Hi-Fi Fuses - SNAKE OIL? - or something in it?

Not really if you think they are don't buy any.

I can only draw from my personal experience and from the positive experiences of others who have heard my system and their own systems after they replaced the stock fuses with upgraded fuses.

I have a couple others who have yet to receive their fuses and report back on the results.
One fellow is a sceptic who seldom hears a difference in power cords etc, or at least convinces himself that he should not hear any difference.

It works both ways.
Some say that those who say they hear differences are biased towards hearing an improvement to justify their expense.
I'll counter that some will say they hear no difference because they are biased to believe that such things just can't make any difference.Especially if they are costly.

As I stated it's a mind set.
As such no one side can lay claim to being completely without bias.

I can only state my experience and whether it was a positive or negative one.

I can see where some systems may not need an upgraded fuse to make them sound better, because their design maybe such that another type of thermal protection is used.

What I can state is that every component that I used a Diy bypass or upgraded fuse made for a positive improvement to my sound.
It was never worse.

A solid chunk of copper wire always sounded better than a stock fuse, and you could tell a difference if you used a stranded copper wire as a fuse substitute in place of the solid core copper.

The differences were audible in several different amps be they tube or solid state and if a fuse was bypassed in a fuse protected speaker.

This goes way back to the late 70's or 80's thanks to an old Audio Critic article about the sonic degradation of fuses.That's when I started bypassing fuses.

Aczel said fuses degraded the sound and he was right.But I had to do the experiment to find out for myself.
I found that he was correct.

If I felt that I knew it all and that this is just nonsense,afterall, a fuse is just a fuse and has no sonic impact,I would perhaps be on the side of the sceptics as I write this.

So for years I bypassed the fuse or made DIY ones.

I tried the upgraded fuses because they offered the protection the DIY subs do not.
I found that the Iso Cleans , then HiFi Supreme and now AMR fuses all were a sonic improvement to a stock fuse.

They have been an improvemnt over the stock fuses in my old but upgraded Acoustat tube servo amps,my Manley Steelhead, Esoteric X03,Maggie centre channel,and before that when used with a DecWare Zen amp,CLS 11Z,Classe DR 8 monos,to name a few items.

Not once did any of these fuses have a negative impact on the gear they were used in.

Not once did I feel that something was amiss.

What I did notice was a common trait to what these better fuses added to the sound, which was the same type of difference that the fuse bypass or DIY subs did.
The improvements were of a similar nature in whatever component they were used in, irregardless if it was a solid state or tubed item, or if it was at the speaker or source.

The sound of the component become more focused,more solid sounding, less edgy, with more clarity.
But it never transformed the component into something it never was.
It never made a $600.00 amp sound like a $60,000.00 one.
It just made a $600.00 amp with an upgraded fuse sound like a better $600.00 amp.

There's better and then there's nite and day differences.
If you are looking for the latter then you could feel that an upgraded fuse fails the test and is in fact just snake oil.

But, you expect too mush for your $20.00 investment.

If you want the sound of that $6000.00 amp, be prepared to spend a lot more than the cost of an upgraded fuse.

The DIY fuses cost me nothing, so there was no trying to convince myself of an improvemnt to justify the expense of the purchase.
And $20.00 for the AMR fuse I feel isn't a big investment either,so I'm not fooling myself to justify that expense either.

The IsoCleans and Supreme fuses were more costly,but I felt the improvemnt was worth the expense.Yes even putting a hundred dollar fuse in a $600.00 amp was worth the expense because of the improvement.

I can say the same for the improvemnt in sound I get when I use my tape head bulk demagnetizer on lp's and cd's.
It just sounds better,I've impressed some of my friends with this parlor trick.

They bring over a recording and if it has a scattered diffuse sound, I simply ask if I can give the recording a demag, and afterwards they agree, there was a noticeable improvement in the sound on the second listen,even the sceptics hear the difference.

I can't say that an upgraded fuse or any other tweak that some feel is nothing but snake oil, will make a believer out of a sceptic.

It's that mind set again.

Covincing oneself for years and re-inforcing those beliefs with references to blind listening tests and opinions of how the ears can't be trusted added to a firm belief that everything needs to be scientifically proven(even if the science hasn't caught up yet)is a mindset that may never be up for change.
It's just too deep rooted.

These folks will always view everything that is beyond their realm of acceptable knowledge as snake oil.

Fear of the great unknown.

Thankfully for mankind, some folks ventured out from their caves and discovered new lands.

You know the ones that were all riddiculed as they sailed into the sunset and off the edge of the world.

I purchased a pair of 1.25 amp Hi-Fi Silver star fuses for my 35 year old fused Thiel 03 speakers. I immediately noticed a wider sound stage. With more break-in time a deeper and more defined bass became evident. Mid range and vocals were improved. The fuses were inserted directly in the signal path. The improvement was well worth the price.

I tried several different upgrade fuses in my tube amp. I thought they sounded, "better" at the time, but when the fuse in one channel blew, I replaced it with the stock fuse. Could not tell any difference between the two channels. Fuse in other channel eventually blew, replaced it with stock fuse, no noticeable difference. I now consider fuses thing as one less audiophile thing to obsess over. OEM fuses are good enough for me.

I am left to wonder what brand of upgraded fuses did you have the problems with?

Blowing fuses could mean several things- a problem with the amp(unlikely as the original stock fuses didn't blow) or that the wrong value of fuse was used or the fuses were defective.

I once blew a couple of expensive HiFi Supremes when I mistook the .5 amp for the 5 amp.

In my case, the sound was worse when I went back to the old stock fuses,my spares.
All was good again with the replaced upgraded fuses,of the right value in the right location.

The amps are Acoustat servo tube amps which take a .5 amp and a 5 amp fuse in each amp.

If you suspect the fuses were sub standard, send them back,maybe the company will replace them.

At least let us know what brand they were.
Maybe others have had similar bad experiences with them.

I've used AMR, Iso Clean,and HiFi Supreme,no problems with the fuses,just my bad eyesight.