Fuse or braker for dedicated lines?

I have not done direct comparisons between glass-insulator and ceramic-insulator fuses. I have listened extensively to the same system running through fuses and through breakers and have never noted a difference but haven't done ABX comparisons, which I think would be discounted by the folks who are chiding me, anyway....

I have a considerable concern about the use of magnetic circuit breakers because they have a built in inductor through which the power passes on its way to the outlets. The chance of that being an issue is small, though, because magnetic CBs are rarely if ever used in domestic wiring.

With respect to causality of perceived sonic differences with varying insulator materials, I'd be as much or more concerned about the internal construction of the circuit pathway and the materials used therin. So far as I know, there is no easy way, short of dissecting and bench-testing several brands of fuses, to know if the ONLY difference between the fuses was the insulating material. That point being made, even various brands of ceramic or glass fuses might have different innards. My suggestion would be to get as wide a variety of fuses as possible and test them and choose the one that sounds best. Pretty simple.

Now, as to the tone of my post. As I noted in a private email to cfb, I do have a wicked sense of humor. I have no intention of abandoning it but perhaps it will be easier to tolerate if you realize that (1) I am just as willing to turn that sense of humor on people in my own camp as on people in other camps and (2) I am not given to taking offense when people poke fun at me. I do, however, take offense when people tell me to shut up or, in cfb's case, to take my finger off the submit key.

Finally, my point in that post was that there exists a continuum of opinions about the sonic effects of various components, cables, tweaks, et alia. For example, in the current issue of $ensible Sound, one of the reviewers says that all amplifiers sound alike. Sheesh! Does he have any ears at all? On the other hand, a fellow opined to me the other day that hanging a picture in one's listening room that happened to be framed in metal would "render the sound utterly unlistenable." I reserve the right to sound both bemused and, yes, possibly condescending about such extreme opinions. As to the rest of us who fall somewhere in the middle, my position remains unchanged:

IF YOU PERCEIVE A DIFFERENCE IN THE SOUND, AND YOU LIKE THE DIFFERENCE THAT YOU PERCEIVE, AND YOU CAN AFFORD TO MAKE THE CHANGE, THEN DO IT.

And for goodness sake lighten up. We're supposed to be doing this because it is fun.

Willie

Well, in Japan they argue endlessly over the best paper pulp to use for cones (Yes, paper is still considered the best in many parts of the world not afflicted with the marketing need to bring NASA materials into evereything ) and magnet materials. And, I have long wondered why the little iron output transformers David Hafler had hand wound four decades ago in those now cheap Dynacos sound so good. Iron is iron... eh? Anyway, one guy I respect, David Deckert, argues that music sounds better at night because the sun, and its electromagnetic influence, is on the other side of the earth. I'm open to anything except some of my favorite people being short with one another.

"Life is too short to be short."

Let's not short circuit over a fuse issue.

Sincerely, I remain

Still puzzling over this breaker vs. fuse issue & I'm just wondering...
Both devices have a buss input contact point & a load output contact point. However the breaker has an extra set of contacts internally (the switch part) that the fuse does not. Could it be the additional micro-arcing that occurs across the breakers's internal switch contact that makes them noisier?

Regarding line conditioning: I use Chang Lightspeeds which were in-circuit during the aforementioned "experiment". Whatever upline power changes occurred was not masked by these filters.

One other thing about breakers: the very worst kind to have for sourcing an audio rig is a ground fault type breaker - they're extremely noisy.

Just want to add that in talking to people in Nth America, Europe , UK, Aust and here in NZ, it is marked that independent experimentation has revealed a preference for ceramic fuses. And this has been my experience too.

Hi Bob. Thanks for your email.

Hoping to move right along to further insights (as opposed to bickering over old ones) - one of the most useful things in my experience, is to regularly call up the local electricity supplier and complain of noise on the line and ask if they could come out and clean and tighten the connections (again). And they send a man-in-van out to clean and tighten the connections feeding my house. It is very noticeable the morning after it has been done - and I am not at all confused about which night they do it.