Higher amperage fuse for sound quality

There you go OP. I'd get a new fuse and see if the old one had an issue. I trust my ears. But I still like to know why. That little wire can be a PITA. Considering everything to that point is probably 14 gage or better. They do make slow blow fuses for a reason. They get hot on startup. It wasn't uncommon for a manufacture to UP the amperage on a fuse. Cary sure did it. A few times. The only thing it stopped was a trip to the hardware store every other week to once a year.
A boutique with good dampening and a way to get rid of the heat quick, 5 years and counting on some of mine. Tube amps are tougher on fuses, no doubt. I Variac up my old amps. It's easier on everything, especially tubes and transformers.

I read here on AG that a cold start with a regular fuse can take up to an hour to recover from the a hard cold start. That is the main reason boutiques sound better and over time stay sounding better. That little wire isn't moving in a fuse filled with a dampening and heat sink material, it never gets hot like a standard fuse on startup..

Cold start a 3.5amp stock fuse 30 times and look at the wire inside. It use to amaze me when I'd change the fuses in my old speakers. Tightening driver screws and changing fuses was like getting new speakers. Amps; any fuse with a dampened wire, barrel and goo will work for me. -------> please not <-------- way. It matters. I don't know about SR but most the fuses I use sound different one way vs the other. ACME with a crinkle coat is a good fuse.

I'd say it was time for a fuse holder clean up and new fuse in the right direction. I'd be looking at a PC too if a fuse made that kind of difference. Some manufactures equipment react differently than others to fuses and power cables. It usually points to maintenance and the quality of the power supply. I'd say your change was due to poor contact and an old fuse.

The equipment fuse is for the equipment, not fire protection. The house breaker is for fire protection. The only equipment in my house with a fuse is the garbage disposal and my shark vacuum cleaner. The stereo does but the TV or hardly anything I know of does have a breaker or a fuse. 

If you hear the difference using a piece of solid stock silver or copper from startup, the chances are you might hear a difference with a boutique fuse change. It's the recovery time after startup that I notice. Some fuses never have to recover and sound GREAT (a boutique). A standard Bussman is just good enough to keep the AC flowing. There is a reason WHY some fuses sound different than others. It's not Hocus Pocus. There are some interesting threads about fuses here. Bass is the first place to suffer. Supply and demand..

It’s not the increase in the amperage of the fuse. It most likely was just the fuse change. Pulling and replacing the fuse cleaned the contacts. You can prove that by reinstalling the old fuse. If the sound is good it was the contacts. If it returns to the old sound the fuse wire is NOT recovering after a hard start. A new fuse might, and older fuse with a metal fatigued thermal wire might not..

You can figure out why easy enough.. It’s not about resistance when everything is perfect, it’s when you keep pushing that cheap little wire beyond 20 cold starts.. That is where boutique fuses seem to shine and stockers don’t.

"Don’t worry be happy"🎶

Keeper Of the Seeds. aka "KOS"

Yes, but he is asking WHY it sounds better not how to cook a pizza faster. A little different I think. One is for fire protection (the stove).  The other is for equipment protection. There are No fuses on my TV. I have a reset button on my table saw and the garbage disposal. That's so I don't burn the motor up if something gets stuck. There is not much of a chance of a fire though. Why is there a fuse in them to begin with? Not required by law is it? Equipment protection is for stereo equipment. Maybe something left over from using valves..

Rolling ON with a Variac helps a lot with my old tube amps. They never pop fuses. You flip a switch they will. They sound bad when you start them like that too IF you don't blow a fuse first. Citations and Marantz both sound better with a soft start..