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Why did this happen?

Posted by steven d (A) on April 18, 2010 at 06:46:35

Good Morning fellow inmates,

I recently got on another tweak craze and replaced six of the 'stock' 5A sloblo glass fuses in my integrated to Shurter ceramic fuses with nickel-plated brass end caps (found out about the nickel after the fact.

(side note: they were 40 cents each, 5 bucks for handling, and 14 bucks to ship to Canada!)

Anyway, I immediately noticed differences. Some were good, others were not.

Improvements:

reduction in background noise (items deeper in the mix were more audible) which created a better sense of depth of the sound stage

speed and punch of the bottom

Worse:

top end became recessed or muted with loss of dynamics

upper mids (lower trebles?) had a 'grinding' quality, almost glassy


So I go to put the stock fuses back so that I can do an pseudo ABA test, but the lady of the house placed the bubble-pack containing said fuses down the chute. So I'm stuck with the ceramic fuses. I say to myself "I have to learn to like them". I listen to them for a week longer and try to listen to the improvements and forget the other things but just can't get over the the glassiness.

I then try wrapping the fuses in their holders and solder points with teflon tape (after reading a post or two here). Listen again. Treble is more recessed, bass has lost its snap. Craziness. BUT! sound stage is even more 'black' than before.

Thanks for reading.

I read about Littelfuse, they now have a 5x20mm ceramic fuse with gold or rhodium plated brass end-caps, $4 each. Can't find them available from any of their distributors in Canada or USA. Anyone know where these can be found? Would love to do IsoClean or HiFi Tuning or Furutech fuses, but six of those would be between $180 and $240 plus shipping and brokerage fees, just can't afford that right now.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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