[helix]

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue22/isoclean.htm


if they cost 25 bucks each they must be better than a nickle fuse, lol. someone is gonna make a killing on these!

 

[Kenny12]

at 25, what a steal

of course if this gets off the ground i'm sure there will be audiohpile mains fuses in the future

 

[AdamWill]

Talking about aftermarket power cords:

"Well, as it turns out it does matter, and for the most part audiophiles don't argue about that anymore."

Ah, the good old "the argument's over because I said so" trick.

 

[eyeteeth]

To quote the review:

"When I began experimenting with power cords in the early 80's, many people dismissed aftermarket "audiophile" power cords as snake oil. The usual comment was usually something along the lines of, "With all that wire inside the wall, a high quality cord on the other side of the socket can't possibly matter." Well, as it turns out it does matter, and for the most part audiophiles don't argue about that anymore. In the years since, high end cable manufacturers have improved this technology to the degree that it's almost a moot point, even to those who don't want to believe. The debate now is more likely price versus value rather than "if" power cords matter."


"my only issue (ever) with Isoclean fuses was the price, but while writing this review I began to think about my previous preamp, which served me for more than five years before I replaced it. All during that time there were no fuse failures, and had Isoclean fuses been available back then, I could have enjoyed five years of improved sound and my original $25.00 investment would still be intact. That's a lot of improvement amortized over the years—unless you blow a lot of fuses!"

I pass a shop every two weeks that sells them and I'll pick one up to try. Let's hear if it does offer an improvement. Sure it's overpriced but so is a movie, coke and popcorn for two.

Tube swapping doesn't receive snooty snickers, why then fuse swapping?

 

[AlanY]

Gold-plated "audio grade" fuses have been popular in the hardcore car audio crowd for quite some time now. There are multiple brands and most places have them; I've even seen them at Radio Shack. If anyone's willing to try the IsoClean fuses, it might also be worthwhile trying one of the competing ones, just to compare and see if anything's special about IsoClean. The name-brand "audio grade" gold fuses for cars (Stinger, etc.) generally sell for about $1.25 each in packs of 5, so if there's no difference, people could save a decent chunk of money.

 

[Solude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeteeth The usual comment was usually something along the lines of, "With all that wire inside the wall, a high quality cord on the other side of the socket can't possibly matter."

And that's where the line got drawn over a myth. Since this post is a jab at PC users... it should be noted that this comment that gets pulled out everytime we debate PCs is wrong. The solid core wiring in the walls is factually better at power delivery than the flexible stranded wire typically used to connect to equipment.

So in reality, with that last 5ft of cable we aren't trying to improve on the miles of wire before it but trying to reach at least it's level of performance

But audio fuses? Don't think mainstream is ready for that just yet

 

[AlanY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solude it should be noted that this comment that gets pulled out everytime we debate PCs is wrong. The solid core wiring in the walls is factually better at power delivery than the flexible stranded wire typically used to connect to equipment. So in reality, with that last 5ft of cable we aren't trying to improve on the miles of wire before it but trying to reach at least it's level of performance

I'm neutral in the power cord wars, but I don't see how this argument makes sense. If we assume that the solid core wiring in the walls is better, and if what we're really trying to do is reach its level of performance, couldn't "audiophile" power cords just be made out of the same solid core wiring? That stuff is dirt cheap at Home Depot.

 

[Solude]

Could you? Yes. Would it sound good? Yes.

Problem is again flex. Solid 12AWG needs to be shaped. Care to hazard a guess as to what those super thick, incredibly unflexible PCs some people pay hundreds of dollars for are made of

I also think I thought I read that solid core isn't approved by some standard for equipment end cabling which would be another reason its not common.

 

[AlanY]

12 awg isn't really that thick. Not thick enough for flex to be a problem, anyway, since there are plenty of solid-core 12 awg speaker cables. Plus, I've seen the Virtual Dynamics dissection thread where Jude found that they use 18 awg solid core inside a plastic garden hose filled with "filler". Obviously the garden hose and filler combo flexes much less than just raw 12 awg solid core cable would. So I don't see 12 awg solid core flex as an issue.

I'm not sure about your second argument either. Solid core isn't against code or vendors like Virtual Dynamics wouldn't be selling cables that use it.

Of course, we're getting way off topic from the main point of this thread, which is fuses. I still think it would be interesting to do a comparative review of one of the high end car audio fuses with the IsoClean fuses.

 

[markl]

More trolling, don't these people *ever* get bored with it? Get a life. This has as much to do with power cords as magic beads, magic foil, and magic clocks. Get over it already.

Have a nice day... somewhere else.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl More trolling, don't these people *ever* get bored with it? Get a life. This has as much to do with power cords as magic beads, magic foil, and magic clocks. Get over it already. Have a nice day... somewhere else.

They don't bother me. They save a few bucks but never hear how good their equipment can be. They lose in the end.
Sure the fuses are priced silly but still worth it if they do the job. A total fluke but I just had an unsolicited conversation with a guy who happened to use the Isolcean fuses and said they're the best tweak he's used. Maybe I'll trade one of those CD polishes that don't work for me for a fuse.

I'd rather gamble, try and fail than be a naysaying loser who never gives it a listen at all.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanY Gold-plated "audio grade" fuses have been popular in the hardcore car audio crowd for quite some time now. There are multiple brands and most places have them; I've even seen them at Radio Shack. If anyone's willing to try the IsoClean fuses, it might also be worthwhile trying one of the competing ones, just to compare and see if anything's special about IsoClean. The name-brand "audio grade" gold fuses for cars (Stinger, etc.) generally sell for about $1.25 each in packs of 5, so if there's no difference, people could save a decent chunk of money.

That's a good idea.

 

[shplorgh]

Interesting, I never even realized that there were fuses in audio psu's.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Maybe I'm missing something, but what exactly is the "magic" here? The gold plated ends? Some new, mystical formula to the matallurgy of the fuse material? What is it that causes such a dramatic improvement that it's worth $25 a fuse? To me it looks like a Radio Shack fuse with gold ends.

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

I'm neutral in the power cord wars, but I don't see how this argument makes sense. If we assume that the solid core wiring in the walls is better, and if what we're really trying to do is reach its level of performance, couldn't "audiophile" power cords just be made out of the same solid core wiring? That stuff is dirt cheap at Home Depot.

Quote:

Problem is again flex. Solid 12AWG needs to be shaped. Care to hazard a guess as to what those super thick, incredibly unflexible PCs some people pay hundreds of dollars for are made of

Pretty much that is it nailed.Using standard building grade Romex wire would make a superior AC cord but this is about the least "user freindly" cordagwe on the planet.I have wire many houses from the service box out and the way this is done is by leaving the spool at the AC service entry point where the breaker panel is/will be then snaking it through the floors and walls.Each one of these direct lines is called a "home run" with Home being the panel.By being directly connected with nothing in between this line is as clean as it will get until you begin to "daisy-chain" additional runs off this main line so a smart person would use one of these for each computer area and each audio/video are and have nothing else on that line and by nothing i mean not even any additional wall outlest not meant for the use intended.

But I gotta tell you folks,pulling this wire through holes in the frraming is no picknick and if you do not have hand strength or a partner feeding stay your behind at home ! Inflaxable and non co-operative as any wire on the planet and even worse than BX-armoured wire !
Imagine having this butt ugly wire hanging off the back off your gear sticking straight back and then down unless you physically force and gentle bend in it just to get it to look semi good.
and forget about expecting it to lie flat on your floors.not going to happen unless you nail it down !
So that is in a nutshell why consumer equipment uses different cables.no matter how good or how bad a thing is it must work and not be a problem in the avergae home used by the average human so multistrand cable was invented.EVERY after market cable is just an attempt to get the multistrand geometry to act as good as the solid conductor wire in your walls.

A possible comprimise is to strip out the three conductors from the romex and do either a three cable braid (a real bitch on the hands !),use cable ties spaced 12 inches apart to keep the three strands together or even leave the three strands "loose" with the plug ends providing cable integrity.This cable will STILL not lay flat on your floor for long runs and will still be stiffer by fat than any stranded AC cord but is at least a workable solution if you must try it.Bare Naked Romex will also look way better than romex dressed inthe ugly white wrapper though i guess you could run a cover of some kind over it to "pretty it up" a bit.

Option # 2 :Break out the three strands (still a real bitch unless you have the right tools,trust me on this one

) then take the "hot" and "Nuetral" wires and twist them together.cover this with PVC tubing or techflex and attach high grade two phase plugs at the ends.Next take the green ground wire and to the two ends attach a NEMA rated ground lug spade connector.Take this "mini-ground-wire-assembly" and wrap it around the outside of the hot/nuetral wire pair so that you have the hot/nuetral with plugs and the ground with spades.

You now have total control over system ground.By attaching on end of the spade assembly to a chassis mounted screw on your equipement and the other end to the screw on the wall plate you have your earth ground connection back but now you have total control over your system grounds.
If you have a ground loop induced system hum simply lift one end (remove the sapde connection) to break the ground loop.I don't recommend removing the safety ground but this is a good test that will tell you what you need to do somehwere else to eliminate the problem.
You also now have the ability to whip up a dedicated earth ground system strictly for your AV system by having an entirely seprate run from outside (the in ground bar),up the side of the house,into the wall as you would a cable TV or SATV cable then to a dedicated ground block which then distributes the ground to each componant.Sounds difficult but actually a real cakewalk

the real beauty is you can scrap the ground wires and replace them with either longer or shorter ones without scrapping the entire cable and by being the same wire as is used to wire your entire house you have just eliminated a potential "bottleneck" that by being the weak link could starve your sytem current delivery for peak dynamic events.
Remeber,during these peak events every single part of the signal chain is ramping up at the same time and if the system is unable to deliver pure kill power (think V-8 engine) then one sections power supply will steal from another in the attempt to reproduce the power it needs.this in effect is system compression and that is never a good thing

YMMV of course.Just my 0.0002 centavos