I had a thought the other day… with all the tweaking I’ve done over the past few years, it occurred to me if I should replace the fuses in my monoblock amplifiers.
I have a pair of Classe CAM-200 monoblocks. About 10 years ago I purchased a new pair of Thiel 3.7 speakers (which I no longer have). When the store delivered and set up the speakers, both fuses blew on the amplifiers immediately. Long story short, the Thiel speakers were defective, and the cabinets crimped the wires upon assembly (so much for testing before shipping).
Anyway, the installers went up to Radio Shack and replaced the fuses on the amplifiers.
What does everyone think? Is it worth replacing the fuses for any sound improvement?
Yes, but it depends what you want from the sound. If you want a brighter, more immediate sound the new SR Master fuse may be the one you want. If you want a softer and cleaner sound, the purple fuse may be the one you want. I have not changed any fuses in my system, but have heard both fuses changed back and forth a couple of times in a system.
Yes, without question change the fuses. I have done so in 3 sets of monoblocks without regret and now enjoy darker backgrounds, greater clarity, soundstaging and better bass.
For the past 15+ years I have only used Synergistic Research (SR) fuses. My current favorite for the Mono’s is their Purple fuse. Descriptors written by SR and reviewers are true.
People seem to prefer the Synergistic Research fuses.
When the Blue was new, it was unbelievably good, folks were overjoyed… You can still get some at big discounts.
When the Orange was new, it was unbelievably good, again, overjoyed. Discounts…
Ditto Purple
Ditto Master, but no discounts yet.
Personally I’ve come to lean more towards the Audio Magic M1. Each system is different. I needed a bit more solidity and richness, and the M1 delivers that for me.
I just had a look at PFM back here in Blighty and see they recently had a fuse thread, in fact two threads, both short-lived. Both are really quite funny, but short-lived as Tony the Moderator intervened that fuses are about safety and could not condone a conversation that compromised safety. Boo hiss.
The other thread was funny because someone was complaining he replaced a £0.20 2A fuse with one for £155 and it blew. He bought another one and it blew again. So £310 later he was informed that the manufacturer states that the 2A fuse audiophile replacement is 3.15A.
It seems that here in the UK with inflation poverty, having to choose between heat or food and which domestic pet to eat first, a fuse thread raises the spirits.
Just as some people think just about everyone drives on the right, and only strange people like those in the UK drive in left, in fact probably more people drive in the left the the right, for example the whole of the Indian sub-continent, much of Africa, Japan etc.
That is just to illustrate that there is more diversity than some people think. There is no universal truth and some things we see as the fraud they are. Here fuses are considered a joke/attempted robbery, expensive cables much the same, most people plug their hifi straight in the wall or use a conditioner, and low powered (just enough power) integrated amplifiers have always been most popular.
I suppose because many of those countries (maybe 30% of the world’s population) were historically and/or economically under the influence of the same country.
Anyhow I agree about the fact that generalizing is not a good practice for an open mind, whatever argument we are debating: driving, food or fuses.
I knew that name sounded familiar and why I have distaste for them (and many other companies like them).
They’re one of those many companies out there that are good with big, fancy words that usually have no context to what they’re attempting to talk about, zero scientific data of any kind to back up anything they say/sell, and totally rely on hocus pocus to sell their products at ridiculous prices.
And why on earth do these companies think it’s perfectly alright to sell something such as fuses “rated” at a certain amperage, yet those fuses actually measure and blow at a higher or lower amperage than what they’re rated at? To have you waste more money on their ridiculously priced fuses when they blow every time you turn on your gear, or not blow when they should and damage your gear?
There’s a perfectly good reason why pretty much all reputable audio companies out there strongly suggest that you do NOT use these so-called “hifi” fuses and ONLY replace the stock fuse with an identical replacement fuse. Most of them probably even state that in their users manuals, such as Pass Labs.
With that said, do as you will. In the end, it’s your money and your gear.
