What direction should Hi Fi tune fuse be installed


What direction should Hi Fi Tuning fuses be installed? They have a little arrow and I would think it would point the direction of AC flow but maybe it points to the AC source?? SEEMS to sound better that way. I know someone will say put it the way it sound better but i have 3 fuses here. That is 6 possible ways. Not in the mood for that. The arrow must mean somethuing. What about Furutech? Thoughts welcome. keith
geph0007

Showing 4 responses by tonywinsc

Yes, I know. I was just sharing an antidotal story about my discovery of the impact of subtle things on the quality of the sound.
Fun reading. No one has made mention of the directionality of wire due to the drawing process. The crystalline structure of copper is aligned a certain way when it is pulled through the die. What I am not sure of, is if the crystalline structure alignment changes when the copper wire is annealed or flexed. This may play some part in the fuse orientation question. The fuse manufacturer buys the wire in spools and so must know the actual direction the wire was pulled through the die. Otherwise, the directional notation on their fuses would be meaningless.
I know this: a few decades ago, I had some Monster Cable ICs with directional arrows. I had changed something on my stereo and had the ICs off of it. These ICs were going from preamp to amp. After reconnecting everything, I sat down to listen; but something didn't seem right. I couldn't put my finger on it; but it was enough to prompt me to get out of my chair and check everything. I found one of the two IC cables was plugged in backwards, ie. the arrow on the cable was pointing the wrong way. I corrected the orientation and sat back down to listen. Everything was good. That blew me away. I became more open minded about cables and other tweaks after that. I have not, however, gotten motivated to trial fuses.
If the impedance of Cu wire is slightly different in the direction of the draw vs. the other direction, then I would think that this difference is measurable. Perhaps fuse and cable companies know this and measure this; but for the sake of competitive advantage, do not care to reveal it. If wire impedance is slightly higher in one direction than the other, then it could follow that signal noise is slightly lower pending orientation of the wire. Lower signal noise could be perceived as better sound quality.

So who among these esteemed EE's could perform these delicate measurements? And be willing? Or is it nonsense?