Had my M-1 internal fuse for my P20 since it came out and installed it the accepted way with the M towards the fuse holder.
Within the last few weeks I’ve wondered whether I have it in the right way and I have been getting the best results from it. So I powered my P20 down and changed the direction of the M-1 fuse and powered up the P20 again.
As I’d been running the M-1 fuse for at least a year I thought I’d give the new orientation a while to bed in so I tried it this way for 36 hours. Mid and treble sounded fine but the bass couldn’t pay a tune to save it’s life, flat and tuneless.
At least I now knew I had the fuse the correct way all along.
Changing it back and playing the system again, after it had time to warm up, I thought the system was sounding better and further listening sessions have confirmed this.
I can only imagine that changing the direction of the fuse and running it for that amount of time acted like a ‘super burn in’ process.
(I’m sure the above would work on P15 units as well.)
I’d be interested to hear if other owners have tried this, or would be interested in trying it, to see if they experience the same results I’ve obtained?
Just to be sure, can you confirm the fuse orientation? I can see where the M in the M1 “points” can be interpreted both ways, or at least by me. So, is the top of the M inserted in to the fuse cap, or vise versa,
for your favored result. I understand all PSA power flows from cap to unit. However, these fuse manufacturers do not ensure their labeling follows the desired result. Best to burn in for a while in both directions and listen, like you did. You would think these manufacturers that claim directionality would lest and label accordingly, especially at the ever increasing prices the command.
I have one M-1 fuse following the direction and one against the flow. Even AM says their fuses are non-directional. But they are! The problem is they put on the label randomly, I am sure.
The long accepted practice is to wire a panel mounted fuse holder so that the load is on the outer ring and the source on the back end. And you will not pass UL and other world safety agencies if that is not followed on the AC line fuses.
The reason is that if someone removes the fuse while the unit is plugged in, the exposed ring terminal is not hot.
This fuse thing is getting ridiculous. Even the jewelry fuse vendors acknowledge there is no right direction when dealing with AC.
However if you think one direction sounds better - great. Put the fuse in that way and enjoy. But there will never be any scientific data to back these directional fuse claims no matter how many times we beat up this dead horse.
I’m beginning to believe the burn in of the fuse is more important than the direction the fuse is in. No matter what direction, if you have been using the fuse for a long time and then suddenly reverse the direction, it will sound in most cases more muffled, at least in my experience. If you don’t hear much difference in the direction of the fuse when you first put it in, I wouldn’t worry about it.
I agree that we have flogged this fuse horse long enough. The time the fuse is in the unit and that it’s direction does matter seem to be the only constants. Bigger fish to fry.
I’m glad I tried swopping the fuse round.
It confirmed for me that I was using the fuse in the correct orientation in my system.
When I recently swopped it round I left it in that position for 36 hours, which I presumed was long enough for the change of direction to stabilise the performance.
I’ve found my system sounds better than before now that I’ve returned the fuse to it’s original orientation.
Hey, it a free thing to check out, if you find no difference then nothing lost.
Played my system last night for a while and thought I’d add some more meat rather than just saying the system was better.
Takes my system about an hour to warm up and settle down, main improvements are in the speakers imaging, a wider soundstage, more natural sounding instruments and vocals and the timing seems better which improves the realism of the sound i listening too.
Would you remember what did you not like with these fuses ?
Are you sure they are genuine ones?
I am asking as in my case I probably could not find any reason (except price) to use stock fuse - the AM beeswax I’m using (now across whole chain) is sublime and stock fuse sounds harsh, flat in comparison.
They seemed harsh to me in my system. I had them for 3 weeks and even reversed the direction. They were genuine. I also had the purple fuses which also didn’t work out
Yes looks like a Krispy Kream donut. The write up says it has materials discovered from the M-1 fuse development. It would need to have ferromagnetic elements to work as placements on the equipment.
