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

"...where my friend Steve Lacy was in the heat chamber."

Tough job. Poor Steve must have been burnt-out.

So these Tap dancing monks with the orange fuses, do they sell on line?

Imax cinema of focused sound

¿Que?

Zippy top over a swirly bucket of midrange mush?

The more I read about fuses and the distortion and noise they bring the happier I am I don’t use them any more. I thank my lucky stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Color me a happy camper. 🤗

Wiki - The fuse element is made of zinc, copper, silver, aluminum, or alloys to provide stable and predictable characteristics. The fuse ideally would carry its rated current indefinitely, and melt quickly on a small excess.

and thus (or restated) it's end result of very high levels of non linearity, and production of odd ordered harmonics as a reflection, or final effect of it's behavior when dealing with dynamic current draw.

The cheapest way to a more linear draw is to go with a 'long lag' fuse in place of a short lag or fast blow fuse. 

But such a substitution of a fuse type is not really all that 'legal' as rated fuses in gear also includes the lag aspects as part of their specification and use in that particular piece of gear. It is integral to the legal status of the electrical approval of the given device.

The question in audiophile fuses, is if the given audiophile fuse meets the spec required for that given piece of gear it is placed in.

Don’t be catty, jitter. 😺

Was your job to make sure the fuses were installed in the right direction?

I worked next to the Air Force office of UFO research, Operation BlueBook 👽 and down the street from Air Force Office of Medical Research where my friend Steve Lacy was in the heat chamber. This was about the time when there was intense research into temperature effects for astronauts, and how many g’s humans can withstand, that sort of thing. Remember Col Stapp?😬 When I worked in the pink building with no windows I was involved in, well, I probably shouldn’t say. But it wasn’t Mary Kay cosmetics. 💋

And if you want to change your old crusty fuses that may have seen too many turn on cycles (pics attached), then do it with the same $1 fuse, not the BS $150 SR boutique ones, as they will sound the same and age just as fast.

Pics of fast and slow blo fuses that have seen too many turn on cycles over a couple of years.
https://ibb.co/PzWvzwr (left to right over time aging)
https://ibb.co/17Tvy6t (right to left over time aging)


Cheers George

No doubt ... this is an expensive hobby. I sometimes wonder if it's more expensive than a heroin habit.

Frank

Factoid #1
Flapping bedsheets vigorously, for a duration of no shorter than 16 minutes*, during the vernal equinox* will bring on the aurora borealis.

*It has yet to be determined at what point excessive flapping becomes counter-productive.
*This is, of course, hemispherically dependent.

Factoid #2
Blowing big bux fuses can put a serious strain on one’s discretionary funds, or worse, household budget, and can sometimes, but not always, lead to domestic discord. A more positive outcome might be a reexamination of one’s audio goals and priorities.

One of these days the concept that merely first replacing An old fuse with a similar new one or merely just reseating the existing one better can make a difference in sound will sink in with those who still do not get it.
Having replaced many fuses for customers over the years I think that may have been my very first point I ever made here regarding the popular topic of fuses and have even re-iterated it a few times as I recall but it’s not something fancy fuse pushers seem to have any interest in. Go figure!

"Don’t care how ... I only know that it does. How’s that for a scientific analysis?"

Be careful, someone could say that the answer would be in psychoanalysis.

"I worked at W-P in a pink building with no windows...."

...but it did have padded walls.

Speaking of thermal chambers, a friend of mine who worked at Wright Patt AFB in Dayton, Ohio volunteered to see how long he could make it in a thermal chamber at 400 deg. F. He was in street clothes in the chamber for 25 minutes, no big deal. I worked at W-P in a pink building with no windows.

roberttcan,
Do you work for Thermotron? That is a great company & one I'm very familiar with (I live in the area). We had one of their chambers in our R&D facility for years. It served us well. 

Frank please don’t use the words science or scientific as some people might get very upset. School, as a kid, my mother would say, “You should enjoy it. One day you’ll have to work for a living.” No, I won’t, ma. I’m going to me a comedian. 🤡

ieales

Littelfuse spec 5A 250v Slo-Blo 21.4mΩ
Measured 22mΩ with precision supply and resistor divider @ ≈115mA

Measured R after 10 minutes at each current.
0.55A 31mΩ
1.10A 31mΩ
2.20A 31mΩ

Power Transformer input Z ≈100Ω. Fuse is 0.023% of input Z.

Please explain how ZERO change in fuse characteristics can rob low level detail.

Crappy holders in harsh environments can create ugly artifacts. Ditto poor quality or wrong characteristic holders or fuses.

👍

This says it all, "if" you voodooist fusers can understand

Good work for the effort measuring


And if you want to change your old crusty fuses that may have seen too many turn on cycles (pics attached), then do it with the same $1 fuse, not the BS $150 SR boutique ones, as they will sound the same and age just as fast.

Pics of fast and slow blo fuses that have seen too many turn on cycles over a couple of years.
https://ibb.co/PzWvzwr (left to right over time aging)
https://ibb.co/17Tvy6t (right to left over time aging)


Cheers George

• You should probably take a gander at the SR Black fuse and Cerious Cables Graphene Cables. Not to mention PERFECT PATH GRAPHENE contact enhancer. I thought Frank would be all over this one. Wait till ya get a load of the Audio Magic Beeswax fuse. I can hardly wait. 🤗

Yep. And the Blue and Orange fuses as well. Just don't ask me how it works.  I Don't care how ... I only know that it does.  How's that for a scientific analysis? *lol*

Frank

I will have him eating out of my hand, glubby. Or talking to my hand. We’ll have to see. 👀

"Graphene has a melting point of 4900K. I am not sure how practical it would be to use as a fuse."

Wait! You say graphene cannot make everything better? It does not have that magic touch that I learned about from one famous audiogon member’s posts over time? No photonic power? What a shame.

roberttcan to geoffkait:

"You use the word science ... a lot. But you and I know how science works."

geoffkait,

You fooled him.

Huge resistance bottleneck which robs low level detail as well as grunge noise especially low level.

¿Que?

Littelfuse spec 5A 250v Slo-Blo 21.4mΩ
Measured 22mΩ with precision supply and resistor divider @ ≈115mA

Measured R after 10 minutes at each current.
0.55A 31mΩ
1.10A 31mΩ
2.20A 31mΩ

Power Transformer input Z ≈100Ω. Fuse is 0.023% of input Z.

Please explain how ZERO change in fuse characteristics can rob low level detail.

Crappy holders in harsh environments can create ugly artifacts. Ditto poor quality or wrong characteristic holders or fuses.

You should probably take a gander at the SR Black fuse and Cerious Cables Graphene Cables. Not to mention PERFECT PATH GRAPHENE contact enhancer. I thought Frank would be all over this one. Wait till ya get a load of the Audio Magic Beeswax fuse. I can hardly wait. 🤗

One of us doesn’t understand and it’s not me. Guess who that leaves? 😳 Uh, oh, You suddenly seem very familiar. But maybe I’m getting my know-it-all pseudo skeptics mixed up.

OMG! A walking Wikipedia! 🚶🏻‍♂️ It should probably be mentioned at this point that Graphene is not used inside the fuse to prevent any unnecessary confusion. But don’t let that stop you. 

The use of Graphene where in fuses? This dog has been been to death already. Be careful what you wish for.

roberttcan ...

 

• Due to ROHS you don't see lead in fuses these days. You may find some still in military. Tin/Zinc alloys are used in time delays fuses primarily and I believe in some very small value fuses.

What effect, if any, do you think the use of graphene in fuses would be? In fact, in any audio applications at all such as cabling, power conditioning, etc.

Frank

If you do use a fuse , on synergistic research, You install going with the lettering Left to Right as well as Hifi tuning they have an arrow.
to know how it will sound best very easy going to the positive legg
for example , looking at the IEC input ,if the ground which is the single terminal of the 3 ,if it is on the bottom then your positive terminal will be on the Right
just the opposite if the ground is upside down, this way you don’t 
have to try it both ways the Positive legg is best. Inside you want to go from a connector or terminal to where the electricity is flowing to down stream at the 1st stage if you will. Hopefully this will save someone time from having to figure it out.

Not according Wikipedia. Do you know something Wikipedia doesn’t? 😳 HiFi Tuning, for one example, employs a 99% silver alloy 1% gold tip to tip, including end caps. Don’t forget the end caps! 🤗 Isoclean uses copper alloy wire and gold plated end caps.

Wiki - The fuse element is made of zinc, copper, silver, aluminum, or alloys to provide stable and predictable characteristics. The fuse ideally would carry its rated current indefinitely, and melt quickly on a small excess.

Observation, I.e., empirical evidence, is equal to measurements as part of the scientific method. So are curiosity and spirit of investigation. Hey, what’d ya know, there’s that word science again! My bad! I did not invent reality nor do I care very much if my Logic fails to convince anyone. Science has become a little bit flabby and stodgy and slow. I prefer to go my own way. Things get done faster that way. I probably broke three laws of physics this week and the week ain’t even over yet. I’m not trying to set the world on fire, just start a flame in a few hearts 🥰 But as Bob Dylan says at the end of all his records, good luck everybody! 🤗

For safety reasons that is the main reason fuses are incorporated,
that being said , the standard cheap steel fuses are horrible conductors and create a a Huge resistance bottleneck whic robs low level detail as well as grunge noise especially low level. A Copper or Silver a Gold matrix is not only night and day more musical less bright but 4-5 x better conductor, think about it for a moment to start with on back All electricity flows through that fuse the weakest link in the chain ,we have listened ,yo them measured on a scope,
night and day better.no fuse is the best but not possible with most gear.
i can tell you one thing the latest New fuse from Synergistic Research is sonicly even more refined then their excellent blue fuse.i am not a big advocate of the
way Synergistic and its owner have done business in the past and using the great
Nicola Tesla as a selling point for their totally unverified quantum process.
that being said the New Orange are a Great fuses.

“WOW WOW WOW” WHAT!

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

An an ordinary man has no means of deliverance.

Whatever are they putting in the water down there, Georgie Porgy? Are you drinking out of the dunny? 

Clean up aisle 4!!!!!.
Someone please mop Geoff up, and flush him down the dunny.