QUALITY AND SECURITY OF "LITTELFUSE" PRODUCTS

I would add, though, that low resistance and hence low voltage drop, wide bandwidth, and good shielding in a power cord can be obtained at much less than kilobuck prices.

bdp241,029 posts04-04-2016 11:35pm

At the risk of getting flamed by one particular fellow whose panties get quite wadded at the mention of Roger Modjeski’s name (apparently for not believing in the audible superiority of all audiophile boutique parts.), here’s what Roger found ...

As you appear to be implying, the answer is "of course not." ...

atmasphere
4,722 posts
04-06-2016 12:17pm

If the power cord does not have a voltage drop, has good shielding and also good high frequency characteristics, its sound quality will be as good as a much more expensive cord with the same characteristics.

Power cords are not actually voodoo, but there is a surprisingly large and totally unnecessary snake oil. I suspect this is because many of the power cord manufacturers simply don't know why their cable works.

bdp241,033 posts04-06-2016 2:04pmThe pony I like is good engineering. It’s funny how the best engineers think alike about a lot of things, and respect each other’s work. For instance, Ralph Karsten (the atmasphere posting here, as most I’m sure already know), Mike Sanders, and, yes, Roger Modjeski ;-), to name but a few. As Ralph just pointed out in the thread on fuse directionality, knowing that a fuse in an AC circuit cannot, by definition, be directional is about as basic as electrical engineering gets, for gosh sakes.

bdp24
1,036 posts
04-04-2016 11:35pm
At the risk of getting flamed by one particular fellow whose panties get quite wadded at the mention of Roger Modjeski’s name (apparently for not believing in the audible superiority of all audiophile boutique parts.), here’s what Roger found when he opened one of the eight Hi-Fi Tuning Fuses that were in one of his RM9 amplifiers returned to him for repair after the fuses had not done what a fuse is supposed to do when presented with a short: blow.

Roger discovered that the fuse was not designed for, capable of, or suitable for, use in a DC circuit---the very kind of circuit in which a tube operates. The customer’s RM9 had a tube fail, and the Littlefuse Roger installs in his amps would have done what a fuse is supposed to do when faced with a short in the DC circuit of a tube amp---blow. The Hi-Fi Tuning fuse did not, and the amplifier was then of course damaged. Not as a result of a fault in the design of the amp (unless you don’t want your tubes fused---Audio Research amps aren’t, ARC instead letting a resistor blow when a tube goes bad, thus requiring the resistor and any related parts to be replaced, rather than a fuse. At far higher cost, of course.), but because those fuses do not possess "high breaking capacity".

Surprised, Roger called first the U.S. distributor of the Hi-Fi Tuning Fuses, then the German designer/manufacturer. To his astonishment, neither knew what the term "high breaking capacity" means. That’s right---a fuse "designer" who knows less about fuses and their construction than an amplifier designer/manufacturer! The moral of this story is, if you are going to spend more on a fuse than a tube (if that doesn’t give you pause, spend on ;-), you might want to make sure the fuse is up to the task it is asked to perform in whatever application it is employed.

One amplifier came in with one of these ’tuning’ fuses which was blown. Usually when the particular fuse location in question is blown, it indicates a service issue, but in this case the amp was fine- once a good fuse (we use Buss and Littlefuse for the most part) was installed. As this fuse was made in Germany, I suspect its the same fuse as Roger Modjesky must have encountered. Even though marked correctly the fuse was not up to its spec! So Roger likely has good reason to not recommend these fuses.

Since the installation of this fuse caused a customer to have downtime and the cost of shipping (about $170.00), I have to agree that these fuses can be problematic! While we are not saying they can’t be used in our gear, I am saying that you may experience fuse failures that are premature. So this aspect should be on your radar should you choose to install such fuses.