1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 124345-1776

Direction of aftermarket fuses (only for believers!)

It is with reluctance that I start another thread on this topic with the ONLY GOAL for believers to share their experience about aftermarket fuses.
To others: you can call us snobs, emperors w/o clothes,... etc but I hope you refrain posting just your opinion here. If you did not hear any difference, great, maybe there isn’t.

The main driver for this new post is that I am starting a project to mod my NAD M25 7 ch amp for my home theater. It has 19 fuses (2 per channel, 4 on the power supply board, 1 main AC) and I will try a mix of AMR Gold, SR Black and Audio Magic Platinum (anyway that is the plan, I may try out some other brands/models). As it is reasonably difficult to change them, esp the ones on each channel module that requires complete disassembly, I would like to know what the direction is for these models mentioned and of course, others who HAVE HEARD there is a difference please share your experience on any fuse model you have tried.

Fuses are IME directional:
Isoclean is one of the first to indicate the direction (2008/2009) on their fuses. Users of HiFi Tuning (when the awareness rose quite a bit amongst audiophiles) have mostly heard the difference.

As an IEEE engineer, I was highly skeptical of cabling decades ago (I like the speaker design of John Dunlavy but he said on many occasions that cables nor footers matter at all, WRONG!). Luckily, my curiosity proved me wrong as well. I see the same skepticism that I and many others had about the need for aftermarket cables many, many years ago now on fuses and esp on the direction on fuses.

Another example is the direction of capacitors (I do not mean electrolytic types). Even some manufacturers now and certainly many in the past did not believe it can make a difference sonically. Maybe some do but it takes time in the assembly to sort and put them in the right direction/order (esp as some of the cap manufacturers still do not indicate "polarity") so that maybe is one argument why this is not universally implemented.








jazzonthehudson
jazzonthehudson's avatar
jazzonthehudson OP
277 posts
 
Many have mentioned that the manufacturer may put on markings on a whim or can change the process so that the markings are done on the other end. Sure, it can and probably has happened for smaller batches. I am just trying to get a consensus so that I am best prepared for the starting position, which may be the best guess.

Charles,
thanks for your feedback on SR fuses and happy to learn that SR has the same process for both red and black.
You’re absolutely right and, as mentioned before, I really appreciate the vast knowledge and the logical approach Al adopts in his comments. I quoted him exactly because he is an authority in his field and wanted to counter others who may use his words to put more fire on the wood. Also because I know he won’t be easily offended/stirred and am sure before he posts, he will read mine so he knows I have no intention to undermine his authority.
Now if I had quoted mapman or GK,...

Any best experience from NAD M25/M27 owners (which fuse worked best)?

mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
I have no authority really to undermine.   Just another Shlub trying to figure things out. 🤔

mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
Charles when you say they go in the direction of the writing. Which way is that?  

For or example batteries are marked positive and negative ends making them directional. With out doubt.    But if the battery compartment does not have similar indicators. You don't know which way to oeient them properly.  

Donthe he devices the directional fuses go into have some similar indicator or other way of telling?
Post removed 
stevecham
3,298 posts
 
With 19 fuses and either direction the choice, if my math still works correctly, I think that would be 2e19 combinations, which would be fun to perform and see what the optimal combination was by listening.  Could be a hobby for lifetime and then some.
More to discover