Higher amperage fuse for sound quality


I apologize if this question is either (1) ridiculously stupid or (2) already been beaten to death. And I'm definitely not looking to re-litigate whether aftermarket fuses are anything other than b.s.

I've read that people sometimes choose higher amperage fuses. This is because aftermarket fuses are supposedly built to tighter specs and therefore prone to blowing. Supposedly SR is noted for this.

Recently I was looking into some SR fuses and the dealer told me that higher amperage was also better for sonics. I'd never heard that before.

 

So last night I was looking through my stuff and discovered an unused 3.15a fuse. (I used HiFi Tuning throughout.) I decided to try it in my transport which takes a 1.6a. Everything is plugged into a Shunyata and there were no signs of t-storms so I figured I was safe for an hour or so.

It made the single biggest difference of any "tweak" I've tried. For one, the bass went significantly much deeper, became more authoritative, more controlled, more precise. The treble lost whatever edge it had and became golden and bell-like. Aside from those things, the music generally became more musical, which is difficult to explain. The music "might" have lost a tad of nuance and subtlety but I'm not sure. It's a small exaggeration to say that it sounded like a different amp. 

Being risk averse, I switched the fuse back, but I'm still so surprised. Has anyone had a similar experience? 

rfprice

Showing 1 response by jetter

Rambling speculation (only) on my part.

I would think that the amp designer voices an amplifier or preamplifier to sound a certain way he/she considers ideal.  If he/she wanted the amp/pre to sound as it does with a boutique fuse or different amperage fuse he would have voiced the amp/pre to sound that way without needing to use a boutique or different amperage fuse.

Conversely, if he had originally designed the amp/pre using a boutique or different amperage fuse he probably would have voiced the unit to sound identical to how it would have sounded with the non boutique fuses.

In other words, he had a voicing he was aiming for and that voicing is what he thought was ideal.