Best fuses for under $50?

@gbmcleod - in my initial posting, I also said to be careful with Furutech fuses. They are very revealing and VERY TRANSPARENT. This means that it will reveal problems or inadequacies in areas of your system that other fuses may compensate for or mask thereof. An example would be a preamp with a somewhat undersized power supply. The Furutech fuse being fast and transparent can cause the preamp to sound lean in the bass/midbass area because the power supply does not truly have enough capacitance to keep constant voltage on the large waveforms (and even the midrange waveforms that can become shouty/forward). A fuse that will slow down the charge/discharge and make this preamp sound warmer and fill in the bass/midrange area.

As I have said, the Furutech is very revealing of problems and it may not be the path that everyone want to start. You may end up working to fix every other problem/characteristic in your system. However, if you choose this path, the end result will be the very best (in my opinion).

@fourwnds - I have also had similar experiences with SR20 fuse. The SR20 is very fast and very clean. It is so clean that it almost becomes artificial to me (almost similar to a silver fuse) and I lose emotional contact with the music. I have also experienced where the bass is definitely lean with this fuse. Trying a Hi-Fi Tuning gold (discontinued)fuse was an improvement and the sound was a lot warmer. However, over time I determined that the Gold has somewhat of a metallic edge to the sound and it wasn’t the fastest fuse. The HI-Fi Tuning Supreme (silver) was nice, but it had that push in the upper mids (silver) that caused it to be less natural sounding to me and more artificial. This may be a good mating with tube equipment or very slow/laid back stuff.

I encourage all to re-read a history thread:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/direction-of-aftermarket-fuses-only-for-believers

A lot has been discussed here on fuses, and it’s not a 4,000 post thread like the "RED thread".

@nonoise - if you believe the rest of your system is up to par, you could try a Furutech fuse in one component (such as your preamp), and then go from there. You may decide to convert to Furutech one component at a time. However, like I said, the Furutech is very much a DOUBLE EDGE SWORD. It can reveal every little problem in your system. It will reveal poor quality electrolytic capacitors that contain a lot of electrical resonance and all of a sudden your system sounds too bright and harsh. It can reveal speaker drivers that are ringing/break-up/blare because now your system is so strong that it has a rock hard muscle moving these speaker voicecoils. If you are ultimately after more resolution, air, extension, decay, deep bass resolution and punch, etc., the Furutech may be your end-game and I believe the work is worth the effort. However, it can be a lot of EFFORT!.

The SR20 is very clean and I have seen it excel in tube electronics. Listening to it, I think there is somewhat of a roll-off in the very high frequencies, so you will probably not get as much "air" and "ambience" as the Furutech. The SR20 are 60% off at Parts Connexion right now (clearance sale), so it might be worth it for $23 a fuse to try them out.