Replacement Fuse's - What are my options ????

Here is my opinion on the $25.00 fuses.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/isoclean.htm

Another option is ceramic type, which is better than common variety in my opinion. So, basically three price levels. Stock fuse, ceramic and premium (as reviewed). You can decide if it's worth the extra bucks.

Timrhu:

OK, how about:

With respect to the audiophile gods, I can't imagine how a power cord (as long as it is proper gauge) can have any effect on sound quality. Pile on.

Or:

With respect to the audiophile gods, I can't imagine how an interconnect (as long as it is decent quality) can have any effect on sound quality. Pile on.

Or:

With respect to the audiophile gods, I can't imagine how a speaker cable (as long as it is sufficient gauge) can have any effect on sound quality. Pile on.

Do any of these seem ridiculous to you as well, or only fuses?

From my review:

....set forth by UL, CE and other electrical watchdogs, make this job difficult.

Isoclean fuses...meet these codes

Yes, Isoclean fuses pass or exceed European and USA electrical safety codes.

Timrhu, I don't know why you don't hear differences in power cables and such. It's a big deal on my system and based on posts here at Audiogon, lots of people get good results with swapping these things out.

Now if you said you thought the price of these were not commiserate with performance gained, that would be a value judgement. I agree that many times a system must be pressed to the upper edge before hyper expensive tweaks make any sense.

As for why manufacturers don't add such things. It's for the same reason as other products, money.

Most of the time OE tires on new cars are not the best available, new homes usually don't have the highest quality faucets or appliances. Photocopiers frequently come only partially charged with toner, and that new triple blade shaver has only two spares in the five slots available.

It's smart marketing. When a manufacturer adds one dollar cost to an audio product, the retail goes up $5.00.

A wise manufacturer leaves off the super AC cord, the gold fuses, the designer caps and doesn’t include high end interconnects, so the retail price remains attractive.

Frequently, an audio customer enters the store with maximum price already set in their head. Make a product too expensive and you loose that guy.

Add the fact that not everyone believes in or want's those tweaks and those that do, have more fun adding the ones THEY choose when they've recovered from the initial purchase shock.

Certainly a $25.00 fuse is not a make or break deal performance wise. There are systems that likely would not benefit, even at that small price.

In my system and several others in my group, $25.00, for what's gained is a good value. Factor in (if you don't blow a lot of fuses), you could get three to five years of increased listening pleasure and still be able to pull that fuse when you sell.

I like things that add performance to my system that don't cost a lot. It usually doesn’t work that way, so I'm grateful for small, reasonable improvements.

Russe41, I'll bet they use common fuses.

I'll also bet you could venture to the local Porsche dealership and find less than state of the art tires on the prettiest model in the showroom.

What?

Something less than the best possible choice for maximum performance? Were talking about a very fine quality, very expensive automobile!

Maybe the tires they choose cost less, ride smoother and last longer at the expense of not being the absolute last word in performance.

I get tired of that argument, it appears all the time in Audiogon forums. People claim that if fuse (or fill in aftermarket product here) was important, the designer would have included it.

It's odd that every year at CES these same designers show up with their equipment sitting on premium stands and feet, hooked up with aftermarket interconnect and power cables and (in some cases) the room is acoustically treated.

I have witnessed (personally) tube equipment at CES that had all NOS tubes to give the performance edge they wanted the public to hear. If designers believe in and make use of all these things, why don't they include them?

As stated above, its the money.

Better to keep initial cost low and allow each audiophile to decide how to spend their post "initial purchase" dollars.

Jeff_Jones. On that point I agree, appearance is absolutely important.

Sound at shows (any audio show) is typically not very good. Equipment just survived the long trip, the room is cramped and often still has the bed headboard attached to the wall and people are opening and closing the door and talking.

No doubt this is a difficult way to conduct business. However, I don't believe for a moment any high end manufacturer would add tweaks to the system that did not help.

Remember, every costly extra in the system is telling the listener that the amps, speakers, or whatever they are displaying requires extra's to sound good.

I agree that these tweaks are sometimes present as they are sharing room costs. Even with this arrangement, it's typically due to the fact the two designers are friends, share common values and think each others products sound good.

I know a lot of people in the high end audio business and power cords, fuses, speaker cables and all the other tweak products that bear the brunt of detractors are a non issue with these designers. I have sat in dozens of manufactures and reviewers home and witnessed these tweaks in action. They use them because they work and are an audible improvement.

If you don't want to use them, no one is twisting your arm. I don't know why everyone is so defensive. If a tweak does not work for you, ignore the review, just the same as you would if it were a pair of speakers you didn't care for.