Audiophile Fuses

highstream

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Sorry, H rated, whatever they are. Specifically in the high power amplifiers.
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Not hard to look up. Nothing specialized except the uses they are specified for. They come in different sizes.
What is a Class H fuse:
 
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ssfas

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Not hard to look up. Nothing specialized except the uses they are specified for. They come in different sizes.
What is a Class H fuse:
By specialised, I mean, that I doubt you’d find H fuses in a supermarket. They are not standard slow blow fuses. If I needed to replace a fuse in my audio system, and I haven’t checked to see what brands are installed, I’d go to my local supermarket and get a pack of 5 Bussman for £1 ($1.30).
 

highstream

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In the States, one would lucky to find any fuses in a supermarket.
 

Phon@ix

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I just upgraded with another two SR Masters… These things are really something special. My hifi buddy also bought four when he heard the improvement in my sys.

Before I tested a load of tweaks, cables, tubes, plugs, quartz, etc. I thought there are many crackheads around in the audio scene who smoke to much funny herb stuff what make them believe, they hear improvements which aren‘t really there. I came to the conclusion, that audio experiments could produce weird results. There’s not always an explanation why a few things work while others don‘t. Meanwhile I‘m playing with bybee (iqse, rca plugs, slipstream, etc.), Akiko + other exotic stuff and I'm extremely excited that some voodoo engineers are venturing into corners of quantum physics and rocket research to make their customer‘s system sound better.
 
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ssfas

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I just upgraded with another two SR Masters… These things are really something special. My hifi buddy also bought four when he heard the improvement in my sys.

Before I tested a load of tweaks, cables, tubes, plugs, quartz, etc. I thought there are many crackheads around in the audio scene who smoke to much funny herb stuff what make them believe, they hear improvements which aren‘t really there. I came to the conclusion, that audio experiments could produce weird results. There’s not always an explanation why a few things work while others don‘t. Meanwhile I‘m playing with bybee (iqse, rca plugs, slipstream, etc.), Akiko + other exotic stuff and I'm extremely excited that some voodoo engineers are venturing into corners of quantum physics and rocket research to make their customer‘s system sound better.
Some of them are also just rebadging other people's products and putting them in a nice box. In the case of fuses, gold-plating the caps is a popular trick.

There are honest manufacturers who tell the truth. Russ Andrews and MCRU sell gold-capped 13A fuses and are honest that they are Bussmann underneath.

Lots of bulk manufacturers like Belden sell cables OEM and will do terminations or labelling to order, because some manufacturers want to sell their product with their own branded cable. Belden confirmed they don't do special order cables for anyone, it's the same cable, hardly surprising given the tooling costs. It does allow people to sell someone else's cable at their own and bump up the price.

I don't think you'll find any quantum physics and rocket research involved, you will likely find quantum marketing and rocket prices.
 
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highstream

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highstream

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Before posting, I actually looked up supermarkets in the area, plus Wal-Mart and a few other places online to see what they carry. Did you? There's not much of anything that would be useful for home audio systems.
 
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ssfas

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Before posting, I actually looked up supermarkets in the area, plus Wal-Mart and a few other places online to see what they carry. Did you? There's not much of anything that would be useful for home audio systems.
The difference in the UK is that every plug is fused. So my from my wall to to my streamer, the wall plug to my conditioner has a 13A fuse, the power cable from the streamer to the conditioner has another 13A fuse and the streamer itself has a 2A fuse. So that's 3 fuses that an audiophile has to sweat blood over.

The 2A fuse (Innuos install Littelfuse) can be safely replaced. Some people in the UK get conditioners with USA sockets so they can get rid of the middle 13A fuse. You still have the 13A wall fuse and you can't get rid of that.

So we use vastly more fuses and there is no pure audiophile 13A fuse (QSA, for example, are relabelled Bussmann). Even so, our hifi still sounds perfectly good with fuses all over the place.

From the incoming power to my streamer, the power goes through 6 fuses and 2 breakers.
 

highstream

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That’s helpful. Sounds like the greater use of fuses and the variety of values and types in audio gear and wall outlets leads to their being more readily available than in the States. This is a discussion about audiophile fuses, something very specialized. Since the vast majority of audio or theatre equipment used in the States apparently has only one fuse, which rarely blows in normal use, most users would never have need to think of it and thus few everyday stores would find enough demand to carry them. Even then, most people wouldn’t know where to look to find the fuse, even if user accessible, let alone believe that it could affect the sound or video quality.
 
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ssfas

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That’s helpful. Sounds like the greater use of fuses and the variety of values and types in audio gear and wall outlets leads to their being more readily available than in the States. This is a discussion about audiophile fuses, something very specialized. Since the vast majority of audio or theatre equipment used in the States apparently has only one fuse, which rarely blows in normal use, most users would never have need to think of it and thus few everyday stores would find enough demand to carry them. Even then, most people wouldn’t know where to look to find the fuse, even if user accessible, let alone believe that it could affect the sound or video quality.
I may have hundreds of 13A fuses deployed in my house, but I’ve not had to replace one in years. They are basically safety devices to prevent the power cable and socket from catching fire. Because they are slow blow, if there is a short or power surge, it will trip the breaker in the consumer unit, but the fuse will remain intact.

2A slow blow seems to be the standard issue for devices other than power amplifiers. A pack of 10 Littelfuse cost about $11. Innuos even provide a link on their website to buy them. They recommend 3.15A if you’re using a more expensive audiophile fuse because the I2t is much higher, so less chance of blowing. That’s overkill because the device will never draw even 0.1A, so the fuse is never going to be the “bottlenecK” (per QSA) or the weakest lInk.
 

Republicoftexas69

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Before posting, I actually looked up supermarkets in the area, plus Wal-Mart and a few other places online to see what they carry. Did you? There's not much of anything that would be useful for home audio systems.
Wow you are wrong. glass fuse is a glass fuse my friend. My Walmart has a full selection of Buss and little fuse, fuses, slow and fast blow. Besides you make it sound like a rare exotic commodity. It is not and you can always order from Amazon. Come on man! They have same day delivery. Fuses in amplifiers Are not special, they are run of the mill ceramic or glass fuse. Happy Thanksgiving. https://www.walmart.com/search?q=fuses&typeahead=fuese 25 pages
 
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Republicoftexas69

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Let’s get back on topic, the subject is Audiophile Fuses. I have found them to be quite useless in any and all of my equipment (mostly all from the EU). I quickly returned or sold in the secondary market. I am interested in the Swiss Box however have some reservation. Being an engineer albeit mechanical and only had to take one circuits class and that was 40 years ago, my preference would be slugs or circuit breakers, magnetic like said device, I am also intrigued by @Carlsbad work in this area. Cheers all and Happy Thanksgiving. BTW Walmart is closed today.
 
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treitz3

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Let’s get back on topic, the subject is Audiophile Fuses. I have found them to be quite useless in any and all of my equipment (mostly all from the EU). <snip>
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well and good morning to Texas from SC.

As I read this, I (honestly) reared my head back. I feel bad that this has been your experience and here's why. A friend of mine came over a couple of months back to audition my rig again, after I have dialed in on some of the upgrades I have made over the past year. He just so happened to have a fuse that he brought with him that he "really" wanted me to try out.

I was reluctant, to say the least, because I couldn't figure out how/why a fuse would make any change but he kept talking about this fuse and how he wanted to hear it in my system. Toward the end of the listening session, we actually (with me still being a bit reluctant) installed the fuse within the power supply unit of my amplifier.

At first, I was thinking to myself, "get this thing outta here!". The bass was grossly over exaggerated, the mids were strange, the images were all over the place and the tonal balance of the system had shifted to where it was now unacceptable. Not a very good first impression AT ALL.

Even though it sounded bad, we kept listening and revisited some of the tracks we had just listened to in the hours preceding the fuse install. As I was listening, I kept hearing things that perked my ears up. Glimpses of artifacts that I had not previously heard out of my system. As we kept listening and as the new addition got settled into the system, this reminded me of a PC break in. I could not believe that a simple fuse could be doing the same thing. This was beyond believable that something like this would happen but it was, at the same time, undeniable to these ears. Heck, you could even feel the difference.

After another hour or so, I told my friend that I was still not sold on this little fuse. The lower registers would have to tame down significantly, the tonal balance would have to come back to something that was enjoyable once again and the images would have to be not so smeared. When he left, the system was still in flux and I told him that I would let him know if I wanted the fuse or not but there was a very high probability that I would be returning it to him.

The only reason I wanted to give it a chance was because of those little glimpses of "potential" that I kept hearing. I wanted to hear what else this thing could do because those little glimpses of potential were again, something that I had never heard my rig do before.

Fast forward about two weeks, for the most part, the system had lost the exaggeration of the lower frequencies. The tonal balance had returned. The imaging was now sharper than it had ever been before. I purchased the fuse from him and was fully confident that I was making a great decision, even though it was still somewhat in flux.

Fast forward another month. Everything, and I do mean all aspects of the system had changed. Usually, there are compromises and deficiencies that you trade off in return of the attributes something offers you. In this case? It was all attributes. I could type for hours on end about the changes this little fuse has made in my system. Now that I have heard it? I could never go back.

That fuse was a QSA Red/Black fuse.

For a product to have had such a horrible first impression, this sure has changed my mind and taught me things that I honestly, didn't think was possible. FWIW, I have zero affiliation with QSA. I wasn't even really familiar with them (I had only read about them), until the day my friend came over with the fuse and insisted that I give it a try. Everyone in this hobby could use more friends like that!

Tom
 

Republicoftexas69

Well-Known Member
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well and good morning to Texas from SC.

As I read this, I (honestly) reared my head back. I feel bad that this has been your experience and here's why. A friend of mine came over a couple of months back to audition my rig again, after I have dialed in on some of the upgrades I have made over the past year. He just so happened to have a fuse that he brought with him that he "really" wanted me to try out.

I was reluctant, to say the least, because I couldn't figure out how/why a fuse would make any change but he kept talking about this fuse and how he wanted to hear it in my system. Toward the end of the listening session, we actually (with me still being a bit reluctant) installed the fuse within the power supply unit of my amplifier.

At first, I was thinking to myself, "get this thing outta here!". The bass was grossly over exaggerated, the mids were strange, the images were all over the place and the tonal balance of the system had shifted to where it was now unacceptable. Not a very good first impression AT ALL.

Even though it sounded bad, we kept listening and revisited some of the tracks we had just listened to in the hours preceding the fuse install. As I was listening, I kept hearing things that perked my ears up. Glimpses of artifacts that I had not previously heard out of my system. As we kept listening and as the new addition got settled into the system, this reminded me of a PC break in. I could not believe that a simple fuse could be doing the same thing. This was beyond believable that something like this would happen but it was, at the same time, undeniable to these ears. Heck, you could even feel the difference.

After another hour or so, I told my friend that I was still not sold on this little fuse. The lower registers would have to tame down significantly, the tonal balance would have to come back to something that was enjoyable once again and the images would have to be not so smeared. When he left, the system was still in flux and I told him that I would let him know if I wanted the fuse or not but there was a very high probability that I would be returning it to him.

The only reason I wanted to give it a chance was because of those little glimpses of "potential" that I kept hearing. I wanted to hear what else this thing could do because those little glimpses of potential were again, something that I had never heard my rig do before.

Fast forward about two weeks, for the most part, the system had lost the exaggeration of the lower frequencies. The tonal balance had returned. The imaging was now sharper than it had ever been before. I purchased the fuse from him and was fully confident that I was making a great decision, even though it was still somewhat in flux.

Fast forward another month. Everything, and I do mean all aspects of the system had changed. Usually, there are compromises and deficiencies that you trade off in return of the attributes something offers you. In this case? It was all attributes. I could type for hours on end about the changes this little fuse has made in my system. Now that I have heard it? I could never go back.

That fuse was a QSA Red/Black fuse.

For a product to have had such a horrible first impression, this sure has changed my mind and taught me things that I honestly, didn't think was possible. FWIW, I have zero affiliation with QSA. I wasn't even really familiar with them (I had only read about them), until the day my friend came over with the fuse and insisted that I give it a try. Everyone in this hobby could use more friends like that!

Tom
I know I had given these particular fuses more than ample opportunities to prove me wrong. I went well past the return window and we’ll into the psychoacoustic stage (my attempt at humor). Thank goodness there is a viable secondary markets. Now that was my experience with only one fuse manufacture. They will remain as that is not my style. For some I know swear by this particular fuse. It was not a QSA product. I am a believer t everything in the audio chain matters just some components maybe less impactful and these fuses Did not impress or earn a slot on my team.
 

Phon@ix

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Long story short. You can’t plug in a brand new fuse in expectation it sounds perfect from the first hour. Most fuses need +\- 200 - 300 hours to burn in. In this time it’s possible that the system sounds crap for a few hours/days… I mostly let them bake in the PSU from my modem or switch which are on 24/7. After around two weeks I swap it into the component for which I bought it… If you don’t hear any improvement you either bought the wrong fuse or you’re deaf ;)
 

christoph

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Dec 11, 2015
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Long story short. You can’t plug in a brand new fuse in expectation it sounds perfect from the first hour. Most fuses need +\- 200 - 300 hours to burn in. In this time it’s possible that the system sounds crap for a few hours/days… I mostly let them bake in the PSU from my modem or switch which are on 24/7. After around two weeks I swap it into the component for which I bought it… If you don’t hear any improvement you either bought the wrong fuse or you’re deaf ;)
Clever idea to burn-in the fuses in a piece of gear that is always on :cool:
 

Republicoftexas69

Well-Known Member
Long story short. You can’t plug in a brand new fuse in expectation it sounds perfect from the first hour. Most fuses need +\- 200 - 300 hours to burn in. In this time it’s possible that the system sounds crap for a few hours/days… I mostly let them bake in the PSU from my modem or switch which are on 24/7. After around two weeks I swap it into the component for which I bought it… If you don’t hear any improvement you either bought the wrong fuse or you’re deaf ;)
Like I said had them in for well past the return window, had well over 600 hours on them and notta, same as having a stock ceramic furse. Rather spend the money on treatments, tubes, cables..... at least that particular brand.
 

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