[Hasse]

Has anyone compared the HiFi Tuning Supreme to Furutech?
I am currently using Cardas tweeter (15 AWG) and midrange (11.5 AWG) jumpers, anything "better" out there?

[kevin360]

My personal opinion is that the fuses are no big deal. The fuse holders, on the other hand, could use improvement.

[Pez]

Give the AMR fuses a try. They're cheaper and you get 3 in a pack for less than the price of one furutech.

[rw@cn]

Has anyone compared the HiFi Tuning Supreme to Furutech?
I am currently using Cardas tweeter (15 AWG) and midrange (11.5 AWG) jumpers, anything "better" out there?

What type of speaker wire do you have?

[Hasse]

What type of speaker wire do you have?

AudioTruth (AQ) Argent

[rw@cn]

AudioTruth (AQ) Argent

I don't know how expensive they are, but if you can get AQ to make some jumpers, this may work better. I also note that AQ sells jumpers.

I was once told to use the same wire for jumpers as your speaker wires. This has worked for me but YMMV.

Someone on Asylum speculated that using the same wiring that Magnepan uses internally may be a good idea.

[Hasse]

I don't know how expensive they are, but if you can get AQ to make some jumpers, this may work better. I also note that AQ sells jumpers.

I was once told to use the same wire for jumpers as your speaker wires. This has worked for me but YMMV.

Someone on Asylum speculated that using the same wiring that Magnepan uses internally may be a good idea.

I have heard that the tweeters require less current than the midrange and tend to work better with smaller wires.
The Argent ($1055/8ft pair in the late nineties) is a bit too stiff and it is also discontinued.
I haven´t got a clue what wire Magnepan uses internally, anyone knows?   

[josh358]

I have heard that the tweeters require less current than the midrange and tend to work better with smaller wires.
The Argent ($1055/8ft pair in the late nineties) is a bit too stiff and it is also discontinued.
I haven´t got a clue what wire Magnepan uses internally, anyone knows?

If anyone has been able to tell the difference between different kinds of internal speaker wiring, I haven't heard about it. One speaker manufacturer even admits that it uses esoteric wire in their speakers because audiophiles expect it, not because it actually affects the sound. Knowing Magnepan, that's something they'll never do.

The real issue in speaker cables is impedance. While tweeters probably do require less current since there's less energy in that portion of the audio spectrum, a larger cable shouldn't do any harm and an undersized one would reduce woofer damping. Some do like using magwire for their speaker cables, but if there's a theoretical reason why that should sound better rather than worse I haven't heard it. Maybe they get more bass because they reduce woofer damping.

[Hasse]

The real issue in speaker cables is impedance. While tweeters probably do require less current since there's less energy in that portion of the audio spectrum, a larger cable shouldn't do any harm and an undersized one would reduce woofer damping. Some do like using magwire for their speaker cables, but if there's a theoretical reason why that should sound better rather than worse I haven't heard it. Maybe they get more bass because they reduce woofer damping.

Josh, I´m afraid my last post was a bit unclear. I was talking about the tweeter/midrange attenuator jumpers.

[josh358]

I suppose you could put banana plugs on them with whatever wire you want. The gauge of the wire isn't going to make any difference, the length is so short resistance is negligible.

[kevin360]

My 3.7s don't need jumpers anymore. As a tech, I can't help thinking simplification is the better approach. Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple with the 3.7s as it was with the MMGs - one of the wires on one of the speakers (I'd need to remove one of the plates to see which ) was too short for a completely reversible procedure. It was no matter as I tweezed both connector plates anyway. My high end ribbon fuses are LittelFuse pico fuses connected behind (well, 'behind' when one is viewing Maggie's behind ) the plates and I ditched the fuses for the mid-range (the QR drivers are pretty robust). The only thing on my connector plates that I'm still using are the stock input connectors, and I rather like them. Yep, I actually said that in public.

Heck, I don't mind admitting another thing. I have no plans to mess with my 3.7s any further either.

[josh358]

You could always do the 3.8 upgrade. The trick being to figure out what changes they'll be making ten years from now . . .

[MaggiesAndCats]

My personal opinion is that the fuses are no big deal.

Waz, er, Kevin, I have to disagree.  I haven't tried the Furutech fuses, but HiFi Tuning fuses made a substantial difference in my Maggies and some system components.  The benefits weren't noticeable everywhere, but where they did it was immediately apparent.  I can dig out my review of them at that other board.

Regards,

Steve

[Hasse]

Waz, er, Kevin, I have to disagree.  I haven't tried the Furutech fuses, but HiFi Tuning fuses made a substantial difference in my Maggies and some system components.  The benefits weren't noticeable everywhere, but where they did it was immediately apparent.  I can dig out my review of them at that other board.

Regards,

Steve

Any downsides that you identify to go along with the benefits?

[Davey]

Somebody send me one of these fuses and I'll break it apart so we can see what's inside.

Cheers,

Dave.

[medium jim]

I guess it could be a case of confirmation bias, but there is no physical way a fuse will do anything to the sound. Understand, the fuse is not part of the circuit per se.  Would a 1amp vs 3amp fuse sound any different, No!

Doesn't matter what is in it Davey as again, it is not in the line stage, or any stage that creates output.

Pure snake oil in my opinion.

Jim

[rodge827]

Give the AMR fuses a try. They're cheaper and you get 3 in a pack for less than the price of one furutech.

+1

I put a pair of these in my Dac and we noticed a positive impovement in texture and tonal quality. 

The back story is that my wife and I felt our system was sounding a little hard and peaky. I had read about different fuses and thought to give AMR's a try. To my understanding a good well built power supply is essential for gear to do what it is designed to do. Fuses are part of the power supply and so I did the upgrade without "she who must be obeyed" knowing about it. I came home from work a few days after the fuse install and was asked "What did you do to the system?  It sounds more natural.

Rodge
 

 

[medium jim]

The only way a fuse could make anything sound better is if it is part of the actual line stage, it isn't!  There is no wiggle room, i.e, since the fuse only acts as a circuit breaker who's only function is to turn off if there is an overload. 

A fuse is a fuse, is a fuse, nothing more nothing less and will not magically make something sound better.

Put it this way, if a simple little fuse could, don't you think that every amp, dac, or such designer/builder would be using them to make their products sound better?

Name one high-end amp that comes with a tuning fuse?  I cannot name one!  Why is this, because they know that a fuse will have no affect on the tone, not even one sintilla, iota, or otherwise.

Jim

[josh358]

I usually avoid these conversations the way I avoid pneumonic plague victims, but -- fuses are inherently non-linear when they pass a lot of current. We're talking maybe 4% harmonic distortion right before it blows (there's a table somewhere online). That *might* have an effect on the sound of a speaker, although the ear isn't particularly sensitive to harmonic distortion, particularly on peaks, and at the kind of levels we're talking about the speaker drives are probably producing a lot more of it. More to the point, I'm not sure what you could do to change the behavior of the fuse, if you wanted it to continue to behave like a fuse. Similarly, I'm not sure what you could do to a fuse that would change the behavior of equipment that is powered off it -- lower the (already low) impedance is about it, and again, I'm not sure how you could do that without getting it to stop behaving like a fuse.

The one area I can see in which a better fuse might have an effect on sound quality is better plating on the connectors. However, a gold-plated fuse could actually cause more trouble than it solves, if the fuse holder doesn't have gold plating and electrolysis occurs. Some Deoxit, applied periodically, would be just as effective, and is really useful with gold as well (since it does get dirty, and dirt films cause the same contact rectification that oxidation does, with a range of symptoms from a bit of added harmonic distortion to god-awful frog croaking). Or you could use Kevin's clever approach and attach the fuse with wire nuts.

As with cables, oxidation and dirt buildup provide a potential mechanism whereby people who replace their fuses with esoteric ones notice an improvement. Merely exercising the contacts can often improve sound, as anyone who's ever had a scratchy connector or control knows.

Of course, this is just speculation. I've never seen any reports of blind tests of fuse bypasses or esoteric fuses. If someone did want to avoid the possibility of audible artifacts in speaker fuses, they could use a circuit breaker. But, personally, I'm seriously skeptical of the utility of those esoteric fuses.

[MaggiesAndCats]

Any downsides that you identify to go along with the benefits?

Hasse,

I have not noticed any downsides to using these fuses, other than cost, of course.  The fuses in the speakers that were replaced were about 2.5 years old and were installed by Magnepan when they did a rebuild.  Here is an excerpt from my experience with the HiFi Tuning SilverStar fuses from about 18 months ago. 

"I replaced just the tweeter fuses at first to evaluate the effect one piece at a time. I have to say that the change far exceeded my expectations. The attack is crisper and the overall effect is better control and clarity.

I also changed the fuse for the midrange panel. The effect was less in the mids, to the point that I would hesitate to recommend it. I have replaced the fuses in the power amps, preamp, and CD player, with the active crossover next. The largest improvement was in the tweeter and the CD player, followed by the power amps, then the pre, with the midrange panel having the least effect. The brand/model of fuses I used is HiFi Tuning SilverStar, but not having used any other high end fuses I can't say if they are any better or worse than others. "

I stand by my impressions at the time.

Regards,

Steve