at a couple centimeters a minute. "

With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about.

Al, I believe the fuse data to which I provided a link above is new and different from the previous data under discussion a while back inasmuch as the new measured differences are much more pronounced. Of course, measured differences might not be audible but if someone is looking for a smoking gun, this new data is just that! I don't get it, if you can measure it and you can hear it, what else is left to be so skeptical about? Seems silly.

GK
MD

Geoff, again, the difference are measured in a DC circuit. AC current switches direction 60 times per second. Even if the fuse is directional, you would not hear it in an AC circuit. The paper does not even suggest you would. So lots of reasons to be skeptikal about claims of hearing directionality differences in an AC circuit.

10-23-12: Geoffkait
Al, I believe the fuse data to which I provided a link above is new and different from the previous data under discussion a while back inasmuch as the new measured differences are much more pronounced.

A lot of it is new, presenting data on different fuse types in many cases. But I don't see any major differences between the two sets of data, or anything that would change the comments I provided either above or in the other thread (aside from the fact that the vector impedance data that I had indicated was missing from the other paper has now been added).

All of the text in the new paper that provides interpretations of the data is identical to text that appeared in the other paper. Including, btw, the remarkable admission that the worst case power loss due to voltage drop across any of the fuses is “very small in comparison to typical variations in line voltage of average 3%.” A point I had made early on in the other thread. In regard to which I also pointed out that if the line voltage at the user’s location happens to be higher than the line voltage at which the component was developed and voiced, the larger voltage drops of the standard fuses will be in the direction of helping, not hurting, if in fact they have any audible consequences at all.

Concerning the directionality-related measurements specifically, in addition to the good comments Edorr has provided in his last couple of posts I will repeat a basic point I made in the other thread:

If per my comment and Roger [Modjeski's] comments the OVERALL resistance for both directions is insignificant, the DIFFERENCE in resistance between the two orientations will certainly be insignificant.

In any event, my comment in this thread that you originally were responding to was:

Some will say that fuses are directional because energy is being transferred through them in just one direction, or because during manufacture the conductive material they contain was "drawn" in a certain direction. WHETHER OR NOT [emphasis added] fuses in fact have any directional characteristics, the relevance of those facts is IMO speculative at best, and most likely unprovable.

I don't see anything in either set of data which calls that statement into question.

Regards,
-- Al

Al, I agree that the measured differences are relatively small compared to what one would expect (to explain the sonic differences heard by users). The manufacturer admits in the text of the data sheets regarding Noise that, "The measurements done so far showed some measurable differences between fuse(s), but didn’t explain completely the sonic differences between fuses." In other words, the manufacturer hears significant sonic differences between various types of fuses. As for fuse directionality, the manufacturer, HiFi Tuning, used to be adamant in his belief that fuses, in particular HIS fuses, were NOT directional - that no matter which direction the fuses were inserted they would eventually Break In to yield the same results. But at some point he changed his mind completely. One assumes he then had to learn how to keep careful track of the wire orientation as it travels through the fabrication process so that by the time the wire winds up inside the fuse the direction of the ARROW on the fuse body is correct.