HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

TheMadMick wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 9:02 pm I took the "no fuse" line seriously and wired in a Schuko socket into the ring main, put in a 16A trip in the fuse box and heard very little difference.

You win some, you loose some.

I certainly do understand skepticism regarding fuses. People just have to decide what they are willing to explore or not.

Neonknight wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 1:29 am

TheMadMick wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 9:02 pm I took the "no fuse" line seriously and wired in a Schuko socket into the ring main, put in a 16A trip in the fuse box and heard very little difference.

You win some, you loose some.

I certainly do understand scepticism regarding fuses. People just have to decide what they are willing to explore or not.

As I said earlier, there seems to be a general acceptance on this forum that replacing a fuse with a 6mm copper bar makes a difference. Technically that simply reduces the resistance by around 5mΩ and the voltage drop by 65mV at 13A, assuming we are talking a mains fuse. In the USA you don't have the mains fuse in the plug so ignore this bit.

I can accept that the Littlefuse offering with Gold or Rhodium plate on the end caps will prevent corrosion, except that I have no memory of ever seeing a fuse in a plug or electrical equipment that was corroded. I have seen corroded fuses in cars but that is generally because of water ingress. Neonknight mentioned sand filled fuses; fuses that meet BS1362 MUST be sand filled, watch the video I linked earlier for what can happen if they aren't.

By all means try replacing a fuse with a copper bar but, in the UK, the fuse in the plug (or plug adaptor) must meet BS1362, and a copper bar doesn't. I don't know the regulations elsewhere, and I am no expert on those in the UK, but I question whether the risks involved in removing a safety device are worth the, to my mind dubious, improvement in sound quality.

I recall RD emphasising that "audiophile" fuses are illegal because they do not meet safety standards.

savvypaul wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 10:58 am It's not a scam, to my mind. It's a handmade cable, made in small quantities. It's not cheap but it is far from the worst example of pricing in the cable market.

My hand made or home made speaker cables cost me over £200 in materials and at a basic hourly rate of say £15, the true cost would be closer to £1,000 for the pair as they are made from a silly number of fine wires woven together and please believe me when I say this ~~~ hand weaving multiple strands of long wire together is a complete and utter pain in the arse. It really is one of things in life that's best avoided.

On the plus side, I love the difference they make so it turned out to be one of my better experiments

nilsatisnisioptimum wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 3:18 pm

savvypaul wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 10:58 am It's not a scam, to my mind. It's a handmade cable, made in small quantities. It's not cheap but it is far from the worst example of pricing in the cable market.

My hand made or home made speaker cables cost me over £200 in materials and at a basic hourly rate of say £15, the true cost would be closer to £1,000 for the pair as they are made from a silly number of fine wires woven together and please believe me when I say this ~~~ hand weaving multiple strands of long wire together is a complete and utter pain in the arse. It really is one of things in life that's best avoided.

On the plus side, I love the difference they make so it turned out to be one of my better experiments

Nothing on the Wave website about hand weaving. All smoke and mirrors and marketing. Material costs would not exceed those in cables from the likes of Audioquest, DH Labs and many more which sell for less than £200. Economies of scale can be passed on.