Direction of aftermarket fuses (only for believers!)


It is with reluctance that I start another thread on this topic with the ONLY GOAL for believers to share their experience about aftermarket fuses.
To others: you can call us snobs, emperors w/o clothes,... etc but I hope you refrain posting just your opinion here. If you did not hear any difference, great, maybe there isn’t.

The main driver for this new post is that I am starting a project to mod my NAD M25 7 ch amp for my home theater. It has 19 fuses (2 per channel, 4 on the power supply board, 1 main AC) and I will try a mix of AMR Gold, SR Black and Audio Magic Platinum (anyway that is the plan, I may try out some other brands/models). As it is reasonably difficult to change them, esp the ones on each channel module that requires complete disassembly, I would like to know what the direction is for these models mentioned and of course, others who HAVE HEARD there is a difference please share your experience on any fuse model you have tried.

Fuses are IME directional:
Isoclean is one of the first to indicate the direction (2008/2009) on their fuses. Users of HiFi Tuning (when the awareness rose quite a bit amongst audiophiles) have mostly heard the difference.

As an IEEE engineer, I was highly skeptical of cabling decades ago (I like the speaker design of John Dunlavy but he said on many occasions that cables nor footers matter at all, WRONG!). Luckily, my curiosity proved me wrong as well. I see the same skepticism that I and many others had about the need for aftermarket cables many, many years ago now on fuses and esp on the direction on fuses.

Another example is the direction of capacitors (I do not mean electrolytic types). Even some manufacturers now and certainly many in the past did not believe it can make a difference sonically. Maybe some do but it takes time in the assembly to sort and put them in the right direction/order (esp as some of the cap manufacturers still do not indicate "polarity") so that maybe is one argument why this is not universally implemented.








128x128jazzonthehudson

mapman
13,349 posts
05-27-2016 4:36pm
Yawn.

No. 13,349. Thanks for your input.  Are we keeping you up past your bedtime?
Jim, thanks for the extract from John Curl! From the electrical point of view, a VD should not matter much. Your comments was also incorrectly interpreted by me ( Al, thanks for the small but important addition of "THAN" ), hence my thought of possibly testing same brand fuses with different breaking points/capacities.

My best guess is that the vibration control/dampening (e.g. use of special liquids, beeswax, dampening material in Bussman) is a very important determinant, as well as the metallurgical composition and treatment (cryo) of fuse / fuse filaments. 


Hifi Tuning Supreme silver work well in both directions depending on taste on some music I tend to switch it round in the pre amp.

1 way sounds fuller with a large stage when direction switched things become tightly focused with a more direct presentation

I am using a 13amp syn research red fuse on my argentum powercord and switching round makes no difference to sound whatsoever

thaybran said:

Hifi Tuning Supreme silver work well in both directions depending on taste on some music I tend to switch it round in the pre amp.

1 way sounds fuller with a large stage when direction switched things become tightly focused with a more direct presentation

thaybran,

Would you please answer a few questions.

1) What is the piece of audio equipment the fuse is installed in?

2) What is it protecting? AC line feeding the piece of equipment? Something on the DC power supply side of the piece of equipment? Other?

3) Ampere rating of the fuse?

4) Where and how is the fuse installed and supported?

Example,

A) Fuse clips are mounted directly to a separate circuit board for the incoming AC power that feeds the piece of equipment.

B) Panel mounted fuse holder on the rear back panel of the piece of equipment?

C) Fuse clips are mounted on a common circuit board where other electronic components share the same circuit board?

D) Other, please explain?



I am using a 13amp syn research red fuse on my argentum powercord and switching round makes no difference to sound whatsoever

Please explain.

Is your AC mains power used for your audio equipment 230V, nominal?

Is the fuse mounted/installed in the 250V male plug assembly? (The fuse is meant to protect the power cord?)

Other? Where is the fuse located in the power cord assembly?