Overall I have done better substituing Verafi Swiss Digital Fuse boxes for any fuses (Essentialy an external circuit breaker) and installed a QSA wall outlet and added one of their plugs. Best of both worlds. Even before the QSA outlet taking out RED/BLACK QSA fuses for the top version of the SDFB ( about 35% of the cost of the fuses) was a HUGE sound quality leap and no worries about fuses blowing.
QSA : My take on their expensive products
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
Your barking up the wrong tree and derailing the thread. SDFB should respectively be left in it's own thread of which there is one.
I disagree. @Jeff4598 offers a direct comparison between a QSA red/black fuse and a competing product. That's the kind of data point that many of us come to WBF to find. There is plenty of unnecessary noise in this thread; that particular post is in my opinion far more signal than noise.
Some people used to just put some copper tube in place of the fuse, which is probably a similar risk to a SDFB for a 2A fused device. One or two people sold 5x20 copper fuse blanks. I was just now doing a search for one and came across this. It's called a Magritte fuse, for obvious reasons. It really should say on the side CECI N'EST PAS UN FUSIBLE
Like most threads, healthy discussion has ended. Now it's people who don't know proselytizing their faith in what they hope is right. Wishing for others to validate their hope and prairs. I'm gonna block this thread and step away. I'm no better and have 0 to add.
I get your point Rex, but personally I like to see more free wheeling discussions as long as they’re not troll-based. Otherwise, some of these threads can start to resemble fanboy promotionals.
Of course, if it’s an officially sponsored thread, and it’s divulged as such, that’s another story.
I appreciate free-wheeling discussions as well - as long as they are happening within a thread that appears to be dedicated to such discussions. If the title of this thread was "Audiophile fuses and alternatives" then I would expect the discussion to be free-wheeling. But that's not the name of this thread.
There seem to be a few individuals who see very specific threads as the place to proselytize for whatever it is they want to talk about instead. This is unfair to the rest of our community. This thread is one example, but an even worse example might be the thread entitled "New Network Acoustics eno2 system". An individual interested in learning more about the eno2 isn't going to learn much from that thread as there has been way too much "thread drift". I just wish that folks would create threads of their own when they feel they have a lot to say about a particular topic that doesn't fit well under any existing thread.
If I understand your post I am concerned about your safety.Just replacing the fuse leaves you open to componenet failure with no safety net and possibly a subsequent fire or at the least damage to the component. The SDFB is an external circuit breaker programmed to open and disconnect AC at the point the fuse would have failed in order to interrupt the current.
Depends if you trust the SDFB to model a fuse. Breakers have different time-current curves to fuses. This is because breakers are intended to break extremely quickly in fault conditions, whereas fuses can sustain an overcurrent based on the performance curve. An accurately made 2A slow blow fuse will bear a current of 3.8A for 30 minutes.
Perhaps SDFB should test and publish their data sheet, which you will fund most reputable fuse makers do.
A big problem with audiophile fuses is that their small batch production makes their performance much more inconsistent that mass produced fuses, for example the solder time, which has to be very short. Which is why they often blow. Innuos recommend using a higher current rating. i.e. replace a 2A with a 3.15A or 3.5A.
Fuses really are best mass-produced by machines than made by hand.
Having pointed out to the UK seller of QSA fuses that QSA in Hong Kong may be using fake Bussmann fuses (many "Bussmann" mains fuses found on eBay are Chinese fakes), there has been a deathly silence.
There is no "barking up a tree" going on here, especially by comparing to another product. This is exactly what we want to do, in order to get the best sound and value for our money. The most important part of his comment was that he actually had the products in his house, and compared them. Many people just give a half educated guess.
An update.
Dedicated line installed a couple of days ago along with a single QSA RedBlack wall outlet and a new 80w mains fuse for free from Uk Power Networks who were excellent. Honourable mention to Futureshop too who got the Supra Lowrad Mk11 mains cable to me within 24 hours.
The electrician was recommended to me by a distributor and did an excellent job too.
A fair bit of work to organise but no pain no gain.
So its only been up and running for about two days. No mega improvement immediately after installation but no surprise. Some audible improvement, but late last night and today the benefits are significant and I am sure more will come as the wall outlet beds/burns in.
Much improved clarity, channel and instrumental separation and bigger and better soundstage now very clearly evident. Noticeably better bass response too from the Hailey Reference 2,2s. Much more musical too.So very happy indeed. A really cost effective upgrade for around £2k
The article in the last regular HiFi Plus was very helpful so worth checking out.
Highly recommended!
Best wishes to all for Xmas and the New Year.
Yes fuses are foolish. Now there are QSA treated wire, connectors and some components. Very much like the progression of Cryo treatments, then other specialty treatments like from Synergistic Research. First a fuse, then a connector... then throw the whole CD player in the deep freeze. The easieat way to sucker them in is with fuses. Then a better fuse, a double treated one, a graphite case, crystals, stickers and even more cryo.As far as I know, no audiophile company manufactures a legal UK 13A mains fuse (they are ceramic filled with silica). The regulations, BS1362:1973 are very complex. It is simply too expensive to get them certified. They are made in their tens of millions to very tight tolerances, mostly by Chinese companies. There are probably billions of them in use in the UK. The audiophile 13A fuses that are sold generally have gold-plated connectors.
If QSA change the performance, they are likely illegal. UK regulations require safety fuses to display the manufacturer, the BS1362 certification and the rating. You won't find this on QSA fuses, so the relabelling is most likely illegal.
Not a legal opinion, but I have checked the Regulations and just about everyone in the UK knows this.
In the UK wall receptacles, plugs and plug fuses are all regulated by law for reasons of fire safety. The plug into the wall will have a 13A fuse, unless you want to invalidate your home insurance.
I have heard of people buying US spec power distributors and using US unfused plugs. A waste of time as 13A fuses are massively over specified for components. The 13A rating is specified to prevent a 2.5mm mains flex from overheating.
Using a SDFB on my amplifier would invalidate the warranty, so no thanks. I did try a Synergistic fuse in a streamer once, made no difference at all. My streamer and DAC have the manufacturer installed fuses. They are 2A and massively over specified, 0.2A would probably be fine.
The SDFB marketing about fuses heating up and increasing resistance is untrue. I told the guy, Mark, who sells them. He effectively agreed. He suggested they improve things for other reasons. I've quoted it before somewhere.
On the few occasions I've seen a fuse thread on a UK forum it quickly turns into an abuse-fest and general agreement that people who so indulge are just stupid or need psychiatric help.
how much for a fuse,
just been reading this article about, Quantum Science fuses, starting at $28, a unit up to $2844, crazy money, what they should do is take them apart to see the difference's, if any, http://v2.stereotimes.com/post/quantum-science-audio-series-fuses/ does anyone on here use such fuses and are...
If I was interested in the impact of eliminating the fuse in my streamer or DAC I'd just cut a piece of 5x20 mm copper rod and put it in the fuse socket. I'm just not interested. The SDFB is not sold in the UK, so it's not really an issue.
100% agree - it's the comparisons that yield some sense of value, especially important for those on a budget
...this sounds like the AI couple voices. Is this an AI summary? If so, it should be so noted, IMO.
Yes agree.
My recent posts dealt with my decision to install a dedicated power spur for my system and to upgrade to a QSA RedBlack wall socket.
All went well for more than a week with the improvements in sound quality becoming increasingly apparent. Shortly afterwards I
lost power from the outlet. Not being the greatest on technical issues I just double checked with a table lamp that it really was the outlet and rang the electrician a couple of days later. In the intervening period I reverted to the standard wall socket and the sound was very clearly inferior.
On Monday the electrician advised me to reset the new fuse box circuit breaker which I duly did and power returned to the QSA wall socket.
Listening seriously later that day the sound was very evidently significantly better through the QSA wall socket compared with the standard outlet. Not really surprised except that the scale of the difference and improvement in sound quality was completely and incontrovertibly so much better.
Something of a forced A-B comparison but a very valuable one!
No more for me to say
Yeah love my QSA stuff (socket,fuse holder and fuses). It's like a lot of things in life. You don't know how good it is until it's gone
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