Not sure why I find fuse discussions so entertaining but I do.
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.
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.
Showing 19 responses by mapman
Stevecham, that’s an excellent question. After al this discussion, you’d think the OPs question would be answered at this point and guidelines for getting all his stuff oriented correctly clear and doable. Has any of that happened? Assuming fuses are directional in the sense that the direction actually matters to a significant degree for the resulting sound (listener biases and expectations aside) is op or anyone else any closer now to doing things right than when they started? All this talk and analysis from all these smart people and is anyone any closer to the answer now than when the thread first started? That’s my question. Each can have their own answer and take that for what its worth to them. Assuming a better outcome is posible (not a safe assumption) its still a blind mans task. Good luck! This would be funny at this point if not so sad that people might be misguided to spend their valuable time on such a blind man’s task at best IMHO. Only hard core audiophiles that have to get that last good fix of better sound they might be missing no matter what thanks to those who help feed people’s insecurities about what good sound they might be missing from their already excellent gear. Not that there is anything wrong with that. People can choose to do much worse things in their spare time. Nobody is harmed as long as one is happy with what one is doing. People waste money on things all the time. It help keep the economy going. Count me out. To those up to the task, good luck! You will need it! Unless its all in your head to start with perhaps. That makes things a lot easier. |
Oh sorry. This is a new fuse direction thread. Not Determining current flow to install "audiophile" fuses. My mistake. Only for believers this time. Well hopefully I helped get things off to a good start, but I will butt out then I suppose. I am interested in any practical answers that might come up to guide the OP other than try things both ways and see, but have my doubts, so will stay tuned given that. Beliefs can change over time, right? All it takes is the right facts. For example, for the fuses that have an arrow on them indicating direction, how to know which way to point the arrow correctly? |
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? |
" If a component has more than one fuse use a DVM (Digital Volt Meter) to determine direction of current in the circuit. " The problem with this of course as many have pointed out repeatedly in various threads is with alternating current direction switches many times per minute. As I understand it it is possible to determine power flow direction in an AC line, for example with an overhead transmission line which way is the source (the power plant). With a circuit schematic perhaps it is possible to determine which way to the components power supply from any particular fuse location? That would be a question for Almarg or other EEs perhaps to answer. The thing is assuming fuses are directional and that orientation is a significant factor for best sound, you would look for devices that have the directions clearly indicated somehow plus a fuse with the same so things can be done easily without an electronics background. If all that is true but no indicators, someone in design was asleep at the wheel and the customers are paying the price to have to figure it all out. Could you imagine buying an expensive portable device using 19 batteries in 19 different locations and no indicators which way to place each? That is essentially the worst case scenario for teh NAD assuming fuse direction always matters. |