Fuse replacement on MPD-8?

[asegal]

Having a hell of a time replacing the fuses on my MPD-8. Anyone done it successfully and can give me some tips? I have rocked the fuses outward to a diagonal position in which position I understand they should easily come out. However, they seem to be stuck solidly in place. Wondering if, in this diagonal position, I need to use some pliers to pull them out straight up.

 

[metaldetektor]

It's a bit tricky to do. I can't say I have a repeatable method, other than to treat the fuses gingerly (as you would rolling a tube). Eventually they'll come out.

 

[asegal]

It's a bit tricky to do. I can't say I have a repeatable method, other than to treat the fuses gingerly (as you would rolling a tube). Eventually they'll come out.

Thanks for the input! Glad to know it's not quite as easy as I had heard it should be from others

In this photo you can see what it looks like when I have the top-most fuse in the “unlocked” position (where it has sort of snapped out of the top of the cradle) as far as it will go. It won’t tilt out any farther than is shown as it’s blocked by the side of fuse cradle. Just to clarify: In this position it needs to be pulled straight up (or sort of twisted back and forth and pulled up at the same time like a tube) from here (in the direction of arrow)? Thanks again!

(BTW, I am trying to put in some SR Master Fuses to see what happens to the sonic. Sounds like you might have tried something like this, too? Curious what happened.)

 

[Arif_in_Japan]

Thanks for the input! Glad to know it's not quite as easy as I had heard it should be from others

In this photo you can see what it looks like when I have the top-most fuse in the “unlocked” position (where it has sort of snapped out of the top of the cradle) as far as it will go. It won’t tilt out any farther than is shown as it’s blocked by the side of fuse cradle. Just to clarify: In this position it needs to be pulled straight up (or sort of twisted back and forth and pulled up at the same time like a tube) from here (in the direction of arrow)? Thanks again!

(BTW, I am trying to put in some SR Master Fuses to see what happens to the sonic. Sounds like you might have tried something like this, too? Curious what happened.)

View attachment 139327

@asegal I am curious to know about your findings with the SR fuse and if there were any improvements to an already wonderful DAC?

 

[asegal]

@asegal I am curious to know about your findings with the SR fuse and if there were any improvements to an already wonderful DAC?

@Arif_in_Japan The whole exercise was a failure. I finally did get the fuse box out but not before breaking the plastic piece that keeps the fuse box stuck to the body of the MPD-8. I would say the fuse box isn't the most user friendly design; ideally the box wouldn't be stuck to the body of the unit. The breakage has no functional effect on the DAC, however, as I confirmed with Andreas (owner of PBD).

After all that work, I put in the SR fuses (there are two fuses required on the MPD-8) and either one or both was blow or otherwise defective. No sound. Put back the old fuses and all was working. Tried the swap again and confirmed the SR were not. So I returned them for a refund. Never did get to see what they sounded like. Will have to try again at some point. I did seem to notice in the course of this that the stock fuses (the ones I put back in) did seem to be directional as is often claimed. I will have to play with it more to give a firmer opinion but that did make me think there would be an effect from the SRs.

On a tangentially related note and coincidentally, I have recently been testing Fidelium interconnects (by Silversmith Audio) out from the MPD-8 and the effect of those seems to match other peoples' descriptions of what happens with SR fuses.

Are you an MPD-8 owner?

 

[Arif_in_Japan]

@Arif_in_Japan The whole exercise was a failure. I finally did get the fuse box out but not before breaking the plastic piece that keeps the fuse box stuck to the body of the MPD-8. I would say the fuse box isn't the most user friendly design; ideally the box wouldn't be stuck to the body of the unit. The breakage has no functional effect on the DAC, however, as I confirmed with Andreas (owner of PBD).

After all that work, I put in the SR fuses (there are two fuses required on the MPD-8) and either one or both was blow or otherwise defective. No sound. Put back the old fuses and all was working. Tried the swap again and confirmed the SR were not. So I returned them for a refund. Never did get to see what they sounded like. Will have to try again at some point. I did seem to notice in the course of this that the stock fuses (the ones I put back in) did seem to be directional as is often claimed. I will have to play with it more to give a firmer opinion but that did make me think there would be an effect from the SRs.

On a tangentially related note and coincidentally, I have recently been testing Fidelium interconnects (by Silversmith Audio) out from the MPD-8 and the effect of those seems to match other peoples' descriptions of what happens with SR fuses.

Are you an MPD-8 owner?

@asegal Thank you very much for your detailed reply and it must have been frustrating to not be able to get the SR fuse working. I am an MPD-8 owner (combined with MPT8) so was curious to see if it was worth experimenting. Not too much available online about tweaks other than Harmonix insulation and Pranawire PC. Thank you again for taking the time to reply.