Anyone used these audio ceramic slow blow fuses from Littlefuse?


While perusing the fuse offerings at Mouser Electronics I noticed these audio/medical fuses priced at around $9.00 US. As someone who has been reluctant to spend the price for the highest priced audiophile fuses, these more reasonably priced offerings caught my eye. Just curious if anyone has had occasion to try them and form an opinion. I must say the attention to quality control, ratings specifications, and published testing results make these look more appealing to me than the rather vague specs of many "audiophile" fuses. 

https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/240/Littelfuse_Fuse_285_Datasheet.pdf-1317236.pdf
photon46

Showing 2 responses by bigshutterbug

I recently tried the Littelfuse 285 series fuses (1A) in my Benchmark DAC 3, in place of the stock ones. To my ears, the gold plated ones were much richer in midrange tone, with more warmth, and the highs were a bit less extended. Transient attack was less noticeable as well. Very pleasing to listen to with edgy recordings, but missed the upper highs on good recordings. The rhodium plated 285 series in the DAC gave me a similar, beautiful, rich midrange, but more attack than the gold, and very nicely extended upper highs, without the slightly forward sound I was getting with the stock fuses. I did not notice any more or less detail compared to the stock fuses, and nothing better or worse in the soundstage. I'm leaving the rhodium 285 Littelfuses in the DAC, and have been enjoying the system a bit more since, due to the change. I will be trying some 5 amp 285 fuses in my JOB 225 amp next week, and will give you my thoughts on them soon afterwards. 
Photon46: 
celander is correct, I got them as free samples from Littelfuse (in China) on their website. His product numbers are correct. Their website is a bit difficult to navigate, but if you take some time to figure it out, you can order some FREE samples. The ship quickly via Fed-Ex from overseas, and I got mine in about a week. I got two for my Job 225 amp, one gold plated and one rhodium, and tried them both last week. I got the same results as I did with their fuses in my Benchmark DAC3...The gold plated one is warm and rich, with good bass weight, sweet on the top end, and highs are slightly rolled off. Rhodium was my favorite, with more extended highs and a bit more attack than the gold ones. Great rich tone, never edgy. I liked the rhodiums more than stock glass fuses due to their tone. I also compared the rhodiums to my Synergistic blue fuses in both components. The blues showed a very noticeable improvement in small background details and especially the added "ambience" to the soundstage in my room, and the way the notes "lingered" in the room and decayed more realistically. Both the stock fuses and the Littelfuses were not able to compete in that area to the blues. I did like to tone of my system a little bit better with the rhodiums though. I know the Synergistic fuses are insanely priced for a fuse, but I have used other tweaks that made similar improvements for the same money, and ended up not being able to enjoy the system as much without them either. 
If you are one of the "naysayers" out there who refuse to spend a penny on upgraded fuses because you claim they won't make any sonic difference, do yourself a favor and order some gold and rhodiums from them for FREE, and actually take the time to listen and compare. If you can't tell a difference with your ears and your system, then you can smile and know that other similar, simple tweaks are also a waste of time and money for you as well. For the rest of us who are "cursed" with the ability to hear these differences....keep on tweaking!