And....hereeeee's ...Glennie!
Wow, I'm really becoming addicted to the HiFi fuses.
Just for the fun of it (and because I KNOW what the do to the sound), I changed the fuse in the PS Audio Power Plant 300 about 10 minutes ago. I shall attempt to remain sanguine about the improvement.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ...well, I sure failed that!!
Really, guys and ladies (and others, as Anna Russell would say): you really have to buck up here and change yer damn fuses and quit griping that "a fuse can't POSSIBLY make a difference. It does.
What surprised me is what DID change and what DIDN'T change.
The "air" in the rear layers of the orchestra -- or maybe I should just say the "ambience" in the rear layers became significantly more noticeable. Perhaps the better fuse is allowing the Power Plant to be even clearer than it was (I'll leave it to the technical-minded to explain that). And the brass are surging forth both more powerfully, and more distinctly separated from each other (whereas before, they were a bit congealed). What did NOT improve is the string section, which actually is making me check my tubes in the First Sound preamp. Fortunately, I have spare Amperex 6922s, so I can tell tomorrow morning. I'm leaving the Power Plant running all night to break in. (I think it took around 5 hours for the fuses to really cook in "well," whatever that means. To me, it means the difference between the moment I turned the amps on (the first place I put them and listened) and the identifiable changes 8 hours later (which means when I arise tomorrow, er...today, at 8 a.m., I should hear a difference.
Back to the strings: this is a Deutsche Grammophon issue of Jean Sibelius' Finlandia [413 755-2]. I thought the strings were nice, but with the new fuses, it's clear they're not the best rendering of strings I've heard. They're not bad, just...edge in spots. Fascinatingly enough, the brass improved quite a bit, which usually means better mid bass renderings (and the brass do sound more golden-ish and simultaneously less "biting" (read: harsh) in their upper midrange frequencies). And the oboe now has more body to it, and I didn't even give the 'Canes time to warm up, because it was so late when I began listening, almost midnight.
Nonetheless, the fuses are now in the Power Plant and the Hurricanes and there's no disputing the quality of the improvement in sound. I can understand some folks saying $37 for fuses is absurd, but it makes a greater improvement than a high-quality outlet, or cleaning the CD.
Hey, it's on you if you'd rather gripe than check it out. But MAN, does it ever sound better. And I would imagine those of you with very high-quality systems (such as the guy who changed the fuse in high Magnepan 1.7s on another thread and went apes***) will hear it instantly. You'll be lucky, if you hit "play" on your cd player while walking to the listening chair, to actually REACH the listening chair without turning around slowly in disbelief.
