 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
173.34.1.136
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.
Follow Ups:
Why don't you just go to the nearest hardware type store and get replacement glass fuses, then you can compare the ceramic to glass. ??
I recently bought several ceramic fuses to try in my gear, but haven't gotten around to that yet.
Thanks for posting your impressions.
Been to Canadian Tire, Home Depot, and a local hardware store and can't find a 5A slo blow in 5x20mm!!!
Even called my go-to surplus store who carries all kinds of thingies. He doesn't have the fuses I need.
I doubt Future Shop would have 'em. There's a Source on the way to work, can check there I guess. They've got connectors and pins of sorts, they might have fuses.
Cryo Parts has cryoed ceramic fuses at a reasonable price.
Clean your fuse ends with metal polish before inserting in fuse holder for improved sound.
My friend always used to say that finding out why is the booby prize. Certainly the changes you heard are due to the different materials used. Please continue to analyze the HF difference with many of your recordings because less doesn't always mean worse. I assume your source is digital (but maybe analog) and a more "relaxed" HF presentation may become more desirable to you over time.
Thanks for the detailed post and proving yet again to the naysayers that these little tweaks do make a difference.
ET
Question "Authority", the mainstream media sucks - Go Independent and hold BOTH parties accountable instead of just the other guys!
I usually listen to the CDs that are best mixed/mastered over the first couple days of any changes into the system.
On all discs I've listened to, the background is more quiet, bass sucks, treble is recessed. I'll mentioned that cymbals are clean still, just pushed back into the mix more than I'm used to probably. Still, I don't want to have to think about the top, it should just be there.
One thought that came to my head is that the ceramic v. glass has yielded the lower noise due to lower ringing of ceramics? I've read also that nickel is oft related to edginess.
Other thoughts I've had are that the tube compliment (stock Chinese) aren't the greatest, and perhaps tweaking the fuses and revealed the weakness of the signal path. I tweaked the 12AX7 tubes with a tight wrapping of teflon tape, which really cleaned out the presentation of everything. This is quite an enjoyable tweak. Yet for $20-30, I can upgrade to any of a pair of Tung-Sol, Tesla, Ei, EH, Seimens signal tubes. Just gotta choose the best for my application.
I've got some GiK panels coming on Friday. I know it will be a week or two of positioning and repositioning the panels and listening and re-listening, recalibrating the levels of the subbie before I'm used to that sound. Once I've got a knack for the presentation, I plan to either upgrade the signal tubes and/or the fuses to a gold-plated ceramics (if I can locate the Littelfuse 285s).
Thanks, informative post. Herbies Audio Lab also makes nice affordable tube dampers. Their products have a 90 day trial - refund if not happy. Good luck and keep up informed. Have fun trying different tubes. It's like having Ravioli from different Italian chefs- no two are the same.
ET
Question "Authority", the mainstream media sucks - Go Independent and hold BOTH parties accountable instead of just the other guys!
DigiKey is carrying these for $4 a pop, but they are out of stock. All distributors are out of stock for these things.
Was on the LF website last week and got around to requesting a sample of the 285 (datasheet on the link below). LF sends them out in 100 and 1000 packs. I'm thinking that I'll get a response from Littelfuse saying they are X amount for 100.
Last night upon arriving home there's a package for me. Open it up and it's a FREE single fuse. Here's exactly what happened... On the 285 product page there is a 'Request Sample' link. When I requested the sample I entered '1' under quantity thinking I was sampling a pack of 100 fuses. I revisited the site and requested to sample 5 more gold-plated fuses and 6 rhodium plated fuses (yes, my integrated utilizes 6 time delay 5A fuses), let's see if I get another package in a week or so.
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
