[Bemopti123]

Might as well call this audio fight club.  No rules, you choose the tools to eliminate the opponents, choose your cables, your silver fuses or your amp without protection circuits.  BTW, the rink is made out of conductors that produce 32 volts of DC without protection, you touch you fry like a bird.

[NagysAudio]

Fuses.

[FullRangeMan]

Years ago a power amp fuse blow with a electrical blackout, as I do not have any fuse of 2Amp, I replace with a 9ampere fuse just to the next day trip to the electrical store.   For my surprise just this 9 ampere fuse made a huge improvment in sound quality.
Pity it is a unsafe running way for the amp.

[Dan Banquer]

Fuses.

P.S. Why does this need to be a sticky? Do people not have common sense that not having fuses is a hazard?

It has been a topic on this forum and other audiophile forums.
Regards;
    Dan Banquer

[Dan Banquer]

Years ago a power amp fuse blow with a electrical blackout, as I do not have any fuse of 2Amp, I replace with a 9ampere fuse just to the next day trip to the electrical store.   For my surprise just this 9 ampere fuse made a huge improvment in sound quality.
Pity it is a unsafe running way for the amp.

Do you think it's possible that by changing the fuse that you scraped the contacts enough to remove some oxidation?

Regards;
    Dan Banquer

[FullRangeMan]

Do you think it's possible that by changing the fuse that you scraped the contacts enough to remove some oxidation?

Regards;
    Dan Banquer

Hi,
Absolute No, when I replace a new regular 2ampere fuse on the next day, the sound also return to the regular boring.
This amp desingner Mr.Richard Dunn is 100% right IMHO, but the risk of some prob happen also is real.
Gustavo

[lonewolfny42]

A few links...

http://www.nene-valley-audio.com/frames/nva/history.html

http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/nene-valley-audio__W0QQ_armrsZ1

[satfrat]

A few links...

http://www.nene-valley-audio.com/frames/nva/history.html

http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/nene-valley-audio__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Thanks Chris. It's a very interesting read for sure, especially this comment:
 " If your ears and your test equipment tell you two different things, trust your ears. " 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[Dan Banquer]

Thanks Chris. It's a very interesting read for sure, especially this comment:
 " If your ears and your test equipment tell you two different things, trust your ears. " 
 
Cheers,
Robin

What is the sound of a fuse not blowing when one was supposed to?
What is the sound of dollars flying out of your wallet for repairs?
What is the sound of the contractors estimate for smoke & fire damage repairs?
What is the sound of your insurance company inspecting your equipment and finding serious safety flaws?
What is the sound of your new insurance rates after all of the above?
I'll let you answer the question for your self, no need to post a response if you do not wish to.

Regards;
    Dan Banquer

[zybar]

I'm with Dan and others on this one.   

No "possible" improvement in sound is worth risking gear or even worse, my family.

This is an easy decision.

George

[Dan Banquer]

I'm with Dan and others on this one.   

No "possible" improvement in sound is worth risking gear or even worse, my family.

This is an easy decision.

George

Surely there are better ways to either win or get honorable mention for the "Darwin Awards".

Regards;
    Dan Banquer

[lonewolfny42]

Interesting ad.....

LINK...

But I agree...better have a fuse.

[satfrat]

Interesting ad.....

LINK...

But I agree...better have a fuse.

A Furutech fuse. 
 

 
Cheers,
Robin

[toobluvr]

What is the sound of a fuse not blowing when one was supposed to?
What is the sound of dollars flying out of your wallet for repairs?
What is the sound of the contractors estimate for smoke & fire damage repairs?
What is the sound of your insurance company inspecting your equipment and finding serious safety flaws?
What is the sound of your new insurance rates after all of the above?
I'll let you answer the question for your self, no need to post a response if you do not wish to.

Regards;
    Dan Banquer

I experienced it firsthand.  Not fun.  When getting things back to normal costs almost $1000, I don't think a sonic improvement of a teensy weensy widdle bit (maybe) is worth it....if it's even audible at all!

Anyone who says it is, probably hasn't experienced a fried amp, burnt voice coils, all the associated inconvenience/expense/aggravation,  and no system for 4 weeks!     

[NagysAudio]

Upon further reading of the NVA website, I can conclude that not only are the amps unsafe, but they are also broken (Naim also comes to mind). Any solid state amplifier without an LR circuit on the output stage is broken. If you need to have SPECIAL cables in order to replace the LR circuit, it's very poor engineering.

All solid state amplifiers will go into oscillation without an LR network. They will dissipate a lot of heat, heat up the speaker's voice coils and eventually fail (not to mention have high distortion for when they do work). Except that in this case, when they fail they will also take the speakers with them as the amp has no rail fuses.

From an engineering background, this makes me shake my head in disbelief.

[Bemopti123]

I have a Nait Nait 3 that harkens back to the final stage of design that the original founder of Naim audio did before he passed away.  The newer technological directions of the company have decided to align the company's priorities to a different direction, making the sounds more rounder and also not forcing people to purchase their NACA5 speaker cables.  Which makes me think that my Nait 3 is lacking a protection circuit and a fuse, but that is not true.  Which makes me think, where there can be an amp that is close to being direct coupled and yet with protection.  It is all certainly quite confusing. 

Asides from questioning the engineering and from the safety point of view of DC amps without protection, there seems to be some validity of minimizing the number of wires that makes something click.  Of course, pushing the envelop of sound at the expense of some margin of safety can look questionable to a rational person. 

Does this mean that all the people who have purchased those older Naim amps and also the NVA amps are just some bunch of f--ng freaks?  Perhaps it might be a marketing scheme, advocating that this amps without protection are the IT of Audio Valhalla....that only people with some real COJONES or lack of self preservation switch can experience them.  It does make me wonder....but I will stick to my rational part and go for something that is more sensible and has some modicum of protection built in. 

[NagysAudio]

Naim has fuses and protection circuit. They just don't have an LR network on the output.

A direct coupled amp has no capacitors in the signal path, it has nothing to do with protection circuits, or fuses.

All serious amplifiers have a relay on the output stage, when in normal operation, the relay is closed and the signal goes directly to the speakers, no degradation in sound whatsoever. If something happens to the amp, like DC voltage on the output, the relay disconnects the amp from the speakers.

[toobluvr]

Yeah...I needed some of dat!

 

[James Romeyn]

The sound is so good on fully protected gear that the thought of going fuseless seems just completely wrong from every angle that can be imagined.  Just my 2 kopacts.   

[JoshK]

I happen to side with the sane side of audio that feels there are bigger fish to fry that fretting about the sound of safety protection and a tiny bit of wire in the signal path.  I'll take piece of mind and reliability over the last smidge of je ne sais quoi.