fuses - the $39 ones or the 85 cent ones

Tvad, actually, none of the fuses I tried show up in the UL database when I do a search.

The fuses themselves have engraved the certification logos. My eyes are not that good anymore, so I had to use a magnifying glass to make up some of the logos.

A few days ago I installed two Hi-Fi Tuning fuses to each of my Maggies 3.6. The Maggies 3.6 use a 4 Amps fast blow fuse to protect the mid-range driver and a 2.5 Amps fast blow fuse for the tweeter. The fuses are mounted between the crossover and each driver following the signal path. So the signal passes through the fuses and they also get all the vibrations from the speaker frame.

I did a shootout between the following fuses:

• Hi-Fi Tuning ceramic fuse, $39/each.
• Littel Fuse glass fuse, $2/pack of 5.
• Radioshack glass fuse, $2.99/pack of 3.
• Buss Fuses ceramic fuse, $6/pack of 5.

All the fuses are UL Listed, except for the Hi-Fi Tunning one.

In this particular application, the ceramic fuses performed better than the glass fuses. The overall difference is that the sound coming from the mid-range driver and the tweeter driver is cleaner with ceramic fuses than it is with the glass fuses. For instance, piano notes sound more consistent with the ceramic fuses.

The Radioshack fuse produced a slightly cleaner sound, but the clear winner by far is the ceramic fuse made by Buss Fuses @ $6 per pack. There is a more coherent presentation with this fuse. The mid-range has more weight and the highs are a lot cleaner.

I was quite surprised that the much cheaper ceramic fuse performed better in this particular application. This makes me believe that the Hi-Fi Tuning fuse is simply a scam. In the case of Hi-Fi Tuning, you're basically paying for the printing of the logo on the fuses, selling the fuses to a distributor, which a the same time sells the product to a reseller. This process seems to cost $39 to the end user.

My suggestion is go to mcmaster.com and get the cheap ceramic fuses from them, or any other supplier, and save the money to buy some music.

After a long listening with the cheap ceramic fuse, I inserted the Littel Fuse glass fuse and I could only listen with this fuse for 5 seconds. The cheap ceramic fuse is here to stay.

I would like to stress the fact that the HiFi-Tuning fuses don't seem to be tested and approved by any agency here in the US, Europe or Asia.

There is a very good reason for common electrical products to be tested and certified by UL, SA, etc. This testing and approval process is what guarantees that a particular electrical product is in fact developed and manufactured following a rigorous standard. The only information I could find is that the HiFi-Tuning fuses are hand-made and tested in Germany, which doesn't say much about manufacturing standards, testing, etc. If they have had an independent testing and approval process, then they should convey that information for the user's peace of mind.

The main role of fuses is to protect your equipment and they should definitely be manufactured under some sort of oversight by an independent agency. Without this, there is little assurance that the product will actually perform its main role, which is again to protect your electrical equipment from failure. The sound characteristic of the fuse should not take priority over its safety role.

Forgive the redundancy, but a fuse should never fail to fail, IMO.

I don't know how costly it is to have UL listed or any other certification, but during my search all 2.5A and 4A fuses have UL and SA certification, except of course for HiFi-Tuning fuses. For instance, the Isoclean fuses have UL SA PSE and CE certifications, the Littel Fuse fuses have UL, SA and CE certifications, and Buss fuses have UL and SA.

It seems to me that they pursue the certification in the market in which they will be distributed. I don't know the certification story of HiFi-Tuning, but if they have it, it is odd that they don't post it like everybody else.

You're right about it. Everything that's not mass-produced, from fuses to cars, will carry a higher ticket price. If they do everything in Germany, plus the current value of the Dollar against the Euro, then they may easily end up with a $39 fuse in the US.

The funny thing in audio is that sometimes high price does not translate into high performance, or conversely, low price does not mean low performance.

I'm disappointed and happy with my test. I'm Disappointed that the fuse specifically called "true audiophile grade" didn't do better than its cheaper ceramic cousin made in Taiwan. I'm happy that what works for my particular case costs just $1 & 20cents. And that is a true audiophile deal.

Thanks for sharing your experience with fuses and the Maggies. It's quite useful. I'll try other fuse values if my setup allows it.

I certainly agree that the HiFi-Tuning fuses will increase the sound quality. In some instances, one has to spend way, way more than $40 to achieve the the improvements that the HiFi-Tuning fuses provide. My point is that, in my particular case, I can achieve greater sound quality increase for $1.2 per fuse.

Also, I personally don't feel comfortable using a fuse that's not UL listed. Not having UL listing is not that uncommon for some hi-fi gear, but I find a fuse to be too critical for me to overlook the accreditation.

The fact that a product is made in a particular country that has a reputation for good quality does not signify that all the products from that country are better than products from another country. Look at the track record of Mercedes and Lexus. Just an example.

BTW, the HiFi-Tuning fuses I have look well built, so do the ones from China and Taiwan.

Rodman99999, I have to say we agree on this one.

Tvad, I'm not sure if there is a website that has which fuses are UL listed, but I think UL.com may have the list.

mcmaster.com has the certification for each product in the product specs page. Also, the accreditation has to be printed on the product itself and its packaging.

The fuse specs look like this on the mcmaster page:

Available Amps:4
AC Voltage Rating (VAC):250
Fuse Type:Fast-Acting Fuse
Visual Indicator:Without Visual Indicator
Diameter:1/4"
Overall Length:1-1/4"
Specifications Met:Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

This link has information on Isoclean fuses:

http://www.aaudioimports.com/ShowProduct.asp?hProduct=37

If you stand in front of and away from the mirror a hundred times, you will start to see yourself differently.

If you have to squint to hear a difference, then perhaps there is no difference.

Try "Difference & Repetition" by Gilles Deleuze. It might help.

<<09-04-08: Pubul57
Is there a great $10 fuse?>>

Even better. There is a great $1.20 fuse. I gave the details in my first post.

The HiFi-Tuning website in Germany has the prices for their fuses in Euros. The fuses are priced at 16 €, which is about US$ 23. Then these fuses travel business class across the ocean and by the time they reach US shores, they cost US$ 40. I'm glad to see other ceramic alternatives that are UL listed.

http://www.hifi-tuning.com/index_eng.html

Click on "Zubehör / Tuning" and scroll down for the full list of prices.

I just cracked open a Buss Fuses ceramic fuse. The fuse is a sand-filled ceramic tube. I'm using these ceramic fuses on my Maggies 3.6R. The fuses are mounted on the speaker frame, so they are susceptible to vibration from the drivers. There is one fuse for the mid-range driver and one for the ribbon tweeter.

For the ones who joined the discussion in the last few days, I recently compared four fuses, two glass and two ceramic, including the HiFi-Tunning fuse. The sound was a lot cleaner with the ceramic fuses than it was with the glass fuses. Of the two ceramic fuses I tried, the Buss ceramic fuse provides a cleaner, more balanced sound. There is more energy and definition on the upper-base, lower mid-range region. The highs also have more clarity and definition. The HiFi-Tuning fuses were almost as good as the Buss fuses, but the latter has a much cleaner presentation.

It seems to me that the sand-filled ceramic tube absorbs vibrations quite well, hence contributing to the cleaner sound. Also, the filament gets thicker in the middle http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1220802079.jpg

I purchased the Buss ceramic fuses from: http://www.mcmaster.com/

The fuses are under the "Lighting and Electrical" section and cost $6.06 for a pack of 5. They are UL listed.

Nsgarch

BTW, were both of the ceramic fuses you tried sand-filled?

I don't know if the HiFi-Tuning fuse is sand-filled. Perhaps others know the answer to that question.

The reason for my interest in mechanically isolating conductors is I've have been working with Purist cables for some time now (including a pair of their new, solid core Provectus speaker cables, Albert Porter kindly lent me to audition.) And I am absolutely convinced that a properly chosen shock-absorbing material around the conductors is essential to achieving the "blackest" possible background in the final sonics.

I have observed this as well when auditioning cables. For instance, I think one of the reasons that the Nordost flatline series of cables "lean" toward the upper registers is that they are more prone to vibrations than other cables where vibration control has been part of the design requirements.

In the case of my fuse comparisons, the difference between the glass and ceramic fuses was quite pronounced. I think that the ceramic body + sand-filling + the little "bubble", if you will, on the filament, help to explain why the sound is cleaner with the Buss fuse in particular.

I should also mention that on the Maggies 3.6R, the fuses are easily accessible and can be changed in seconds without powering off anything. Of course, I made sure there was nothing playing.

One factor to take into account when trying fuses on a power amp or preamp is that, for safety reasons, the unit has to be powered off. Depending on the design and topology, the unit may need some time to fully perform at its best again. IMO, this can be an obstacle when doing A/B comparisons because there is always going to be a longer time delay between tries. Therefore, one may be hearing the difference between a "warm" and "cold" unit, as well as the difference between fuses.

Tgb,

I wasn't aware of the directionality issue until I read it here. So I don't know if the direction of the fuse was an intended feature for HiFi-Tuning fuses, or it just happened to be that way.

It seems that the Isoclean were intended to be directional.

Pubul57,

The ones I have are Bussmann's ABC. Below are the specs for the 4Amp fuse I use for the mid-range driver that I got from Master-Carr. It doesn't mention whether it is sand-filled or not. I also have the 2.5Amp fuse for the tweeter, and that one is also sand-filled.

Part Number: 71385K29

UL Specification :: Listed
Bussmann Type :: ABC
Littelfuse Type :: 314
Ferraz Shawmut Type :: GAB
Available Amps :: 4
AC Voltage Rating (VAC) :: 250
Fuse Type :: Fast-Acting Fuse
Ceramic-Tube Fuse Type :: Fast Acting
Fast-Acting Fuse Type :: Ceramic-Tube Fuse
Visual Indicator :: Without Visual Indicator
AC Interrupt-Current Rating :: 10,000 @ 125 VAC
DC Interrupt-Current Rating :: 10,000 @ 125 VDC
Diameter :: 1/4"
Overall Length :: 1-1/4"
Specifications Met :: Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

Knownothing,

1. I let each fuse settle in for about 3-4 days. I agree with you, it takes about 70-100 hrs for the fuses to settle in. This was more apparent with the ceramic fuses for some reason. The glass fuses seemed to settle it much quicker. The Buss fuses needed more time to settle in than the HiFi-Tuning fuses.

2. I did try the directionality of the fuse, but only with the ceramic fuses. I did this after somebody mentioned it in this post. The HiFi-Tunning fuses seem to sound better when the arrow follows the direction of the signal. In my case, this difference was very subtle, so I would say it's inconclusive for now. The Buss fuses seemed to sound better with the UL logo at the end of the signal path, but again I can't tell for sure as the difference was not so noticeable. When going from one fuse to another, the sound difference was very apparent.

3. This makes a lot of sense to me since the circuits they plug in are totally different. As a matter of fact, HiFi-Tuning and Acme Audio fuses seem to work very well with Spectron amps, but I haven't try them in my amps yet. I'm very hesitant to use the HiFi-Tuning fuses in a power amp since they are not UL listed. I don't know the certification situation for the Acme Audio fuses.

I think the results may vary dramatically from system to system. I am extremely satisfied with the results I'm getting with the Buss fuses. In my particular case, the difference is comparable to switching signal cables. The fact that what works for me costs about $1.2 per fuse is the biggest bargain I've come across as an audiophile.

Tbg,

On my HiFi-Tuning fuses, the logo itself has the arrow. I couldn't decide for myself either on which direction to go since I couldn't tell for sure the sonic difference between the two ways.