Who’s up for a $2800 fuse?

bazelio

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Sep 26, 2016
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I have been circling the idea of bypassing the fuse with a hard wire. Instead, I would build a Multi 9 circuit breaker into the power supply. They are thermal/magnetic so they trip on shorts and overloads. You can get them at .5 amps and up.
Why?
 

Direct Drive

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marmota

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Feb 3, 2016
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Thought I’d seen it all, but apparently not.

Website is even more hilarious than fuse's price.
Just a few pearls:

"crystal series-ultra clear and clean sound

Make customers want to buy your product."


"Cat7 Lan cable for Cas much musical on earth"

"Special for each type of fuse do better job.
Just like Dentist only work for your tooths.
Pet doctors work for pet
Did you want Dentist to help your heart beat problem?"
 

marty

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I have been circling the idea of bypassing the fuse with a hard wire. Instead, I would build a Multi 9 circuit breaker into the power supply. They are thermal/magnetic so they trip on shorts and overloads. You can get them at .5 amps and up.

I think ack has bypassed some of his fuses with hard wire if I recall correctly. For goodness sake, you can shove a piece of pure silver wire in there for probably less than a hundred bucks. Of course, it won't be "quantumized", whatever the heck that means. o_O
 
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spiritofmusic

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One picosecond that $2800 is in your bank account, the next it's in the pocket of these fellows. That's kinda quantum. Certainly right at the point of transfer of funds.
 

microstrip

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That's too much, unbelievable.
Or the 14k XLR interconnects that use $10 per pair Neutrik connectors...seriously? :(



EDIT: even worse, the company claims "self produced own sockets for Best Sound Quality (world's first)"
That's a Neutrik connector with a custom ring, but that's it. It's not built from the ground up. If they don't even bother with making the entire connector, that means it uses the stock Neutrik brass pins, which are OK for $10 but far from high end.
Cables make a big difference in sound, and good things are, usually, expensive, but this is
That's too much, unbelievable.
Or the 14k XLR interconnects that use $10 per pair Neutrik connectors...seriously? :(



EDIT: even worse, the company claims "self produced own sockets for Best Sound Quality (world's first)"
That's a Neutrik connector with a custom ring, but that's it. It's not built from the ground up. If they don't even bother with making the entire connector, that means it uses the stock Neutrik brass pins, which are OK for $10 but far from high end.
Cables make a big difference in sound, and good things are, usually, expensive, but this is preposterous.

Seriously, what is the problem in using parts of Neutrik connectors in these cables? Several well know cable companies do it - they just manufacture the critical parts or simply the cosmetic parts.

BTW, we must accept that pseudo technical literature in these matters is always just marketing. No one has been able to explain scientifically why cables sound so different, except when they are misused and introduce noise, distortions or changes in frequency response.
 

Kingrex

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Feb 3, 2019
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Because your running a big fat 10 awg $3000 power cord to your amp, only to choke it through a 30 awg hair thin wire. Why not keep it all fat current carrying conductor and protect the amp with a circuit breaker containing elements designed to carry 20 amps, but set to trip at 1.5 amps or 3 amps or whatever your gear is specified as. You get way more current flow with the same equipment protection.
 

ack

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I think ack has bypassed some of his fuses with hard wire if I recall correctly. For goodness sake, you can shove a piece of pure silver wire in there for probably less than a hundred bucks. Of course, it won't be "quantumized", whatever the heck that means. o_O
Yes, all my fuses are bypassed with copper foil from a Mundorf inductor; the stock amp fuses were running warm, an indication of resistance. I haven't had an issue in some 5 years now. The chance of an internal fault is extremely low here; I am just looking at my 25-year old FM tuner for proof.
 
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marmota

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Seriously, what is the problem in using parts of Neutrik connectors in these cables? Several well know cable companies do it - they just manufacture the critical parts or simply the cosmetic parts.

BTW, we must accept that pseudo technical literature in these matters is always just marketing. No one has been able to explain scientifically why cables sound so different, except when they are misused and introduce noise, distortions or changes in frequency response.

There's no problem in using Neutrik connectors, the problem is charging 14000$ for a cable that uses Neutrik connectors, which are OK but nothing to write home about and cost 10$ per pair. Every audio system is as good as it's weakest link, so that cable sounds as good as the 10$ Neutrik connectors for 14000$, with their brass pins and their 28% IACS conductivity, which is a huge bottleneck in performance for the higher end conductors inside the cable. A good compromise for a 3 figures cable, but unacceptable for 14000$.
Connectors are as important as the conductors for a cable.

Compare this to the Argento Flow line of cables, which cost around 2000$ but have: proprietary dielectric, custom silver conductors and true propietary connectors (not a pretty ring around a 10$ per pair Neutrik XLR connector) made out of the same silver as the conductors. 2000$ is a lot of money, but that cable is very expensive to build, so it is a fair price.
Compare it with the LFD cables, which still cost less than the Neutrik mid-fi purgatory posted earlier, but uses custom conductors of different profiles, thickness and materials, including platinum (google platinum price), amorphous metals (google those prices too), silver, copper and true proprietary connectors (again, not a pretty ring around a 10$ per pair Neutrik connector). Very expensive? Yes, but very expensive and time consuming to build, price reflects the parts quality and costs associated.

I'm all in for SOTA cables, but this kind of BS like neglecting the importance of connectors to impunely use barely mid-fi stuff and charge absurd sums of money is crap and deserves to be called out.
 
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ack

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The other thing to consider with fancy fuses is simply this: who says they will work as intended; who's tested them and how. When was the last time anyone, especially a reviewer, tested a fuse to make sure it works as intended. Never seen anything like this anywhere.
 
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marty

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Because your running a big fat 10 awg $3000 power cord to your amp, only to choke it through a 30 awg hair thin wire. Why not keep it all fat current carrying conductor and protect the amp with a circuit breaker containing elements designed to carry 20 amps, but set to trip at 1.5 amps or 3 amps or whatever your gear is specified as. You get way more current flow with the same equipment protection.
Interesting. So to ask the obvious question- if this is so clearly the way to go, why don't the big names do it?
 

SeagoatLeo

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Feb 23, 2015
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Because your running a big fat 10 awg $3000 power cord to your amp, only to choke it through a 30 awg hair thin wire. Why not keep it all fat current carrying conductor and protect the amp with a circuit breaker containing elements designed to carry 20 amps, but set to trip at 1.5 amps or 3 amps or whatever your gear is specified as. You get way more current flow with the same equipment protection.
My cable manufacturing friend designed both of our monoblock amps with 5 amp fuses. He heard my blue Synergistic Research 8 amp equivalent fuses over the stock fuse and found it a fabulous improvement. So he replaced his fuse with a NOS 1960s 5 amp circuit breaker. Comparing the amps, they sound very similar now (same quality, very subtle difference). The problem he has which is why I'm not going to use his old circuit breakers is that they could fail to trip as they are really old and could take out his trannies. If I could find newer 5 amp circuit breakers which would fit the amps, I would change them.
 

Kingrex

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SqD Multi 9 breakers are brand new and guarentee to trip. They are excellent. I'm a bit bios as I worked for SqD some years back. They come in 1/2 amp increments from 1/2 amp up to 20 amp or more. I would have to look at the chart to know.

My preamp "First Sound Audio" uses a CB. Shunyata isses CB on their conditioners. There are many manufacturers that use them.

I would not bypas the fuse without protection. Especially on a tube amp.

I was going to replace the fuse with a micro CB in my amp but the space was too small. That is also an option.

Remember, these SqD are guarentee for 20 cycles of overcurrent protection. So thats the same as 20 fuses blown before you replace the breaker.

Breaker $60
Quality power cord like Furutech $120
Heavy plastic box $8
Extension box $3
Compression connextors $8
Din rail $10
2 hours of your time.

In and out with the cord. Extension box over the wall outlet. Outlet is now on the extension box face. Its 1.75 inch deeper behind rack. Out with the hot, down the black wire in the Furutech cable, throught the breaker, back up the white and to the hot on the receptacle. Abandon the green.

If I had monoblock and shared the branch circuit power. As in 1 receptacle for a par of amps, I would put 2 CB in the box and take the black to both CB. Come back up the white to one half of the receptacle and back up the green to the other half of the receptacle. Don't forget to break the tab between the two outlets on the duplex on the hot side only. Phase the wires red with phase tape.

If monoblocks on 2 branch circuits, you need 2 cords.

Still less money than 2 synergistic orange fuses. And a whole lot less than $2k. And you can blow the breaker 20 times before you need to replace it.

Its just a thought.
 
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bazelio

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Sep 26, 2016
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Because your running a big fat 10 awg $3000 power cord to your amp, only to choke it through a 30 awg hair thin wire. Why not keep it all fat current carrying conductor and protect the amp with a circuit breaker containing elements designed to carry 20 amps, but set to trip at 1.5 amps or 3 amps or whatever your gear is specified as. You get way more current flow with the same equipment protection.
LoL. And what gauge wire is inside the device, directly after the fuse - or in many cases just direct to PCB traces.
 

Kingrex

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LoL. And what gauge wire is inside the device, directly after the fuse - or in many cases just direct to PCB traces.
My amps have a lot of point to point wiring, and 1 circuit board. I would say the internal wiring is about 16 gauges larger than the fuse. Probably around 14 awg. The fuse in hair thin. Maybe 30 awg.
 

Kingrex

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I'm guessing but from breaking open other breakers, I would say the Multi 9 circuit breaker has around 12 awg contacts and internal wiring. They are quite robust. Made from good copper. These breakers have to be reliable in all sorts or fairly critical equipment. Industiral plants, data centers, they are in VFD, motor starters, elevator controllers. They are not your usual QO or Eaton breaker.
 

Cellcbern

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I view every tweak from the perspective of value and diminishing returns. Audio grade fuses do make a small improvement. I use the relatively inexpensive Brimar fuses in backup components and my 2nd system (movies/TV), and the SR Orange fuses in my main audio system components. $160.00 for an SR Orange fuse doesn't seem like too much money for my main audio system. Would I pay 2,3,4....times more for a fuse? No.

Not willing to risk bypassing fuses.
 
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Cellcbern

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Heh ...

I confess to being something of an old-school Newtonian, tending to dismiss out of hand those audio products that use 'Quantum Science' in their name.

from that site:
Certainly a term that is used loosely in audio, but there are some outstanding products/technologies that use the "quantum" label, whether or not it is anything more than marketing, e.g., the outstanding Quantum Physics Noise Disruptor, Nordost's Quantum Resonance Technologies (QRT) products, and DHDI's "Quantum Acoustics".
 
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tima

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Certainly a term that is used loosely in audio, but there are some outstanding products/technologies that use the "quantum" label, whether or not it is anything more than marketing, e.g., the outstanding Quantum Physics Noise Disruptor, Nordost's Quantum Resonance Technologies (QRT) products, and DHDI's "Quantum Acoustics".

Perhaps. Doesn't say much for their marketing directors, imo. If a product is truly excellent regardless of its operational boundaries why burden it with a name that arouses scepticism?
 

calloway

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Perhaps. Doesn't say much for their marketing directors, imo. If a product is truly excellent regardless of its operational boundaries why burden it with a name that arouses scepticism?
I have one of the 'yellow' fuses coming next week.there's an old expression in medicine that goes...'if you don't look , you don't find'...
 

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