Determining current flow to install "audiophile" fuses.

I'll let you all debate fuses and directionality to your heart's content.  How you spend your time on this big rock we call Earth is none of my business.

Geoff - your comment: 

By the same token, reversing interconnects that were inserted randomly between components will improve the sound 50% of the time for the same reason. It’s a wire directionality issue. It’s why many boutique cable manufacturers have been putting directional arrows on their cables for twenty five years. Hel-loo!

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
we do artificial atoms right

doesn't belong in this conversation.  A large percentage of interconnects are shielded and should be plugged in according to the directionality that the manufacturer specifies.  No, I have not run a statistical survey of the percentage of cables that are shielded.

To those of you who don't know what this means from a hookup perspective, the outer shield is tied to the RCA ground at only one side.  The shield "floats" at the other side. 

The grounded side should be plugged into the source.  IOW, it should be plugged into the line stage side of an  interconnect that runs from a line stage to power amp(s), the phono stage side of a cable that runs from phono stage to line stage, etc..

In my experience, there is an audible degradation (noise) when you reverse the cable so the grounded shield side is plugged into the load side (i.e. the power amp in the above example).

Could wire be directional? Sure.  Could a cable manufacturer wire their interconnect such that the optimum direction (from a wire directionality perspective) is in conflict with the shield connection?  It's possible.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Once again, Geoff,

Your excluding shielded designs from the discussion is a bit of a strawman, since the vast majority of cables are shielded and therefore have directionality "mandated" by the shield connection, which I’d hazard a guess has a random relationship with the orientation of the signal wire’s directionality in cables from most manufacturers.

Of course, one can reverse the connection of shielded cables with (electrical) impunity.

Assuming a 50% chance of randomly assembled wire being oriented consistently with the shield’s gounding scheme, one is still faced with the choice of experimenting with orientation, and I’d be the last person to stop someone from experimenting.

Fuse directionality?  Knock your socks off.  As implied earlier however, the experiment needs some controls, and one of them I didn't see mentioned was simply removing and reinstalling the fuse in the SAME orientation.  It's entirely possible that the act of removing/installing a fuse slightly alters the contact pressure and this is what people are reporting.

I already covered my risk tolerance with respect to these fuses in another thread, but suffice it to say, Roger Modjewski's comments carry some weight with me and support my approach - irrespective of whether they're being used in an AC or DC application.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Hi gdnrbob,

IF fuses are directional, AND manufacturers know this,
Then, Why can't they tell us which way to orient the fuse for most musical reproduction? As I said earlier, Pat as SMc, said to try them one way and reverse them later and see what sounded better. To my feeble mind, if these things are directional, then you must know which way is best without needing to switch things around.

There are too many phase relationships which a manufacturer can't predict:  from your speaker's crossovers (and speaker wire connection) to the number of gain stages in your amplification chain - even # or odd # (phase non-inverted vs. phase inverted).

People hear what they hear for all sorts of reasons that are out of the manufacturer's control.

If this concerns you enough, then you should experiment. If it doesn't you're one of the fortunate ones who enjoys listening to music playing through your hi-fi :-)

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Geoff,

We’re in agreement that a shielded interconnect presents two variables which are potentially at odds with each other - the recommended directionality based on the which end the shield is grounded to vs. the grain orientation of the wire.

In bringing up shielded interconnects, I saw no mention of them earlier in this thread. It’s entirely possible my mind was numbed from reading it. I’ll take that as a hint that it’s potentially making me stupid and I’ll get back to my amplifier project before further damage ensues.

Thom @ Galibier Design

Another consideration regarding directionality.  A fuse which is properly specified for the circuit is half way toward melting.

Just sayin' ...

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

I wrote:

Another consideration regarding directionality. A fuse which is properly specified for the circuit is half way toward melting.

To which geofkait asked:

How so, Thom? If that’s actually true, what is the relationship of being "half way toward melting" to directionality? Just curious.  

I don't have an answer as to the effect based on a fuse's operating environment, but think about how directionality is explained - by the drawing of wire through a die inducing some sort of molecular alignment or orientation. 

If this wire (fuse) is then heated to near its melting point (and it remains so in its normal operating environment), couldn't this possibly have an influence on said orientation?

Perhaps this has already been covered since you asked the question.  This thread has taken off beyond my time constraints to follow it.

... Thom