[BigTony]

Of course, in the UK you have a fuse in the plug to think of as well, which does make it earier/safer to bypass the fuse in the unit (i.e. drop the same rated fuse in the plug and not the amp) but then you begin to see the problem....
And there is a fuse in the Electrical Distribution Box...

The fuse protects against fire, the earth protects against electrocution.

 

[SleepyOne]

I can't comment on fuse inside amp or DAC as I haven't tried that, but in term of Hifi Tuning fuse with Furutech gold plated UK plug, for me, the affect is a little underwhelming. Although, there is a differences between using it and not using it, but the gain in my system simply isn't sufficient to justify the cost in my book.

 

[MatsudaMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by El_Doug /img/forum/go_quote.gif at the risk of diverting the thread off-topic, I just have to wonder... why is it that EVERY audiophile who defends power cables, fuses, $1000 usb cables, etc. always make the argument, "even my wife could hear a difference"!?!? it is quite rude to one's spouse, and borders on male chauvinism

BTW, my wife is trained musician who has more keen ears than me. I know that it is cliche. I often ask her if opinion on differences to see if they correlate with my findings - more often than not she hears what I hear and more.

The whole "what about the wire behind the wall and the powerstation" is ridiculous. all that matters is the changes withing your system. Those other things are out of your control. If you change the strings on a violin from silver to aluminum, it greatly changes the sound that comes out. If you change speaker wire from copper to silver, you get a brighter sound. If you put a gold plated fuse in your amp, it'll change the sound. You might not be able to hear it, but it'll change. If you see your amp as a musical instrument, it'll greatly change your perspective.

I was just swapping out my Kimber 8tc/4tc biwire combo for some Nordost cable. It's incredible how much the Nordost wire just absolutely ruined the presentation by attenuating the bass and accentuating the upper mids and highs. Frequencies all of a sudden just started to stick out and sound unnatural. It was SO obviously different that it makes me chuckle inside thinking of all the people that think that cables don't make a difference just because they don't have good enough proof. I mean my cat could probably tell a difference (is that better).

The ears that God gave us are miraculously sensitive and amazingly good at catching the tiniest differences in coloration and timbre. Microphones are crude objects in comparison. Computers are so flawed because they are man made. It's the human element that is so far superior! Trust your ears, they are indeed amazing devices, far superior to any man made tool. Get away from technology and open your ears and eyes. You can hear the differences. Maybe not yet because your ears may have atrophied because of your dependence on technology. However, don't be down about it, as your ears can recover from this atrophy.

I'm half kidding btw. Just half though.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatsudaMan /img/forum/go_quote.gif The ears that God gave us are miraculously sensitive and amazingly good at catching the tiniest differences in coloration and timbre. Microphones are crude objects in comparison.

Actually, they're not.

Our ears filter and simply throw out a surprising amount of information. Information that even an average microphone would easily capture.

What makes it all work as well as it does is our brain's ability to "interpolate" the limited amount of information sent to it by our ears.

But precisely because it is interpolation, and because there's all manner of other things going on in the process, our aural perception is not unerring and can be fooled trivially easy.

It's also because of this that people can create audio codecs such as MP3 which allow a considerable amount of information to be removed from a signal while still ending up sounding better than one might expect given just how much information has been removed.

And not only is our ear/brain system limited as to what it can perceive, it's also prone to perceiving things which simply aren't there to be perceived.

Perhaps the best example of this is the "missing fundamental" phenomenon, where, when given a series of harmonics (i.e. 2f, 3f, 4f, etc.), our brains tend to "fill in" the fundamental tone (1f) even though it was never there in the first place.

Anyway, the moral of the story here is that we should all guard against becoming too full of ourselves. Yes, the human ear/brain system is a wonder to behold, but it is not without error or limitations.

k

 

[MadMan007]

^To add to that there is always going to be some science or measurement behind a true change in sound whether believers like it or not. Now whether that *is* measured or not is another thing. Imo it's not that these things can't be measured at all it's that people don't know how or what to measure, in some cases because of ignorance, in other cases because the proper measuring technique may not have been created for things like soundstage. soundwaves are soundwaves and aren't different if they hit an ear or an instrument.

Trusting your ears is fine but you've got to be skeptical going in and not fool yourself or have preconceived notions. Snake oily audio stuff preys on that ability to fool ourselves.

 

[KarateKid]

There's about 20 other things you could do to significantly improve the sound of your system before you ought to ever play around with a fuse.

 

[KingStyles]

Quote:

There's about 20 other things you could do to significantly improve the sound of your system before you ought to ever play around with a fuse.

They probably all cost more than a fuse though. ts a small cheap item that is easy to try.

 

[iriverdude]

Replace all fuses with these.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarateKid /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's about 20 other things you could do to significantly improve the sound of your system before you ought to ever play around with a fuse.

That reminds me of another phenomenon.

I often see photographs of someone's system and it's literally bristling with every little tweak and accessory you can imagine. Often thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

Yet there's no evidence of anything at all having been done regarding the room's acoustics.

k

 

[MatsudaMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koyaan I. Sqatsi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, they're not. Our ears filter and simply throw out a surprising amount of information. Information that even an average microphone would easily capture. What makes it all work as well as it does is our brain's ability to "interpolate" the limited amount of information sent to it by our ears. But precisely because it is interpolation, and because there's all manner of other things going on in the process, our aural perception is not unerring and can be fooled trivially easy. It's also because of this that people can create audio codecs such as MP3 which allow a considerable amount of information to be removed from a signal while still ending up sounding better than one might expect given just how much information has been removed. And not only is our ear/brain system limited as to what it can perceive, it's also prone to perceiving things which simply aren't there to be perceived. Perhaps the best example of this is the "missing fundamental" phenomenon, where, when given a series of harmonics (i.e. 2f, 3f, 4f, etc.), our brains tend to "fill in" the fundamental tone (1f) even though it was never there in the first place. Anyway, the moral of the story here is that we should all guard against becoming too full of ourselves. Yes, the human ear/brain system is a wonder to behold, but it is not without error or limitations. k

Why the heck do MP3's (256kps) sound like dog*&^ compared to lossless? I can definitely tell the difference. However, I agree that MOST people can't tell the difference, because they don't have any idea what it's SUPPOSED to sound like. I think these tests are done on people without the ability to tell the difference (non musicians and non live music listeners).

Hook up some computer and run mp3's into a very revealing system and play tracks of real musical instruments - anyone with any kind of musical training will be able to tell the difference. I'm sure that the "average Joe" out there won't be able to tell the difference because he/she probably doesn't know what a real instrument sounds like - no frame of reference. Mp3s are made to fool the average Joe.

High fidelity is really for those select people who have trained their ears to appreciate good sound. Mp3's are for the rest.

It's like good wine wasted on those with no palette. Many will say that there is no way you can taste "a slight oakiness with a hint of blue cheese" in that sip. It is true that YOU cant taste it. YOU can't hear it because your ears aren't listening for it - they have no reference point to grab on to that says "that violin just doesn't sound like the strad that it is - I heard one just the other day and that ain't it". If you don't know what every instrument sounds like live, and you haven't stored that in your brain, you're wasting your money on hifi - you have no frame of reference.

THis is way beyond mp3 interpolation or whatever crap you were talking about. That just doesn't matter. You either know what it sounds like or you dont'.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Uh...

Wow.

k

 

[iriverdude]

Of course there's a difference between lossy and lossless. You can't use that as a reason why audiophile fuses are superior.

Our business is is building and repairing electronics. I'm sorry if you think a fuse will make any difference.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 883dave /img/forum/go_quote.gif This statement is an oxymoron... You tell people not to believe what others tell you, yet you tell them to bypass the fuse?, the devise that can protect you from Electrocution. This forum is full of kids and people who are new to audio and electronics, who have no better idea than to do what they read, with no idea of the ramifications, we as a community should refrain from giving this type of advise. DO NOT bypass the fuse on your gear or any other electronic devise. The fuse was put into the path for a reason. If you want to try and see what an after market fuse does, try an after market fuse.

I think someone else pointed it out, but a fuse does not in any way protect you from electrocution. You can easily kill yourself with a fused amp. It's mostly there to thwart power surges or to keep the amp from overheating if a component dies and something shorts.

If you bypass the fuse for five or ten minutes on the bench, it's not a big deal. If something goes wrong, you can always immediately cut the power. And this is the ideal test - you can directly hear whether a fuse makes any difference whatsoever. From my experiments, it doesn't make a whit of difference. Anyone who wants to experiment for themselves ought to. There's so much BS out there that firsthand experiments should be made.

Similarly, if a power cord is vitally important while house wire isn't, you can just hardwire the amp to the internal wiring and skip the big money power cord.

Don't believe something just because some reviewer tells you its there.

If you tend to believe these sorts of things, there's an important question to ask yourself. That is, "do people lie to get money?"

Each time someone asks you to take something on faith, remember to ask yourself if that person is lying to get money.

 

[883dave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Replace all fuses with these.

This fuse and your new Kimber cables will not make your Bose system sound any better.

 

[883dave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif Replace all fuses with these.

I doubt this fuse and your new Kimber cables will not make your Bose system sound any better.