Streamers and their Fuses

While I never tried Audio Magic fuses, I always preferred HiFi Tuning Fuses over few I’ve tried in the past (including SR). My go to reference for Aurender streamers (N10 and N20) is HiFi Tuning Supreme Cu…a slightly warmer and more organic and detailed presentation over the stock fuse, definitely worth the money, IMHO.

PS: Brace yourself, fuse discussions here are hotly debated :-)

I make my own audiophile fuses out of high purity copper bar.  I replaced the fuse in my Innuos streamer and it sounds great.  It already sounded great.  I'm always reluctant to sound like a fanboy that everything I do deserves another superlative.  but my impression was that it was a noticable improvment.  I like to refer to fuses as "electron strainers".  no need to strain your electrons through a filament the size of a human hair.

Jerry

@carlsbad : if your house burns down you will have some explaining to do! As the esteemed Jackie Gleason said: "And away we go!"

@lalitk @carlsbad 

The Audio Magic M-1 uses black diamond and beeswax, about as bizarre and experimental as it gets, but I've gone through many pure silver and pure copper fuses to get to the black diamond promised land. Check it out if you can. 

I have SR Purple fuses in all my gear including my Aurender N20.

Only exceptions are HIFI Tuning Fuses (x5) in my power amp and a Power House fuse in my power conditioner.

You didn't say if you compared the Magic fuse in your Aurender W20 SE to a SR Purple.

I've been very pleased with all of them.

@lordmelton 

I have the synergistic purples in my Magnepan 1.7i’s, and my subwoofer amp, the comparison between fuses was based on differences I’ve experienced in other equipment, I’m not willing to spend $200 to compare in the W20SE right now, but I’m confident they are superior to the purples.

@jasonbourne52 I didn't think you would be the type that sees every electrical appliance exploding in glorious flames as soon as you take the fuse out of the circuit.  

I have a SR Purple fuse in my Innuos ZENith MK 3 and the difference is clearly audible. Openness and detail the qualities I found more evident. My system is PS Audio from regenerator to pre to ampli and all of them I like more with a M-1 fuse on board. Naturalness and a touch of warm sound they are capable of.

Why buy a hi end streamer and *not* change the fuse for goodness sakes. The streamer designers at Aurender et al failed in that last bit of performance tweaking. Without a hifi fuse upgrade for your hi-end streamer the sound is just con-fused.

; )

@4afsanakhan 

appreciate your humor. The Furutech A/C lodge is a $15 part in the W20SE. So it is very common for power areas and fusel lodges to be neglected in hi-end HiFi, so we upgrade and customize in our hobby.

Listening to the P. Cable yap yap about those colouring the final sound of a system was laughable, now fuses are you kidding ?? That’s a joke right ? 

@1971gto455ho why are you even here?

All you do is ridicule people. 
You do you and let these tweakers be. 

@1971gto455ho 

The level of cynical mockery is so severe that it has to harm your hearing

Hoping the best for your fuses this holiday season.

@brandonhifi 

Just looked at your system, loved the attention to detail! A system like yours can greatly benefit from an external clock. IME, you can simultaneously elevate the performance of both MK3-CDT3 and W20SE. You may think the internal OCXO clocks are more than adequate but you have not realize the true potential of aforementioned components until you heard them with an external clock. There is a reason both of these components are equipped with external clock inputs! 

@lalitk 

Agreed. What external clock do you recommend please?

How can you have the best hifi and not also have the best fuse?  Makes no sense. You lose points if the fuse ain’t special.  That’s just how these things work 

Hi Brandonhifi, 

Of course I am just kidding. All respect for those that pursue the last bit of performance. I myself cannot deny that I am somewhat similarly afflicted. For example, I didn’t take the idea of network switches in a streaming system seriously, then perceived a small but noticeable improvement when channeling the ethernet stream through a Cisco switch, which is now part of the system. With respect to fuses; too many enthusiasts swear by hifi fuses for any audiophile to not take seriously  the upgrade of fuses as a possible improvement in sonic performance. I do have a Pioneer BDP-09fd that has a hifi fuse as well as other tweaks (The previous owner installed these upgrades). It sounds marvelous.

BrandonHiFi- Good to hear that you were able to upgrade your system at relatively low additional cost. I was a big skeptic on fuses (and power cords) until I heard the differences that they make too!

The improvement from stock fuse to SR Purple in my Rossini DAC was substantial (after I turned it around and gave it a few hours to break in). Allowed for a fuller and smoother presentation. 

I've been using SR fuses across my system with very pleasing results. Only the amp is using Audio Magic Ultimate Premiers which were also a great upgrade.

@jerryg123

I’m here because I want to be. And you will note I did not ridicule any individual person! If you generally don’t like one’s opinion, see where it’s coming from and stop reading… simple right ?

If you install this fuse to your home gridline, It will improve your home electric, more energy saving, more light, more warm from light bulb. Congratz

@brandonhifi  - Do you also have an upgraded fuse in your Jay's transport?

@brandonhifi

I am using Merging Technologies +clock for my Merging DAC and Aurender N20. I am very likely to upgrade to either W20SE or N30SA sometime next year. Can’t quite make up my mind :-)

https://nadac.merging.com/product/merging-clock

@facten Yes, I put the Audio Magic M-1 fuse in the Jay’s MK3 also, HUGE improvement. In the CD transport the stock fuse was so bad it actually caused distortion, and sometimes crackling, because it was loose in its fusel lodge. I secured it with Stabilint 22 annd it improved sound, but replacing the fuse altogether completely fixed the distortions and I could hear a much cleaner sound in my extremely revealing system. I swear by these Audio Magic beeswax fuses, if you have high end gear you will notice a difference. But in my low end marantz subwoofer amp there was no audible difference in putting the $200 Synergistic purple fuse in it. So I believe the audible differences are compketely based on the quality of components used in the system. An all black lifepo4 powered system on GR-Research NX speakers will hear fuse changes easily and it won’t be subtle, but if you’re running Klipsch’s on marantz don’t even waste your money. Truth anyhow.

@1971gto455ho 

So which fuses have you tried in what equipment and what was the sonic change you experienced?

Thanks Brandon was just wondering if you were comparing the SQ with them in both.

@brandonhifi Yes you need a 10Mhz 75 Ohm master clock for your Aurender and CD player.

Just get a Chinese one to start with but buy specific 75 Ohm clock cables, not BNC digital cables.

The cables must be the same manufacturer and same length for best results.

Good cables are $2k+ use 1m or less.

@lordmelton

Good wisdom. I got one tonight. I got the Paul Pang Audio PPA OCXO 10M Master Clock for $575 here on Audiogon. I’ll get clock cables next. Exciting new HiFi realm. Thanks for the help. I honestly don’t understand how wiring works from master clock to the 2 sources. Are they looped, or are they just both plugged in to the clock, why do both the Jay’s and the Aurender have 2 bnc clock terminals? I’ve been studying it for awhile but this area of HiFi is still a mystery to me.

@brandonhifi Glad to hear of your positive experiences after upgrading the fuse on your Aurender. I use the SR Orange in mine. I’ve heard really great things about the fuse you’re using from a friend who spends much more on audio than I do. I haven’t gotten the itch to upgrade my fuses yet, but maybe in due time. 

For clock connections, think of the clock as the intersection point between all digital sources and the DAC. Aurender > Clock > DAC and Jay’s > Clock > DAC. 

@brandonhifi The Aurender only has one clock input and the Jay's has an input and output.

You need two 75 Ohm clock cables to connect to the Aurender and Jay's clock input terminals.

If everything is correct the Aurender will show clock connected (enable in settings).

The master clock will synchronise the Aurender and the Jay's to the 10 Mhz clock which acts like a metronome.

This should give a significant improvement in SQ.

@blisshifi Juan my neighbor! Be interesting to hear your feedback from SR orange to Audio Magic M-1!

@lordmelton That perfectly explains it to me. Thanks, excited for this evolvement in my system. You guys are what make Audiogon so awesome.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Audio Magic for sure! Have one in my McIntosh c2300 preamp fantastic, as for a streamer? Not sure, but open to the idea.  

“I got the Paul Pang Audio PPA OCXO 10M Master Clock for $575 here on Audiogon.”

@brandonhifi

I hate to be the one to say this…I looked up the specs of PPA, for a 10MHz clock, -120dBc/Hz at 10Hz offset is not very impressive--especially since the specified performance of the W20SE/MK3-CDT3 OCXO clocks itself is likely better. Not to not mention the variables of external BNC cable and subpar internal cabling/parts in these clocks.

In any case, I recommend buying high quality BNC 75ohms ‘clock’ cables so you can use them with another clock incase you don’t hear any improvements with PPA. Looking forward to your findings with PPA clock. Good luck!

@1971gto455ho Right back at you. You ridicule the concept and ridicule those that have tried the concept of fuses.

Have you tested or tried fuses in your streamer?

I have not and therefore do not condemn those that have and report positive results. 

see where it’s coming from and stop reading… simple right ?

Up until las year, I was very skeptical of fuses or any other tweaks with the exception of cabling. A fellow audiophile convinced me to try the SR Purple fuse on my Innuos Zenith MK3 streamer. It was around $200 with a decent return policy, so I figured why not try it. I have to say it was the best $200 I have spent in this hobby. The improvement was unmistakable -- it was as if a veil was lifted. I was getting better separation, more air, more oomph, and just a sense of bigger scale. It just expanded the soundstage in all directions. It doesn't make sense that a tiny fuse in the streamer can make this kind of an impact. But it did! 

For those of you with Innuos streamers here is some information on fuses and Innuos recommendations on size and directionality.

@arafiq thanks for your feedback.

Replacing the fuse on Innuos products – Innuos – High-Fidelity Digital Music Servers and Streamers

 @jerryg123  I've a large powerful system that to most does not get any better. Well engineered, electrified, modified, pretty to boot, and at 1800lbs we're done. There is no '0' hum or noise at any point, I do not recommend looking for non existing problems, nor market scam band-aid repairs for such. The science is there for just about anything or topic, and a person can, should, believe what they hear IMO. So there it is, should I choose to laugh I will...perhaps privately. Remember You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear. 

Silence is golden.

Almost every single post by this guy is berating and belittling people about Cable, Fuses, Burn In, anything. Read some of his posts going back to 2019. @1971gto455ho is a faithful follower of Gene and Amir.

Posts by 1971gto455ho | Audiogon Discussion Forum

Silence is golden.. great song and point taken. Someone is having trouble tweaking his Walkman, achieving success possibly then we all shall listen to the music. Have a great holiday folks

Cheers

As refreshing as Summers Eve. 
 

The science is there for just about anything or topic, and a person can, should, believe what they hear IMO.

This has to be the silliest argument I have heard. The fact is that science is ALWAYS evolving. I think people confuse science with religious dogma.

@lalitk 

I realize I walked into the shallow end of the Word Clock pool just to get my feet wet, I'm interested in experimenting in this area from the bottom up. I've got my eyes on the Omega or Sigma 75ohm Shunyata Word Clock cables and the Mutec REF 10 SE 120.

I re-fuse to get involved with this fuselage of confuse-ion!

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Uh oh looks like someone forgot to take their meds on time again. 

Not a bit surprised the OP had an ear-opening experience.

7 audiophile grade fuses in my system. And, counting.

Of course Science is always evolving but things have to change discovery, Positive proof etc. A moot point with regards to fuses, like the man said a fuse is a fuse let’s see how science has involved with that. There is no argument, and it’s not religious dogma but rather a pile of dog …. 😎

How manure mature.

Hello, undaunted by clearthinkers warning, I have just ordered the Audio Magic M1 for my MM Tambaqui.  Will let you all know what I hear!