Why don't amplifier Companies use high end fuses?

I think we are all forgetting a major contributor to audio products -- logistics. It really depends on how critical this specific area is to an audio manufacturer. If we are talking about somebody like ARC (Audio Research) who is so critical about these things that they have to use a specific brand/type of solder, then the selection of fuse can also be a major contributor.

Wyred 4 Sound used to advertise "upgraded Furutech rhodium fuse" in their DAC 2 SE level, so the boutique manufacturers that use specialty fuses are out there. However, Wyred now only indicates "upgraded fuse" without specifying type/brand.

When an audio manufacturer needs to have a board manufacturer build xx number of boards for them to use when assembling/integrating their audio equipment, they don’t want to worry about sourcing a specific fuse type. I have talked to a boutique amp manufacturer who never knows what kind of capacitors will be available for his main power supply when he gets ready to do a manufacturing run on his amp.

When the sub $10 fuses are readily available at industrial manufacturing houses (such as Little Fuse or Buss), it becomes very easy for them to just assembly and ship. These fuses are most likely sub $2 at this point and time is money. Even at the price point of Krell or Parasound, an additional $50-100 for a fuse will affect bottom line, especially in amplifiers or devices that have multiple fuses. I know the Parasound amps have a total of 5 fuses (that’s $250-500 dollars that affect the bottom line, which is typically 50-60% or retail).  The additional time to order/unpack/insert custom specific fuses may also be a major contributor to a manufacturer who just wants to "get the amps out the door".

Possibly. It depends on how many fuses the fuse maker is able to produce. To further the logistics/sourcing issue, I ordered ONE specific size Isoclean fuse from a reseller. He did not have it in stock and had to go to his distributor who responded with "we have no idea when we are going to get another shipment from Isoclean". He then offered me the option to wait (could be 2 weeks, could be 6 weeks...?) or to get a Hi-Fi Tuning fuse at the same price.

Another time, I had tried to order 8 Synergistic fuses of a specific size and the reseller just did not carry that many at a time in stock. I had to wait for Synergistic to finish their production run before I got the order shipped.

Now try ordering 50 fuses of a certain type? 100 fuses? You could be stuck waiting 2-3 months for a production run to get your amps out the door. The Little Fuse / Buss are available anywhere/everywhere right now (or just order from Digikey’s stock of 2,000+). The alternative is to try to mass order a huge number of fuses from the fuse maker. This could overload them as they may not have the tooling to put out that many and still provide all current distributors/resellers their supply. Then the fuse maker can be burned when the audio manufacturer doesn’t order more within a certain time frame. (i.e. does anyone remember when Patron stopped supplying their tequila for a long time?) Then the audio manufacturer has another logistics point to make sure they have enough fuses in house to supply 4-6 months (or whatever) of production runs.

Of the consumers that buy stuff at the Krell/Parasound level, I bet that over 80% of them use the stock fuse. Heck, I bet over 50% still use the stock power cord (I mean, it’s just a power cord, right?!?!) lol