[TheAttorney]

I have a Xangsane solid pure silver ‘fuse’ (a solid sluggo) I bought to do the same test against my Masterpiece M1 fuse in my DAC. But only as a time limited test / proof of concept as here in NZ (like much of the world) we don’t have fuses in power cables, just in components. Must get around to doing this and report back.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006452074254.html

Will be interesting to see how you get on with that comparison. On the likes of UK eBay, it's much easier to find Sterling (925) Silver rods than high purity (9999) silver rods. Sterling silver is much cheaper and less conductive (a bit below copper). But as my tests show, simple conductivity levels don't necessarily predict what will sound best.

Silver also oxidizes with time, although this apparently doesn't impact conductivity as it does for copper. So many variables involved in such comparisons...

 

[rsbrsvp]

Does SDFB provide better sonics than a pure silver slug or just protection that the slug does not provide?

Any comparisons of SBFD to SR Master?

 

[rsbrsvp]

I think these slugs should give much better conductivity than SR Master- but the magic of SR Master is removing noise (EMI/RFI). Different goal....

I use the SR Master and put some fantastic contact paint on them (NPS Q-45T) which really increases conductivity- perhaps getting me some of both benifits. I have 5 SR Masters in my system and removing the contact paint from one of them makes a noticable difference- to the negitive.

 

[bagwell359]

I first ran into this fuse thing in 1978 - so I put in 10 watt slow blows fuses in place of .5, 1, 2 fast blows. Amps, integrated amps, speakers. A year or to later I said screw it, and just soldered in bypass wire, graduating to silver solder at some point. I was convinced that each time I did it, things got better. I never blew up a piece of equipment including expensive stuff like ARC pre-amps and threshold amps.

Then I got into bypass caps, and that made a bigger difference and verifiable by AB testing. Still use those in amps and crossovers.

Then in the early/mid 90's I started to think. Transformer miles away, high power lines w/ failing coating humming on wet days, transformers on telephone poles, aluminum wiring in my fuse box, oxidized copper at the plug. So a piece of 3' or 5' foot wire to my amp (saw some for $5k), and a fancy purple fuse is going to straighten that all out?

Very difficult speaker or headphone loads - yeah maybe certain cables will do better, we know that's true w/ some headphones. I know SE interconnects that are not insulated sound different from each other in my hyper RFI area (so I used XLR)...

Maybe in some cases - but without blind AB testing, expectation bias is a clear possibility on ones opinion.

 

[TheAttorney]

Does SDFB provide better sonics than a pure silver slug or just protection that the slug does not provide?
Any comparisons of SBFD to SR Master?

SDFB just provides the protection that is lost by the slug. I only ever came across one post that specifically compared a lone sluggo vs sloggo+SDFB, and he stated that SDFB did introduce a very slight drop in SQ, but the poster was happy to take that very slight hit in order to be safer.

I haven't tried the SR Master (too expensive for my tastes), but based on my earlier posts on titanium slug vs SR Purple, and various other posts on SR Master vs Purple, my interpretation is that titanium slug and SR Master both move the sound characteristics in the same general direction, so would be a great comparison to try - just not by me.

 

[rsbrsvp]

SDFB just provides the protection that is lost by the slug. I only ever came across one post that specifically compared a lone sluggo vs sloggo+SDFB, and that stated that SFDB did introduce a very slight drop in SQ, but the poster was happy to take that very slight hit in order to be safer.

I haven't tried the SR Master (too expensive for my tastes), but based on my earlier posts on titanium slug vs SR Purple, and various other posts on SR Master vs Purple, my interpretation is that titanium slug and SR Master both move the sound characteristics in the same general direction, so would be a great comparison to try - just not by me.

Honestly, I'm not a technitian, but I never got the "no protection" issue assumming you have a isolation transformer, or power conditioner which both provide world class protection.

 

[TheAttorney]

Honestly, I'm not a technitian, but I never got the "no protection" issue assumming you have a isolation transformer, or power conditioner which both provide world class protection.

I've got a degree in electrical/electronic engineering, which proves very little, but does suggest that I'm probably not completely clueless on this topic.
In the context of a typical hifi system, a fuse (especially the slow-blow type) is a compromise that increases the chance of providing safety in certain circumstances where the current increases abnormally. But there all sorts of other issues that can occur that the fuse may not protect.

The Safety Police usually jump in at this point and tell you that your house will burn down if you don't have a correctly rated fuse, implying that the fuse will prevent your house burning down. But the situation is much more complicated and nuanced than that. A faulty component inside a hifi unit may overheat without the main unit drawing significant extra current - so the fuse doesn't know there's a problem. An RCD or a Conditioner's surge protection will usually react faster than a fuse. And absolutely nothing will protect your hifi from a direct lightning strike. So it all depends and it's all a compromise.

However, putting my safety hard-hat back on:
Although it's all a compromise, the fuse will help in certain circumstances, so overall it improves the chances of your house not burning down.
And to mangle a famous quote, all audiophiles are stupid some of the time, and some audiophiles are stupid all of the time.
And to allow for any of those stupid moments, I'm perfectly happy when the Safety Police jump in to say that your house will burn down if you don't use the correct fuse

 

[rsbrsvp]

They have solid silver fuse replacements on Ali Express for around $20-$30.

Is that a good start? I thought Silver was the best conductor of any metal.


https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006452074254.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.42d9b8Orb8Or6q&algo_pvid=e3ee7528-824f-4ee2-9928-039d9635b7c0&algo_exp_id=e3ee7528-824f-4ee2-9928-039d9635b7c0-0&pdp_npi=4@dis!USD!31.78!31.78!!!31.78!31.78!@2103871e17171059313435443e942c!12000037225186207!sea!IL!732152500!&curPageLogUid=m5Hk1U177vnX&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:

 

[Jake2]

Great robust discussion here of use of solid metal slugs - with and without a Swiss Digital Fuse Box. OP who experimented with quite a few metals much preferred silver and titanium over copper.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussi...-instead-of-fuses-comments-on-metals-used-and

 

[rsbrsvp]

@Jake2,

Do you recommend the pure silver slug or the Rhodium plated Silver?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...1U177vnX&utparam-url=scene:search|query_from:

 

[Jake2]

[Do you recommend the pure silver slug or the Rhodium plated Silver?

If you’re concerned about oxidation get the rhodium plated. It you want to maximise conductivity get the pure silver, noting from @TheAttorney ’s experience with titanium conductivity is clearly not the only factor. Solid silver was my choice for conductivity reasons. I’ll likely try a thin coating of Furutech nano liquid which would lower the oxidation rate even further.

You could get both and share your experiences with them here.

 

[rsbrsvp]

How quickly does it oxidize? For $20 I could replace them every few years...