2. misc-audio
  3. 176846-5587

Higher amperage fuse for sound quality

I apologize if this question is either (1) ridiculously stupid or (2) already been beaten to death. And I'm definitely not looking to re-litigate whether aftermarket fuses are anything other than b.s.

I've read that people sometimes choose higher amperage fuses. This is because aftermarket fuses are supposedly built to tighter specs and therefore prone to blowing. Supposedly SR is noted for this.

Recently I was looking into some SR fuses and the dealer told me that higher amperage was also better for sonics. I'd never heard that before.

 

So last night I was looking through my stuff and discovered an unused 3.15a fuse. (I used HiFi Tuning throughout.) I decided to try it in my transport which takes a 1.6a. Everything is plugged into a Shunyata and there were no signs of t-storms so I figured I was safe for an hour or so.

It made the single biggest difference of any "tweak" I've tried. For one, the bass went significantly much deeper, became more authoritative, more controlled, more precise. The treble lost whatever edge it had and became golden and bell-like. Aside from those things, the music generally became more musical, which is difficult to explain. The music "might" have lost a tad of nuance and subtlety but I'm not sure. It's a small exaggeration to say that it sounded like a different amp. 

Being risk averse, I switched the fuse back, but I'm still so surprised. Has anyone had a similar experience? 

rfprice
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

The fuse is there to protect your equipment and its amperage is determined by the manufacturer from his knowledge of the equipment.

Don't mess with it.

There are some people here who in the past have advocated replacing the fuse with a solid metal bar.  I hope we all know not to go there.

zpsaxon
5 posts
 

Don't mess with it lol, because it's in the manual it must be safe and correct is full of crap( wow rule follower,  and don't eat pizza it's bad for you)Its usually under valued to be extra safe and cautious. If you are getting better sound try a bit higher fuse, but a double might be pushing it. I have a old sweet sounding class A ,Jeff Rowland amp, but the 5amp fuses would blow when I cranked it up very loud. So I called , talked to Jeff Rowland personally and he said then why not put a 6 to  8 amp fuse in it, it will handle it no.problem. I run a 7amp right now 6 months no blow and sounds wonderful. So even if it came with 5 amp most should handle a bit more no problem, but it is built like a tabk

 

jpmanomet
36 posts
 

@1971gto455ho 

Amen to the common sense practical thinkers here.

More are needed.

secretguy
1,591 posts
 

24 posts

 

@1971gto455ho 

Amen to the common sense practical thinkers here.

More are neede

Amen to the amen. People post such garbage here.

rfprice OP
148 posts
 

Pingstonsmile, in fact I did swap the fuses back and forth 2-3 times to confirm, and the results were the same. You might be right about the smaller fuse being compromised, but as for cold starts, I leave the transport powered on continuously, so it hasn't been exposed to daily cold starts. (Although I don't exactly remember the history of this fuse. It might be 2-3 years old and might have been used in a tube amp that did get turned on and off. However it looks brand new, there is no discoloration, etc.)

Maybe I should go to the hardware store today and get two fuses and see if they show similar results. I suppose that would indicate if my HFT fuse is weakened. I hope that's the case. I'm rooting for a simple explanation that can be easily rectified. I don't wish to use a wrong-size fuse. 

More to discover