September 22, 2012
-
Fuse Directionality
You kind reader, may take this installment on its own. The recommendation, however, is that it’s read as an introduction to the following installment on the HiFi-Tuning Supreme fuse. You may also wish to take a gander at the HiFi-Tuning Gold 38mm Special Fuses entry for further fusile reading.
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently listening to fuses. For those of you who may believe that fuses cannot affect the quality of sound coming out of your sound system, I recommend that you read no further.
Okay, those of you still here, let’s continue. Not only do fuses affect how my system sounds, the direction the fuse is oriented is just as important. To my ears, when the fuse is oriented improperly many of the benefits of the aftermarket fuse you’ve forked over your hard-earned cash for are never realized.
Compared to a properly oriented fuse, the one pointed in the wrong direction just doesn’t sound right. It gives less detail, dynamics and there’s something definitely not kosher with the sound stage. In other words, when it’s not pointed properly, you’re going to get some, a little, benefit when compared to most stock fuses but you’re going to definitely consider whether your funds might not have been better spent somewhere else. Like a tasty single-malt scotch, or some new music, or a decent meal out.
All of the literature in the field I’ve read appears to be unanimous in that the fuse should be pointing in the direction of the current flow, just as your cables that are directional should also be pointed. In order to do this properly for an internal fuse, you’ll need as schematic and also the ability to read one. That’s why I haven’t replaced any of the internal fuses in my system: because I have neither. The outside fuses, though, that are held in place by an end-cap that fits neatly into a fuse receptacle, is something I can handle.
How to orient the fuse in this case, however, is not an open and shut case. There are those who believe that the fuse should be pointed with the directional arrow oriented towards the body of the component and therefore away from the end cap and those who believe just the opposite. In the two cases (on my conrad-johnson Premier 140 amplifier and Music Hall CD-25 disc player) where I’ve tried it both ways, I prefer it pointing towards the end cap.
When I first received and installed the HiFi-Tuning Gold 38mm Special fuses in the Premier 140 back on August 1st, I placed the fuses pointing outwards. This morning, I reversed the fuses prior to warming up my equipment to see what I thought. After about 45 minutes warm-up, I played the Twelve Tribes CD by Richard Souther on the Narada label on my CD-25. I immediately wanted to take the fuses out and reorient them because the system now sounded less dynamic, less clear, not as extended at the frequency extremes, and there was something wrong with the sound stage.
I persevered and listened to the entire CD. My thoughts were that perhaps because I now had the fuses in the amplifier pointing inward and the one in the CD-25 in the outward position, they were somehow out of sync. I then reversed the orientation on the HiFi-Tuning Supreme fuse in the CD-25 so it was pointing inward just as its golden brethren were in the amplifier. I played the Twelve Tribes CD again, and things were even worse. Everything I didn’t like before was still there, except more so.
What direction is going to work better for you in your equipment, only you can determine. I urge you, however, to try the fuses in both directions and judge for yourself.
Interested readers may wish to check out the following thread regarding fuses. Part of the discourse covers fuse directionality and it was interesting to me that the author, Darqueknight, who did an amazing amount of research into fuses both stock and aftermarket, feels that in almost all cases, external fuses should be oriented outwards towards the end cap.
Here’s the link: Studies On Residential Power Line Noise, Part-7: HiFi-Tuning and Isoclean Fuses
