Albertporter, I will answer your questions in the order asked, yes, maybe and no.
I have exchanged power cords with cables made with high grade components and haven't noticed any sonic benefit. Is it my ears which don't hear as well as others? Is it my home's wiring which won't allow six feet of high quality cable between the wall outlet and my amp to improve what the 40 feet of 14 gauge romex provides from the breaker box? Is it my auditory memory which isn't acute enough? Maybe my equipment just isn't good enough to reveal the difference? Am I not interested enough? Whatever the reason, I don't hear any difference with power cord changes.
Now with interconnects my answer is maybe. Although I have tried quite a few different interconnects I have never heard a difference. This one I chalk up to laziness/indifference.
As for speaker cables I am convinced I have noticed differences. Surprisngly the most expensive cable I've owned, Straightwire Black Silk, made no impression on me. Pretty certain Audioquest Midnight was the first cable I noticed a significant difference with. Depth was the word I remember associating with this cable. There have been others that impressed me with their sonic signature.
These are my personal observations. I have no problem with the fact that others come to different conclusions. We experience the world through different ears and eyes. We have different desires and different expectations. It's no surprise our outcomes differ when we experiment with system changes. I don't claim there is no difference, only that I don't hear it and am not interested in listening for it.
The question I have to ask about fuses changing the audible character of an amp is this. If a certain fuse makes an amp sound better, why doesn't the designer/manufacturer of the amp use it. If a manufacturer is out to sell the best sounding amp, why wouldn't he spend $10 or $15 to make this simple change? I'm assuming we're talking about amps costing $2k+. If I'm paying $3.5 on an amp, I'd surely pay $10 more if it sounds that much better and save myself the trouble of changing fuses.
Tim
