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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.








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Showing 5 responses by davidpritchard

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davidpritchard
866 posts
 
auxinput:
A wonderful description and suggestions for best possible  placement of  fuses. I have the fuses you have nicely described (except for the audio magic brands). My three systems are all tube amp based, two use Marantz SACD players, and one uses an Antelope DAC.

So for me the best results have been with the Synergistic Research Black fuse and in the horn based system I also had nice results with the SR  20 fuse. The Isoclean fuse was too warm and slow- but better than stock. The Furutech fuse imparted a thinness that was my least favorite.
But I want to emphasize that all these fuses are better than stock.

All these fuses have a different sound depending on which direction they are installed.
The sonic changes are greater in magnitude than tube rolling. A synergistic Black fuse had a greater effect than putting in the Elrog 845 tubes (versus the already nice Psvane WE 845 tubes). And a lot less money !

I am a huge fan of audio companies that offer a 30 trial with refund. No "restocking fee", no "obtaining a RAF number", no hassle, no bull.

This return policy is why I am a big fan of the Synergistic Research fuse line. Try a SR-20 or a Black fuse (or both) learn from the changes you hear and return anything that does not make you happy.

David Pritchard






davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 

When downsizing I found a second system based on a premium headphone (such as the Sennheiser 800) and a dedicated headphone amp to be a source of great pleasure.

The degree of progress in headphone systems over the past 7 years has been staggering and worth exploring.

David Pritchard

davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
nonoise:
I have the Isotek CD system conditioner. These type CD's work. The system sounds crisper - fresher-more alive. I use it once a week.
Helps car CD players and Blue Ray players also.

David Pritchard
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
Also I hope you will read up and investigate Jim Hagerman's Fry Corder. I have one and use it. Definitely freshens up the system.

David Pritchard
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 

auxinput:

What a wonderful summary of your fuse experiments and the sonic results. I absolutely agree that these fuses have a major effect on the sound of a system and one's enjoyment of the music.

Because these fuses do change the sound, finding the optimal fuse for a single component can become time consuming.

If one does not want to do a lot of experimentation , I am suggesting auditioning the Synergistic Research Black fuse. I think it has some of the best sonic qualities available and as importantly comes with a 30 day trial or refund. They have improved both the digital and analog components in my systems.

David Pritchard

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