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Direction of aftermarket fuses (only for believers!)

It is with reluctance that I start another thread on this topic with the ONLY GOAL for believers to share their experience about aftermarket fuses.
To others: you can call us snobs, emperors w/o clothes,... etc but I hope you refrain posting just your opinion here. If you did not hear any difference, great, maybe there isn’t.

The main driver for this new post is that I am starting a project to mod my NAD M25 7 ch amp for my home theater. It has 19 fuses (2 per channel, 4 on the power supply board, 1 main AC) and I will try a mix of AMR Gold, SR Black and Audio Magic Platinum (anyway that is the plan, I may try out some other brands/models). As it is reasonably difficult to change them, esp the ones on each channel module that requires complete disassembly, I would like to know what the direction is for these models mentioned and of course, others who HAVE HEARD there is a difference please share your experience on any fuse model you have tried.

Fuses are IME directional:
Isoclean is one of the first to indicate the direction (2008/2009) on their fuses. Users of HiFi Tuning (when the awareness rose quite a bit amongst audiophiles) have mostly heard the difference.

As an IEEE engineer, I was highly skeptical of cabling decades ago (I like the speaker design of John Dunlavy but he said on many occasions that cables nor footers matter at all, WRONG!). Luckily, my curiosity proved me wrong as well. I see the same skepticism that I and many others had about the need for aftermarket cables many, many years ago now on fuses and esp on the direction on fuses.

Another example is the direction of capacitors (I do not mean electrolytic types). Even some manufacturers now and certainly many in the past did not believe it can make a difference sonically. Maybe some do but it takes time in the assembly to sort and put them in the right direction/order (esp as some of the cap manufacturers still do not indicate "polarity") so that maybe is one argument why this is not universally implemented.








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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Psst wrote,

"I’m a believer--that ’Stevecham’s’ post is the most valuable. I wonder how many "get" the "virtually incalculable" figures he’s so elegantly stated."

I’m a math major. Just by blind luck half the new fuses will be in the correct direction before he gets down to evaluating them. That leaves approximately according to my calculations only 9 or so to correct. You just listen to each one and move to the next one. I could do it in half and hour. It’s "incalculable" only to an English Major. No offense to Stevecham, naturally. I will grant you it definitely helps to know what a fuse in the correct direction sounds like.

pc123v
85 posts
 
AMR gold fuses vs....the rest. 

I have asked this question months ago. Since then, there have been a some new players and new offerings from existing manufacturers. Looking for feedback on how the rest of the field stack up against the AMR. Seeking something richer, fuller with a smoother recessed top end, i.e. "pearshaped". 
jazzonthehudson's avatar
jazzonthehudson OP
277 posts
 
pc123v, the AMR aka LittleFuse has a deficit on the highs, they represent excellent value for subwoofers.

The link that nonoise provided reflects my experience with HiFiTuning, SR Red, etc. IME the best value should be the Furutech (I am in the process to check if the PADIS is an OEM version of it) or SR Red on the used market, much better than these two is the Audio Magic Platinum. 
danvignau's avatar
danvignau
935 posts
 
Since my head amp inverts the signal, should I just rotate the fuses in my amp and drill a hole to attach my volume knob backwards on the shaft, or maybe just do one of the above? TeeHee
jazzonthehudson's avatar
jazzonthehudson OP
277 posts
 
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