To Fuse or Not to Fuse... That is the question!

A reason why it may be worthwhile to point out and/or emphasize the risks of bypassing a fuse is that some people, including some experienced audiophiles, simply don't have knowledge of what the purpose of an AC mains fuse is.  Which is not to say they are stupid; it is just to say that their backgrounds are such that they haven't gained that knowledge. 

As evidence of that I recently had occasion to post the following statement in the thread entitled "Something For The Fuse Guys":

Almarg 9-26-2019
I just want to state a point of information: Posts that have been made by at least three different members appear to imply that the purpose of an AC mains fuse in a component is to provide protection against surges in the incoming AC. While it is possible that an AC mains fuse might do that under some circumstances, that is not its intended purpose. Its intended purpose is to blow if a fault within the component causes it to draw excessive AC current. Thereby preventing **additional** damage to the component that may otherwise occur, as well as preventing the possibility of the component overheating or even bursting into flames as a result of the excessive current being drawn.

Regards,
-- Al

You say you won’t come back to this thread.

I didn’t say that. I said that I will no longer discuss "this issue," i.e., whether or not energy and power flow.  And I didn't say that energy and power are not scalar quantities.

Regards,
-- Al

Geoffkait 10-13-2019
I just finished explaining, energy is a scalar, it has no direction. It doesn’t flow. Hel-loo!

Correction: You just finished **claiming** that "energy is a scalar, it has no direction. It doesn’t flow."

Also, it’s worth noting that energy = power x time. Or putting it another way, power = energy per unit time. So the power company provides both power and energy to the homes and businesses of its customers, conveying both in one direction via wires. Just as an amplifier provides power and energy to speakers, conveying both in one direction via the speaker cables (although "back-emf" generated by the speakers may be conveyed in the opposite direction via those cables).

Everything Mr. Rodman has said in his recent posts on this subject is correct. And considering that the subject of the thread is fuse vs. no fuse I will not discuss this issue any longer.

Regards,
-- Al

Just for the record, 60 Hz AC changes polarity and consequently direction 120 times per second. During each 60 Hz cycle the waveform goes from negative to positive and also from positive to negative.

However energy is conveyed in only one direction, from source to load, putting aside reflection effects that occur mainly at RF frequencies.

Regards,
-- Al

I am frantically searching a previous post in hopes to find what I think I read, that someone bypassed the fuses and then tried a Blue fuse. He found that he liked the sound of the Blue fuse over bypassing. So, hence the question.... What did the fuse do other than be a great fuse?

I would speculate that the fuse simply resulted in sonic changes that happened to be subjectively preferable in the particular system to the particular listener.  While more likely than not being less true to the source material than the bypass he tried.

Regards,
-- Al