Fuses that matter.

Geoffkait, actually WA Quantum has fuses with their Chips on them. There is an interrelationship between WA Quantum and HiFi Tuning. The fuse chips have great benefit on all fuses I have tried. Indeed, the Chips work well in every application where I have tried them. Why they work I don't know, but work they most definitely do.

Geofffkait, the effects of those for speakers are so different from one location to another that you might expect that. Those on cables suggest otherwise. They are hard to get to stick to nylon covers. I carefully pressed them around the speaker cables and found a big improvement. One night while still enjoying them, I noticed that one was just hanging by one corner. When rewrapped it and held it fast with tape, it sounded the same. On fuses, the Cable Company suggested putting them on the ends on the sides or the ends themselves depending on where your fuse contacts were. I experimented with each as well as in the center. I don't know where vibration would most affect a fuse. Finally for those for transformers, I experimented with putting it on the core, on the windings, and on the screw down. All locations sounded the same.

All of these experiences cause me to doubt that they are vibration dampening. I cannot think of better tests of this hypothesis.

Ozzy, as I said above, I don't think it matter much where you put the Chip.

Krell_man, I didn't find the large fuse WA-Quantum chip sounded any different than the small Chip.

Mapman, obviously Krell is not talking about everyone, but if you are attending Audiogon, you can afford the fuses and chips.

Theaudiotweak, I tried the magnets. They were not my cup of tea. Who knows if the Chips would work on them, since we have not idea how they work.

Theaudiotweak, what does "mechanically grounding" your entire system mean? Is it removing vibration? If so, I entirely agree. With the StillPoints stuff, especially the Ultra Fives, I really have the magic of realism.

Grindstaff, it is a long story but they will be arriving this week. Your question is a good one. I would expect no fuses in the crossovers, but I will check. Since I heard a pair of Arcadia speakers September that had been playing for about a month and at the RMAF heard them again and they were much better, I expect, it will be a month before they are near their best.

Hasse, this comparison of fuses is muddled by the WA-Quantum fuse Chips. Either the HiFi Tuning Supreme or the Syn. Res. Quantum fuses are superior to the other when one has the WA-Quantum Chip on it. Overall, I prefer the SR with the WA-Quantum Chip versus the HiFi Tuning with the WA Chips.

Mapman, why do you say that. Gold is not a good conductor.

Gnmcleod, I noticed once again that the Syn. Res. Quantum fuses seem to have the printing running in the wrong direction. This entailed the four fuses in my LSA Statement Plus amp. But I don't really know whether they add the stickers in a systematic way as they claim the are not directional as they zap them in both directions.

In trying to understand what I was hearing with the Synergistic Research Quantum fuses and the HiFi Tuning Supremes versus my old IsoClean fuses, I noted the wire improvement within the fuses, the vibration dampening, the benefits of the use of WA Quantum Chips, and of course, the Quantum tunneling by SR using their Tesla coil. Since I now know that the WA Quantum Chips add a lot to the SR Quantum fuses, the only real question for me is what would the HiFi Tuning Supremes sound like with Quantum tunneling. I have yet to hear the AMRs and do very much appreciate their lower price while retaining high silver wire and dampening efforts. I suspect they too would sound better with WA Chips. But again, who knows what they would sound like with Quantum tunneling?

I think we are at a new plateau in fuses, but with only one company using the Tesla coil. Since long ago, when SR was good enough to Quantum tunnel other fuses, I know there is a big benefit from this. Even Buss fuses sounded much better with the Tesla coil treatment. I hope to soon hear the AMRs.

Gbmcleod, I should have added that the Synergistic Research Quantums with the WA Quantum fuse Chip is still the best.

Kedoades, you will probably find it on the back of your preamp. It frequently is part of the IEC chassis mount where the power cord plug into. If so, you will need to remove the power cord out.

If it is not there, try inside by removing the top cover. You may just see fuses in fuse clips or it may be in a black box that is a little wider and longer than a fuse, which you open with a small screw driver that fits into the square hole in the cover at one end.

You will need to know the amp value for the fuse, which is in print on one end. You will also need to note whether it is "slow" blow or " fast blow' and how long it is in millimeters. The short ones are 20 mm and the large one 32plud mm. You will need to remove the existing fuse and insert the new one. You beed to be careful doing so. Then there is direction. All I can say is that direction matters The manufacturer may tell you or alternatively say you are crazy to ask. Your best course is to insert the fuse one way and listen and then reverse its direction and listen again. Leave it where it sounds best.

Lacee, doesn't your logic suggest that the AMRs must be worth 25 times more than Buss fuses?

Lacee, it is unimportant. We all have to make decisions about what stuff is worth to us.

Roxy54, on one hand I agree with you-just try a fuse and see if you like it. But you are also suggesting, I think, that audiophile fuses sound the same. I reject this idea.

Geoffkait, I would be surprised if any true audiophile does know this, but perhaps doesn't bother.

Roxy54m, i apparently misunderstood the second part of your post. Sorry.

Isochronism, I think the question is why did it leak, not why did it blow.

Gbmcleod, as another person who has gone through your experiences with the HI Fi Supremes and Syn. Res. Quantums, both with WA Quantum fuse Chips, I am struck with how much I agree with you. The SR Quantums gain substantially from the addition of a WA Quantum Chip and thus become my preferred fuse, at least thus far. I suspect that SR's use of the Tesla coil is responsible.

One thing that I should note is that I found, contrary to SR's statement that they are "tunneled" both directions and thus are not directional, they are. I found that in two instances, the direction is opposite of the of the normal convention that printing runs in the direction of the best direction for the fuse from the wall to the circuit. You might want to check which way sounds best.

Gbmcleod, thanks for the report. I am not at all surprised by the comparison with the HF golds. That with the SR will be very interesting.

I had put four Synergistic Research Quantum fuses into my LSA/Exemplar Statement Plus amp and thought they were a great improvement. I had not put the WA Quantum fuse Chips on them as I only had three. Yesterday I robbed another off one of my unused component and put one on each of the fuses.

I was unprepared for the magnitude of the improvement with the Chips. Everything that I listened to after putting Chips on at about noon, was just vastly improved. The width of the sound stage was greatly improved as though the cross-talk had been greatly reduced. The deepth of the image became more vivid in the background. In live recording the audience became more present.

This amplifier truly became world class. I bought it for use in a summer home, but now???

Lacee, just to humor you, I have no tube amplifiers and no ss line stages. I do have both a tube and a ss dac, but the ss dac uses oppamps and the tube one is discrete. So I really cannot assess this question, but I believe the SRs are better across the board.

Krell_man, I would agree that the SR Quantums are quite dynamic. I have no explanation for Tawa's experiences. I will soon have some more WA Chips and will try the AMRs.

I must admit that my experience with other electronic devices being zapped on the Tesla coil make me confident that this is the key to the SR Quantum fuse excellence.

Krell_man, it is hard to know how someone could do filtering within a fuse, dampening, yes, but filtering no. Having had EE and physics training at the undergraduate level, I know that many EEs are assertive to a fault.

Vhiner, I would call the Cable Company which sells all of the fuses. They should be able to give you this information. I assume this is just a 12A slow blow fuse, but I have never seen that value.

Vhiner, I just went to Synergistic Research Quantum fuses http://www.synergisticresearch.com/featured/new-category-synergistic-research-quantum-fuses-furutech-hifituningsupreme-fuses/

I note that they have a 12.5 slow blow 20 mm fuse.

Vhiner, at some point I would strongly suggest that you get some to the WA Quantum little fuse Chips to put on the center of the SR fuses. Also try the fuse both ways and use the best sounding direction.

SR claims their fuses are not directional but they are directional.

Mental, I think that the use of the Tesla coil on the SR Quantum fuses is a crucial.

Mental, I understand but I actually participated in a comparison of two Home Depot cheater plugs ( 3 to 2 ac converters). One had been zapped on the Tesla coil and one not. It took but a few notes of everyone to say the zapped one was clearly superior.

Tesla was a genius and is the reason we have alternating current.

If the circuit design of your components allows it, cheater plugs on all but the linestage are an inexpensive and effective tweak. Of course, SR's tweak of the cheaters costs a good deal more as it is labor intensive and the coils wear out.

I really don't know what an audio guru is but I know fuses sound different if put in one way rather than the other. That tweak costs you nothing. : )

Vhiner, IMHO this is poor design, but that doesn't help you either. Sorry!

Almarg, i wonder if any manufacture has ever gone about choosing a fuse value this way. I know with certainty two who went to a different value when the first was blowing too often. I think it is more like civil engineering with a big safety factor. After all why not start low and work your way up?

Turboglo and Vhiner, most reviewers don't have the benefit of manufacturers coming to their listening room and setting up already brokenin equipment and setting the room to optimize their equipment. And, of course, those who get this benefit may be listening to "special" pieces.

I just notified a manufacturer that I know the very special Urushi caps he and others use, take hundreds of hours to break in and that I would probably need a month and a half's access to his component.

I am also now using exceptional interconnects and speaker wires that may take 1000 hours of use to reach their best and may take two days to recover from being moved from one component to another. How I would love a piece that sounded exactly the same at 15 minutes and two years.

Mapman, I know your concerns but most components have externally accessible fuses.

Agisthos, when I asked SR if they were directional, I was told that they put them on the Tesla Coil both ways and therefore are not directional. I have found them quite directional. Some people suggest directionality by the way the lettering runs. In the five instances were I was pretty sure what the right way was, having the fuse lettering run the wrong way was best sounding. The best thing to do, however, is to try it both ways. But you should realize that the fuse may take some time to sound its best.

Captain, you comments are illogical.

Live long and prosper.

Tawa, yes there is a substantial improvement in clarity and dynamics. The sound stage becomes more involving. In my opinion the fuse WA Quantums have the biggest improvement.

This is all ridiculous. The fuse leaked and the fuse blew. One thing may relate to the other but not necessarily. There is not much engineering in fuses. The filament needs to be sufficiently thin to blow with at the rated current. If it is slow blow there needs to be some heat absorption to allow for surge currents. In some fuses the filament is designed to be exposed to air and in others not.

ULs is a for profit company and, of course, sells its services. Having retesting of fuses would cost money as would certification of an audio component. This is why you don't see these labels on much audio equipment. Designers can roughly calculate what their circuit should draw and try a fuse with just above that value. They then can see if it works. If they blow many fuses, they go to a higher value, unless they find a problem with their circuit. Obviously too high a fuse value may allow overheating of the equipment and the potential for a fire or a safety issue.

Audioman58, I used to double check on rule of following the lettering as the current flow. In six trials that sounded better than the opposite. I will also note that I have always found the little WA fuse chips help the SR fuses if put on the center of the fuse. I have always found that treatment with the Tesla coil is better than cyrogenic treatment, but I have no idea whether they do the same thing.

Budburma, wow that is way too much testing for me. But I must say that I'm not surprised that you would hear such differences. I must say that once I decided that I liked the SR fuses, I did hear that on some components they made more of a difference.

Budburma, I faced this some time ago. When the manufacturer could not or would not tell me the direction of the fuses, I used a meter to find the side of the fuse with the least resistance to the hot pin of the IEC. I figured that the direction of the fuse was from this side to the other. One manufacturer suggested that most designers used this convention.

It is still a pain to do but better than to have to switch each fuse and listen and on and on.

Audiolabyrinth, when SR came out with their earlier fuses, their chief engineer said that the zapped them both ways on their tesla coil. This made them non-directional, he said. When I got some, I found that they always sounded better in one direction and that this was opposite to the writing on the fuses. I have never found that fuse direction doesn't matter, but I haven't a clue why this is so.

I have not tried the new SR red fuses as yet. It is probably a pain identifying which way sounds best as this may vary on production runs. I would be helpful were we to have research on this to tell us why direction is important, rather than putting our heads in the sand as so many do.

Geoffkait, I have been unable to find the data that you found on the Hi-Fi Tuning webpage. Can you give a specific address. Measuring resistance would be easy enough to do.

Theaudiotweak, my first reading of these data, suggest that cryoing increases resistance. I love the Tesla coil treatment that Syn. Res. does but find cryoing questionable, perhaps because some such treatment is not done right.

Geoffkait, I must admit that my reading was most cursory. I was hoping that I could easily identify the best direction. No such luck, I guess.

This also leads to the need for science to follow up on this. Why does one direction sound better? How does Isoclean decide?

Audiolabyrinth, I don't recall ever seeing a 500 volt fuse. Were your component that expects to see 117 volts to ever see 250 volts, much less 500 volts, you would have a smelly mess.

After_hrs, I still use both the H-Cat line stage and amp in my small room in NM. Presently I have the first Syn. Res. Quantum fuse in both. I know that they take 32mm fuses and think the value is 1 amp. I have yet to try the Syn. Rels. red fuses but soon will.

I also have found that the H-Cat is very responsive to vibration isolation and power cords. The Stillpoints Ultra minis work great under it and the Exemplar Portal power cord work well with it. My area code is 979 and 820-1314. Give me a call.

The H-Cat is amazing isn't it. My Koda K 10 is clearly better at only eleven times the cost!