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High Quality Fuses: Real Gains?

All:

I'm generally suspicious of "tweaks" but I had an interesting conversation with a service representative from one of the major audiophile companies about the potential benefits of replacing stock fuses with higher quality ones like the HiFi Tuning brand. I thought he would dismiss the potential gains of using an "audiophile" fuse but he affirmed that they might actually produce audible improvements since all the current must travel through this junction. He also admitted that the stock fuses they use are pretty ordinary throwaways. So, have any of you used these and if so what were the results? Are there brands other than HiFi Tuning that are worth considering? I should have probably checked the archives so if this has been debated already sorry to bring it up.
dodgealum

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dodgealum OP
1,409 posts
 
A little more research has produced three brands: Hifi Tuning (which now has a silver model), Isoclear (sp?) and Furtech. Any reason to pick one over the others?
dodgealum's avatar
dodgealum OP
1,409 posts
 
I had the opportunity to chat with the head of the service department at said high end company and he had some interesting insight I thought I would share. He said that they have tried all the available aftermarket specialty fuses and that while they may sound "different" they don't necessarily sound "better". In some areas there were performance gains, in others losses. At the end of the day they decided that their stock (inexpensive) fuses were no better or worse than the expensive ones. But there is a big BUT....that how the fuse is positioned in the holder actually has more of an impact than the type of fuse itself. They do extensive listening tests with each product that comes off the line and part of this final production process involves changing the fuse direction and rotating the fuse until they get the best possible sound. Then they put a piece of electrical tape around the fuse holder so that it isn't moved during packing, shipping etc. I thought this was very interesting. So, while I had been leaning toward trying one of these aftermarket fuses, now I'm leaning the other way.
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