Best fuses for under $50?

I would be VERY careful with the Furutech fuses.
Let me first say that all of my wall outlets are Furutechs: I had the GTX -D Rhodiums, and, until the NCF came out, I completely missed how bland they were and how much color that was a part of the music they bleached out. It took the NCFs for me to realize why my system sounded less than "sweet" (not euphonic sweetness: I mean the way it sounds in Boston Symphony Hall. Real people. Real orchestra. Real music).
The Furutech fuses are similar in that respect. Lean-sounding (unless they have a new line out),
Unfortunately, I found a fuse I had put away years ago and could never find it again: The Audio Horizon. I put it in the PS Audio P-300, after removing a Synergistic Red fuse, and zowie! I don’t recall it sounding that way 5 years ago. Maybe it mellowed, like fine wine.
That said, fuses have a sonic signature. I know that one other poster and I both had PS Audio P300s, and I discovered, in here, no less, that he had reached the same conclusion as I did: the best fuse for the P300 was the Synergistic Red fuse. I have the Black fuses, too, but I wouldn’t put it in the P300.
I’m not sure who makes a top quality fuse under $50, but wanted to warn you away from the Furutechs. They are lying around this room somewhere...I just don’t CARE where they are.

Auxinput: I don't disagree that the Furutechs are "transparent." However, they achieve that by "leaning out" the power range of music. And my system was assembled with several different components in each section: I have 5 speaker systems, two preamps, (CJ and Convergent), Nordost and MIT interconnects, Shunyata power cords of different vintages (NONE of which would be lean, save the current line, which I find does not have the bass weight and power of previous generations, and I have gone through the entire Zi-Tron range: Vipers, to Cobra, to Python to Alphas (analog, digital and hi-current) all the way up to the top of the line (I forget its name), the $2495 cord. ASL amps (3: Hurricanes monos (not remotely lean. In fact, the best mid bass of any amps I've had and I've had plenty of the 'big boys') an ASL integrated, Arcam and NAD integrated, Simaudio and several other integrateds, including Hegel, Parasound and Rogue. 

Furutech has always had a "lightening" effect in the music, something my old mentor, HP, noted in one of his reviews when he was comparing Furutech to Nordost back in some issue in 2010 or 2011. He found the same thing. And he was well aware of power supply issues. And he and I found the same thing. So, transparency sometimes comes at the cost not of an imbalance elsewhere in the system, but because of a leanness in the component (fuses included). Nordost had this very problem until their second generation (meaning, 2nd generation Frey, Try,  and Valhalla, and I had ALL of them), wherein they improved in the lower midrange and upper bass. It's not always a matter of 'balancing' the system: sometimes it comes from not recognizing (until years later) that a component had something - not so serious as a 'flaw' but just, perhaps, a 'subtractive' or 'additive' quality so slight, it was easy to miss. I've tried the Furutechs in every component in my system and, based on the fact that they released the NCF line outlets a few years after the GTX-D line, they, too, realized what was missing, because it is EASY to hear the difference between the two (again, I had both, and if you read prior posts, you'll see I sold my Rhodium to someone who posted on this thread).  Quite a few posters on the 'Whats Best' forum came to the exact same conclusion, and their equipment was FAR superior to mine (although I don't know that their ears are).

This is why HP used the Gold instead of the Rhodium: a certain kind of "accuracy" at the expense of both sweetness and musicality. I don't make statements until I've thoroughly tested something repeatedly. And having had Hi Fi Supremes, Synergistic originals, then Reds, then Black fuses, along with AMR and Audio Horizons,  and placed them in ALL my setups, there might be the slightest chance I'm wrong.

 But as strongly as YOU feel it can be explained by technical issues in power supplies, I feel that if something consistently demonstrates the same issue through 5 different manufacturer's lines of product, and 3 different setups,  it is unlikely I need to be an electrical engineer to trust my deductions. It is best for people to be aware of BOTH of our assessments. Think of us as filling in for the now discontinued, and fabulous,  inter-commentary system that TAS used to have. Now we, the consumers have to do the work that they once did for us thru that system of different reviewers with completely different systems commenting on a component. Only now, the components are of the more microscopic variety: 1" long, and 1 ounce, instead of 24" long and 50 pounds. It's what we used to call 'getting down to the real nitty gritty.' Now it's capacitors, fuses and internal wiring. Will it never end???

auxinput - thanks, in return, for your post. I like the exchange of ideas. It is so much more pleasant to discuss and agree - or disagree - politely, than some of the name calling that happens in so many other forums (and it seems, even in this one sometimes. On Facebook, there is a group for audiophiles on the cheap, and I volunteered that a record clamp would help keep the cartridge from doing the rhumba on records by...well, clamping them down securely. And got a snotty response simply because I’d worked - and written for - several magazines). It is much more civil here, even when the inevitable malcontent announces that a fuse or speaker or Shakti Stone "can’t POSSIBLY do THAT!"

Quite by accident, I discovered,  a week ago, hiding in plain sight - in the Bermuda Triangle that is my listening room - a Furutech fuse, and looked at it the way a society doyenne assesses a social climber: "Hmmm...what use could I make of you?" Unfortunately, the Furutech once again went on the lam into the Bermuda Triangle of my room, although I’ve no doubt I can find it more easily, now that I know I didn't throw them out! (I almost never do, but am  non-plussed at how hard it is to find them when I want them again. I'd swear I put them somewhere "safe," but if they were children, I'd be arrested for losing them. And Jailed. For Decades, even. So, thank God that the little fuses cannot get me incarcerated.

On another thread I posted on tonight, Synergistic Research had announced  the released of a new line of fuses, the "BLUE," which, they assert, will leave the Black in the dust, but, we’re assured, the Black is as good as it ever was. And I believe that. However, since Synergistic always offers a 30-day return guarantee, I could not resist being Blue for a while, and have ordered 3 of the Blues, which I will put into my NAD C3325BEE. The NAD seems to resist fuses’ effects - positively, I mean. The Furutechs positively bleached out the lovely tone that the NAD has (and it truly - for an inexpensive integrated - has a lovely tonal quality. That designer knew what he was doing!) So, now I am going to see if an upgrade - that costs as much as the NAD did when new - can entice it into another level of performance. It has always lacked resolution in the highs and is only fair-good with ambience retrieval, so it is a good candidate for home...I mean, audio, improvement. We shall see!
I enjoy these exchanges. Thank you. And I’m sorry that I forgot to acknowledge where you pointed out that you were speculating. I am not an engineer. It is a wonder I haven’t electrocuted myself, changing outlets by myself and occasionally soldering circuits. I trust your superior knowledge. I can only tell by ear (which I DO trust), how close the music comes to how realistic it sounds in my favorite venues: Carnegie Hall, The Met, and David Geffen (formerly Avery Fisher) as well as the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford, CT and the Palace in Stamford, CT. And, of course, Boston Symphony Hall, which I haven’t been in in years. Would that components were as easy to pin down as the character of symphony halls!

Hi Aux. First of all, the Furutechs have plenty of time on them. I typically leave a component running for 3 weeks with signal going thru them. In other words, 500 hours...


Now, for the foot-in-mouth apology.
I came across the Furutech fuse (I had four, but packed up all but one and the others are in a drawer somewhere else) and decided, after staring at it harshly, but them remembering your convictions, thought, "It’s not very scientific to not test it out again. He might be right." - as well as that, add in the fact that I have refined my already (very) refined setup by adding the Townshend Audio Seismic Isolation Platform and the Townshend Isolation pods under the NAD. And separated the positive and negative leads of the Shunyata Cobra speaker cables from even touching even slightly at the NAD’s amp end. I have found even tiny differences like this - although one would think they shouldn’t matter - DO.

Whatever it was that did the trick, it happened AFTER the separation of the lead, and THEn the re-insertion of the Furutech into the lead position on the NAD. And then I replayed the entire "What’s New" album by Linda Ronstadt, which is a very well-recorded album, and one I’ve been listening two for the past two days. The difference in the delicacy of her voice (the pure emotional feeling) came across quite noticeably. The intake of breath demonstrates a continuity throughout all the cuts, not something that happens on one phrase, in one song, but not the next one. It is consistent from song to song. Yes, the soundstage is more transparent - and the ambience is, again, noticeably better, but I couldn’t have cared less about that: the vibrato in Ronstadt’s voice is considerably better, which makes the song more intensely "feeling" and captivating in the most musical sense. In other ones, without consciously trying to turn off the critical faculties and just let the emotions wash over you, it happens by itself, and the music takes you away. Also, the timing of her phrasing is simply lovely, where only hours before I put it (the Furutech) in the system, I enjoyed it, but not nearly to the same degree. It is clearly the insertion of the fuse: the harmonic overtones are beyond what would happen by separating the leads (something I’ve done before and besides, I played it after the separation and then put the fuse in, went off to my 50th class reunion and came back - 5 hours later) and played it. Not even close to the same sound. I listened directly after putting the Furutech in and was put off by a recession in Ronstadt’s vocals. When I returned home 6 hours later, the vocals sounded as though she moved closer to the microphone and aspirants are "pushing" out towards the microphone. Which results in her voice having more "power" in the emotional sense. It’s really strikingly improved.

So, using one Furutech on the NAD was superior to using 4 of them (which is what you had stated at one point). Therefore, you were right, and I am (happily) wrong. The re-evaluation (with a much superior isolation system) shows out the Furutech as better than I had thought. So, thanks. I don’t think this would have happened without the better isolation capabilities the system now has, but that’s moot. The Furutechs will sound better as one’s room acoustics, electrical quality and isolation improve. I’m really glad you persisted. Thanks again.