Synergestic Black Fuse vs Audio Magic BeesWax

@joecasey

Well your experience suggests that what you regard as high level components don’t appear to be all that reliable and robust.

It depends on your definition of high level - does it mean high fidelity (in which case a mere fuse should not affect the audio) or does high level mean an expensive boutique custom item that was built and tuned by ear to sound great but without an emphasis on low distortion and elimination of extraneous factors (like a mere fuse) affecting the sound quality.

I am sure everyone can agree that it is actually possible to design a very robust power supply that has more than enough stored energy (for transients) that slight differences between one fuse and another won’t affect the sound. Once you accept that this can be a design goal and is easily achievable (adds only cost but presents no major technical hurdles) then it sheds a new light on components that are finicky to the point that a fuse makes a big difference....

shadorne
It depends on your definition of high level - does it mean high fidelity (in which case a mere fuse should not affect the audio) or does high level mean an expensive boutique custom item that was built and tuned by ear to sound great but without an emphasis on low distortion and elimination of extraneous factors (like a mere fuse) affecting the sound quality.

>>>>That’s not logical, Captain. We already know that distortion measurements can be deceiving. We know for example that many Tube amplifiers with say, 0.05% Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) sound MUCH BETTER than many Solid State amps with vanishingly low THD of say, 0.001%. AND some tube amps sound better than other tube amps that have lower THD. And so forth. So, the logical conclusion here is that - all things being equal - distortion is relatively meaningless. Good sound is definitely not DEFINED by very low distortion. As for me I’ll take good sound over low distortion any day. 😬

@geoffkait

It is totally logical. There is nothing deceiving about distortion - no distortion at all means input and output are identical and that is the holy grail of high fidelity. Some distortion measurements specs may hide or ignore important aspects of distortion (odd harmonics, zero crossing distortion at low level) but that does not diminish the overal goal of ZERO distortion in a high fidelity setup. This means a high fidelity setup is not going to be audibly affected by a mere fuse - otherwise it is a real pos in terms of high fidelity!

A designer/manufacturer can design primarily for an old 60’s tube sound with archaic technology and tune by ear to decide what flavour sounds the best

or

a designer can design primarily for high fidelity using latest technology and use measurements to prove it by testing the power supply robustness, channel separation, distortion, SNR etc.

What sound is preferable? Well some prefer high fidelity (at the cost that you hear the recording as it was produced - warts and all) and some prefer euphonic glorious coloration that just presents everything in a way that sounds better than the original recording to them (at the expense of robustness, reliability, accuracy and some finicky equipment behaviours from older technology)

Shadorne

Well your experience suggests that what you regard as high level components don’t appear to be all that reliable and robust.

It depends on your definition of high level - does it mean high fidelity (in which case a mere fuse should not affect the audio) or does high level mean an expensive boutique custom item that was built and tuned by ear to sound great but without an emphasis on low distortion and elimination of extraneous factors (like a mere fuse) affecting the sound quality.

Simple, what sounds best to me.   In my case, comparing old to new system is similar to Yugo vs Mercedes.

Why stop at fuses, if one can hear a difference between wires, capacitors, ... then it's flawed.  Totally illogical!

@joecasey

If what sounds best to you is audibly affected by a mere fuse then I wish you good luck finding the right fuse (one that matches all the wires and capacitors in your gear) and hopefully one that works long enough to be worth your effort (break in being in hundreds of hours and then the fuse aging problem with cycling - if you get lucky picking the right matching fuse then perhaps it might sound “best” for more than just a few days before needing a replacement or the wires or capacitors will need adjustment/replacement)!