QUALITY AND SECURITY OF "LITTELFUSE" PRODUCTS

Whatever you do, don't do this:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dvanzuijlekom/10474490106

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

My first consideration in a fuse is safety (doh!).

I don’t mean to cast aspersions on audiophile fuses, but in this particular area (safety & fire), I’m much more comfortable dealing with a company whose butt is on the line - providing protection for medical, aerospace and other industries where safety is paramount and the consequences of failure are high.

As such, my upcoming NiWatt amplifiers have specified both fuse holders and ceramic fuses manufactured by Littelfuse. Granted, ceramic may be overkill, but I don't put a price on safety ;-)

There are other good manufacturers, and again, I’m not debating the sonic benefits of an audiophile fuse (which raises the question: why no audiophile fuse holders?).

The way I look at it, if I can’t design a world class amplifier using standard fuses, then I should be in a different business.

Of course, people are free to experiment to their hearts’ content, and this is just my perspective as a manufacturer.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Very likely, the audiophile fuses are reliable, but I'm a bit OCD, and have extremely low risk tolerance ;-)

If I'm signing my name to something with safety implications, I'm much more comfortable with a manufacturer with track record in the medical industry (for example), where people can die as a result of a poor design.

For the same reasons, and in spite of the extraordinarily low probability of problems with glass fuses, I'm more comfortable with ceramic ones. 

Thanks for the comments about Acme.  I was unaware of them, and I'll check into it.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Kudos to them for choosing ceramic.

I certainly encourage consumers to use what makes them happy. I hope I made it clear - that my comments were the perspective as a manufacturer and nothing more.

I have a secondary reason for not specifying audiophile fuses, which is to not stack the deck. IOW, someone is free to experiment with replaceable parts to their heart’s content (as long as of course, they're consistent with the specification) and if they discover an improvement in their system, that’s great.

All too frequently however, people try to solve architectural (design) problems with band aids. This is not to diminish the importance of parts quality, and parts (whether it’s fuses or cables or anything else) is a topic for a whole ’nuther thread - a rabbit hole I don’t have time or inclination to rehash for the thousandth time ;-)

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

I wasn't implying that an audiophile fuse was an attempt to fix an architectural design problem and I tried to make that clear in the last paragraph of my previous post:

All too frequently however, people try to solve architectural (design) problems with band aids. This is not to diminish the importance of parts quality, and parts (whether it’s fuses or cables or anything else)...

Here's an example of an architectural/design problem:

A poorly designed power supply regulation circuit that sends hash into the signal.  The band aid fix?   A cable with a rolled off top end to hide the problem.  It's like turning up the volume on your car radio to mask the sound of your wheel bearing.

The real fix.  A competent design.  Fix the problem at the source. 

A good cable (or fuse) is just that - a good component and I'm all in favor of that.  What I'm lobbying for is to address as much as possible in the design of the product.  I'd hope that you're on board with that concept.

The problem here is of course, what's a poor audiophile to do?  Not everyone has design skills to identify the true source of the problem and as a result, they take a buckshot approach to solving it.  I wish I could propose a solution to this conundrum.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

Thanks David,

As an audiophile, I'm interested in the fuses.  In retrospect, I could have made this a bit more clear. 

The fuse argument is much like the power cord argument.  People contend that inexpensive wire is in your walls, so why would the last 6 feet matter, and yet most people reading this will agree that it does.

As a manufacturer, an owners' manual is of course a legal document which is why we find those silly opening instructions - don't stand in a bathtub full of water while operating, etc.

I like the idea of furnishing a solid design with good parts, while leaving a bit of untapped potential for the end user to discover (better tubes, and fuses).

Regards,
Thom @ Galibier

Geoffkait:  I've never been able to navigate HiFiTuning's website, even using Google Translate on Chrome.  Perhaps you could post a direct link?

Ralph:  With respect to power cords, I suspect that a lot more is going on than resistance/voltage drop.  If we had the time to play with this, I suspect we'd find inductance, capacitance and shielding would play as significant (if not more) of a role as resistance.

I've done the solid core, household wiring power cord experiment, and the results weren't all that good.  It might be worth repeating this one, however.

Cheers,
Thom