Fuses fuses fuses

gdnrbob
Oh, your are going to light fires, especially with that avatar ;)

Re: directional fuses, I recall Ralph at Atma-Sphere mentioning something, but I forgot the details. Though I think he said there was something to it. (If I am wrong Ralph, sorry).
B

I don’t want to put words in Ralph’s mouth, either, but I’m pretty sure he’s not really on board the whole fuse directionality train. His argument is (and I suppose he could possibly be accused of fence sitting on fuse directionality) that when someone flips the fuse it somehow magically gets a better grip in the fuse holder. Cough, cough  As I recall the other fence sitter Almarg agrees with Ralph in this regard. 

Geoff’s statement above is correct. See the first of my posts dated 10-28-2016 in the long running "Synergistic Red Fuse" thread, in which I quote posts that have been made here by Ralph and several other designers of well regarded audio electronics on the subject of fuse directionality. I quoted Ralph’s comment (which had originally appeared in another fuse-related thread) as follows:

Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere:

… Fuses are inherently incapable of having directionality in any way whatsoever.

… I joined this thread recently with some results on testing. Those results are that the directionality appears out of coincidence and that actually greater improvement can be had by rotating the fuse in the holder for best contact…. Reversal is improving the contact area because fuse and holder are not dimensionally perfect and the fuse might sit better in the holder in one direction. By rotating the fuse in the holder without reversing it gets the same effect only more profoundly.

Also, in the numerous fuse-related threads that have appeared here over the years I can recall exactly two members who have reported experimenting with fuse rotation: Ralph, and a member named SGordon1, who posted in the Red Fuse thread on 5-3-2016 about having done that. Both gentlemen reported that significant differences resulted.

Also, as far as I can recall none of the many people who have reported hearing differences as a result of reversing the direction of a fuse have ever indicated that they went back and forth between the two directions multiple times, reinserting the fuse each time with randomly varying rotational orientation, to verify that their results were repeatable and that they were unrelated to rotational orientation.

Now, does it seem unlikely that rotating a fuse in its holder would have a reasonable likelihood of making an audibly significant difference? In the absence of empirical evidence, such as Ralph has provided, my technically-based instinct would be to consider it as being unlikely although possible. However, I would think it to be vastly more unlikely, and in fact impossible, for a fuse to have **inherent** directional characteristics, to an audibly significant degree. And as I mentioned, several other designers of respected audio electronics whom I quoted in the post I referred to above agree with me.

Regards,
-- Al

Al, thanks- I had seen the thread you linked to but only glanced at it.

Are any of these aftermarket fuses UL listed and do any manufacturers install these in their gear straight from the factory? 

A few years ago I considered buying something from Wyred 4 Sound and audiophile fuses were an upgrade. I've also read reviews and announcements of products that have them already featured but can't recall the brands. They are in the minority but that seems to be growing, albeit, slowly.

All the best,
Nonoise

My experience with the SR Black fuses is similar to those of nonoise with his fuses. I listened to the fuses placed in one direction and then reversed this direction. Without fail there’s an undeniable change in the sound, not necessarily good vs bad, but "different ". One direction was very clear and "locked in ", the other had an "out of phase " character.

This contrast was heard with my DAC, Line Stage and amplifier. A good friend of mine had the same results in his system with completely different components. He and I heard this with SR and his Audio Horizon fuses. The bottom line was consistent differences in sonic character based on fuse direction.

I am unable to provide a satisfying technical explanation ànd won’t make àn attempt to do so. Al, Ralph and others make strong and compelling arguments why fuses "shouldn’t" behave in a directional manner. I respect their opinions very much. At the end of the day I simply listen and report what I have heard with or without a satisfactory technical explanation to accompany it.

Why do I hear a difference? I don’t know.
Do I hear a difference based on fuse direction placement? Unequivocally yes. As with all things involving audio YMMV 😊.
Charles