My amp had a direct button which bypassed the fuse. The sound of my house on fire was glorious 😃

One reason is the fuse wire is made from silver or gold, the end caps will be made from something better and the solder will be higher quality so you get lower impedance. We upgrade cd players and dacs etc and years ago we were upgrading a Marantz CD63 KI and one of the issues these have is a 4v dc drop across the fuses when it reads the cd. A customer sent in a set of up-rated fuses to replace the standard ones. The volt drop was now only 1.5v across them. Sound wise the player had more depth, bass extended lower and the upper treble became less splashy.

Congratulations Paul! You have discovered new physics! Using just your ears! Your Nobel Prize is in the mail.

Dear Paul, I admire you for your honest opinions, also the new iPhone makes you looks a bit younger and healthier👍🏻! Great video!

Apart from the excellent advise as always, loved the view at the end!

Interesting. Willing to try them.

I had no idea. I have a blown fuse (I think) due to my kids from 25 or so years ago, and I'm trying to get an old AV33 cranked up again. I was told its probably a fuse. Now I know there could be different options that might have it sounding better.

I'm watching this video because yesterday I was playing with a live, music player, class A tube pre amp and power amp speaker setup. Moving around the loose input cable I got big bad noises, magic smoke from power amp output transistor, left channel, negative rail and a dead woofer and very poorly tweeter. No idea yet what the crossover is like but inside the box smells over cooked. My fault as I built all but the speakers and music player on my bench and didn't think about rail fuses (did think but ignored) or speaker protection. Apart to get protected, have you any product, fuse advice you could offer? PS. I think the sand filled fuses you speak of are like the Busman's in my DMM's. They help stop blasts across the circuits they protect.

Hi Paul, I am not gonna say fuses make a difference or not because I do not know. But, since you are using these fuses and cables and things like that to improve your products, isn't it a good idea to study them and find answers to these how and why questions? Don't you think finding answers to these will provide an additional support for product development as well as to convince people?

Interesting discussion.

What next audiophile grade air shipped from the Swiss Alps?

If you take a green pen and draw all over the walls it helps. I did it and was blown away at the difference. I don't know if it impacts audio quality but it definitely added a lot of color

Many CD players and cassette decks don't have a fuse in it so I put one in the AC primary according to what it draws I showed it to a authorized service center they said I did good job is that a good idea

I am replacing a fuse in a guitar amplifier. It is supposed to be a T500maL. The fuse I've removed says T500E. Is this essentially the same fuse, I can't find any info about T500E online. Thanks

Question... Fast blow fuse should be in the power amp and Slow Blow fuse should go in the Receiver / DAC ?? Or the other way around?

I tried the hifi supreme fuse in my yamaha and in my opinion it sounded clearer and more dynamic..

Is it AHP maybe??

I was cringing when I clicked play, but the comment section made it all worthwhile :)

3:40 - Only one solution - use larger wire! Why blow a perfectly good fuse? :)

Changing fuses really do change sound. Better or worse is not absolute. We have done this with amplifier fuses several times. Nobody can explain why this is so. Its the same as 2 speakers with same graph but different sound.

A German friend of Paul's came along and "demonstrated" these two professionals indeed "heard" improvements of sounds with added clarity. That is the point. Paul is a intelligent person and the German will not risking to be a fool when not confident. I guess haters are upset as these fuses are indeed very expensive relatively. If only about 20 dollars, I will be happy to use and then many of us either an experienced believers or disbelievers. Do we have real hi-fi systems that are sensitive to tell the difference. Many of us have trained eyes and many don't.

If this things make difference, there must be an electrical change.. Why not investigate ?

I was a skeptic until I tried one of the audiophile fuses on my digital to digital converter between my computer and my dac. It was less than $50 and it absolutely changed the sound. And it wasn't a subtle difference.

Perception is everything

I would like to see you do any of this truly blinded. The easiest way is to just temporarily setup two DAC's one with and another without esoteric fuses. Using SoundMix in the Windows Control Panel to route the audio to both DAC's at the same time. Set everything to WASAPI exclusive mode and lets see how listeners do over a pair of identical head phones. 15 rounds and the headphone jacks could experience a potential swap where the listener doesn't see it.

Audiophile cables now we have audiophile fuses, what do you know? Next maybe audiophile terminal blocks, diodes, transistors, integrated circuits even audiophile house paint. BTW the sand inside the fuse is to extinquish the arc when it blows.

I was one of those non believers in fuses making a difference, until I tried it for myself. Any electrical component in a circuit can change its function. Go out there and buy 3 resistors of the same value but made of different materials and manufacturing process, now replace a resistor in a critical area of your amplifier with the ones you adquired. I'm sure you'll hear a difference. Now keep in mind this differences are not like night and day difference, but subtle differences. The quality of the components in an audio circuit "and others" is as important as the circuit design. Plenty of audio engineers can validate that.

Sounds spectacular my dac with a Chinese newer fuses silver core plus nano wires and gold plated silver plated end caps. 20$ that is no bullshit nor crazy expensive.

I wonder if these specialty fuses are a slow-blow type with a non-inductive coil arrangement. Then, the perceived improvement in clarity could just be attributed to not having a traditional spiral-wound filament that could be inducing noise back into the power supply from the transformer. I suppose one way to test it would be to grab a traditional slow-blow fuse and put it in-line with the mains in outside of the chassis, and temporarily short the internal fuse with a jumper.

I suspect the reason why fuses work is because different metallurgical properties will affect sound quality. The leading researcher in this area is probably Peter Qvortrup, founder of Audio Note UK. I suggest watching some interviews with him in which he often explains his research.

I just spent £4200 on a single fuse. I can't hear any difference at all!!! I've changed it 6 times now. Sounds exactly the same! Snake oil?

So, are these audiophile fuses just HRC fuses? Could the sand counteract some mechanical vibration? I'm highly sceptical still.

Synergistic Research PURPLE Quantum Fuses and the new ''King'' Audio Magic Masterpiece M-1 Beeswax Fuse are both outstanding audiophile fuses and are like upgrading to a new component at a reasonable price. Highly recommend.

Sheesh Paul! A fast blow fuse has either a wire or a fatter blade. A slow blow has a coil of some sort.

It has always amazed me that you may have a 9 Ga. power cable going into your amp and it all goes through a 40 Ga. fuse wire. Some alternative needs to be found. Some innovative company like PS Audio needs to step up.

Real audiophile action - remove fuses!

So instead of everyone acting like a dick, did anyone actually try the fuse thing to see if it worked? I know people who claim it absolutely makes a difference. Havn't tried it myself, so I won't say one way or another.

Busman KTK 600 volt ceramic body sand filled silver element fuses. designed for lighting . CJ used them for plate fuses in premier amps . Not the over priced tuned ones . Different fuse holder lower cost fuse.

I would only believe fuse matters if the fuse you are comparing to is highly corroded or is being used in a a power supply that is poorly filtered. A suspended wired coil that is being jiggled by vibration can affect the signal it passes but that should get rectified and filtered from the power supply output if designed properly.

This tweak is hard to accept. A fuse by any other name is a fuse. I can't think of anyway that a fuse can improve the sound of any audio component... But having said that, I haven't tried it so not speaking from experience, just what I know about fuses, which is a "go no go" device.

If a protection device changes the sound, perhaps you need a better amp. You don't have fuses in the speaker output do you?

This German chap must be a good friend of yours then 😉 😆

I use expensive fuses, when I replaced them, I did the 4 main plug fuses in the furutech rhodium plugs, but the difference wasn't anything, what made the difference was replacing the internal glass fuses, especially in my sacd player, this made a big difference, I wasn't imagining it, 5 of us all agreed on this, the interconnect cables are pure silver and balanced on the sacd, I am a qualified electrical engineer, and electronics engineer, my colleagues in this area say its all nonsense, but they don't own expensive systems or even experiment with this phenomenon, they go on what they were taught so are blind to the science behind this, in my opinion, changing the fuses in the mains furutech plugs made no difference, it was the internal fuses within the components that made a difference, and it was immediate, and a night and day one, I hope this helps you, also I don't want to get into slanging match over this so no insults please.

Did this so called fuse, perform its primary purpose? .... protection.

When the Audiophile resurgence ends because of all the BS sales people pedle I will not shed a tear.

From "Designing Audio Power Amplifiers" by Bob Cordell, McGraw Hill, (2011) "Fuse Distortion" As expected, fuse distortion increases dramatically at low frequencies. Signal voltage across the fuse was 250 mV. Amplifier THD (due to the fuse) is calculated by normalizing the fuse distortion voltage to the amplifier output voltage. The resulting amplifier distortion is shown in Figure 13.4b. Amplifier distortion is lower than fuse distortion by a factor of 64 because of the small voltage across the fuse compared to the total signal voltage. At 20 Hz, amplifier distortion due to the fuse is calculated to be 0.0033%. P.S. So this is an effect of a standard 2A-3A fuse. Distortions at low frequencies are the least hearable. Obviously the audiophile fuse will also cause certain amount of distortion.

Wow, that’s a bummer. A fuse works as a resistor with a tiny resistance. In any good amplifier the tiny mains fuse voltage drop will have no impact on the audio fidelity as the music dynamic power load is secured through capacitors. Yes, a really poorly designed amplifier power supply with inadequate capacitors and with a poor high resistance fuse on the mains side could have problems. Try 2 ohms 20W resistor in series with mains switched on/off (AB testing of a very high resistor = horribly bad fuse or long cable). If you can hear the difference in a genuine blind test, add capacitors on the DC side until the on/off switching yields no difference. Let me know how that method of AB testing goes.

Paul probably had it in backwards.

The skepticism stems from the fact that the fuse has little resistance. However, it's not just the resistance that counts, but the effect of the conductor on aligning the electron stream. You do not need a leap of faith, just move on from Newtonian era outdated physics to XXth century electrodynamics. Of course, do not expect to hear the effect of a fuse in a system that rivals Bose in transparency. You need to fix the big things before the small things (such as fuse) show differences. Thank you Paul for sharing! Me, and dozens of my friends also hear the difference that fuse makes, it is very obvious to any listener with a pair of ears using a well put together audio system - also, fuse orientation makes a difference as well... but do not expect it to transform your cherished basement bargain system from the 70s - there, you will not hear any change at all. Analogy: if you put a pinch of salt into a salty soup, you will not notice a difference. Put it in a cup of tea, and it suddenly makes a big difference.

The picture and sound on today's video looked great...

Well said. Im sure it frustrates those skeptics to no end lol i love it. Between the audio cables, power cords, fuses, vinyl records, the audio skeptics must be loosing their hair lol.

nice! #crispy :)

Measure the benefit at the DC side of the transformers

You forgot to tell your german friend to uograde the fuses in the distribution panel though..

I was so impressed with Paul's videos....until this. OMG, it doesn't take an engineer to know this is pure bunk

Expectation bias, anyone?

those fuses.. aren't even on the audio path................................................... oh when the current is over the fuse rating, the fuse blown. simple. or let's just do it the other way, change the fuse with a short piece of 2.5mm NYM cable and hear the amazing sound difference!

I own a highly-resolving system, & HiFi quality fuses do matter! I replaced a burned-in $150 SR Black fuse, with an Audio Magic M-1 Beeswax fuse $300😳. The sound opened up substantially, it was more solid, dynamic, razor-sharp accuracy, greater clarity & transparency, greater expansive soundstage, rock-solid 3D placement of the musicians. The improvements I was hearing, had me totally stunned, shaking my head in joyous disbelief. It was the best upgrade I’ve ever experienced for the money spent. Hearing IS believing! 1 fact regarding HiFi fuses is clear; There are things we can measure but can’t hear, but also things we can hear but can’t measure😎.

The thing I HATE most about this channel is the ridiculous claims that would be SO EASY TO PROVE. You have everything you need, to demonstrate EVEN ONE RIDICULOUS CLAIM ABOUT FUSES, on video.

Great, now tell us why using electronic theory they should sound better?

they should sell audiophile air. thats right folks replace that mid-fi air in your listening room with audiophile grade air to make your system sound its best.

Orange fuse the best sinergistics research

Paul's company sells an AC power conditioner (AC in, AC out) that costs $10k. He cannot explain 'exactly why' a fuse would make a difference, but you definitely should believe him and go buy some.

Deep in the Bavarian woodland there is a unicorn. A unicorn that they force feed a barrel of sauerkraut to every day. And after this feeding they collect the farts, seal them in a little ceramic jar and charge $100 a pop for it. Just be aware, when those suckers do blow, glitter goes everywhere.

I upgraded the fuses in my car. I'm getting much better gas mileage. My car also runs quieter now and acceleration is noticeably improved.

For it is worth, this video with iPhone X is better.

Ceramic fuses have no sound quality, dink...they are required in certain devices based on electrical characteristics and responses to faults, ding dong!!

It's pretty simple. Open up ANY factory fresh PS audio device. See a "ceramic", "sand filled" fuse in there? No? Shows they don't believe enough in the product to put it in their equipment but sure enough will pedal it for the industry's audiophiles to drive up those margins.

PSRR == Power Supply Rejection Ratio. A properly designed power supply and attached circuitry should isolate the sound from the in coming power. If you can hear the tiny difference between two fuses, that indicates that your product is poorly designed.

What I find surprising is that an engineer manufacturer cant explain why something sounds better in his own equipment- I guess a psycho acoustics expert would be a better person to ask.

Next time Paul can you make up a story for the haters, so they have a reason not to believe you. Because apparently not knowing why something just works, somehow reduces your credibility. Give me a person who openly admits they don't know something, over someone prepared to make something up on the spot to look smart any day.

While explaining what a fuse is and how it is built, Paul just explained why expensive, fat power cables are useless and not needed.

very bad question. or simple to answer... it does not change a thing. and you might void warranty since the producers are not stupid unlike some of there consumers.

Hi Paul, I did something I thought I would never do. I purchased an Audio Magic SHD-Beeswax Ultimate, with the intent of giving it a try and sending it back if necessary. I installed this in my pre-amp, Purity Audio Basis MK11 , and waited. Audio Magic recommends 125 hrs. of break in. Somewhere around that time you actually notice a darker background and a more expansive sound stage and added perceived clarity. Needless to say I kept the damn thing and couldn't be happier with it. Naysayers need to have their ears checked. Love your vids.

This is so so so embarrassing to admit, but I got suckered into buying one of those fuses for my preamp. It's a HiFi Tuning "Supreme" model and I think it was like $70. Honest to god it didn't change anything. (Or, as audiophiles would say, my system must not be good enough to show the improvement hahahahahahaha!) I totally forgot to send it back within the return period and I am stuck with it. I could have taken a pretty girl on a nice date and instead I fucking bought a fuse!!!!! I'm a real idiot. Sand in the fuses? .... i feel like we suckers have sand in our collective vaginas

Placebos..... Voodoo bulls.....

The fact that you seen him do something already sets you up, are you really a fool?

It does work, I put a 13amp fuse in my stereo that came with 5amp and it improved sound, the sound improvement I found was a fuller sound, with more rounded bottom end. I'm talking very very minor, it's a similar improvement you can get from thicker speaker cable. For safety I then added a circuit breaker, this is how I run. If you think about audio your only taking power and converting it into sound. Having a small fuse is a restriction in the chain. BTW did the above 3 years ago, before this video.

Paul, It makes sense to me what is going on here. A fuse is a resistor, and creates heat when current runs through it causing it to burn up. As soon as you said tuned circuit means they are adding capacitance in parallel inside the fuse. This would work well in a dac where there is mostly low frequency ac current on the fuse. I would be curious to see what a high current square waveform looks like running through it. See if the slew rate is linear in the rise time. I bet it looks like an RC tuned circuit.Probably not a good idea to run these kind of fuses in any high frequency RF circuits.

Ohhhhh no, I was seriously considering purchasing some PS Audio equipment, as the design seems terrific, but after this I may wait a little longer hmmmmmmm

Many of the comments here have me thinking that Julian Hirsch still lives. Measurements have never ever told the complete truth in the world of high end audio. For once use your ears with an open mind when listening to a high resolution audio system. Paul is beyond reproach in his mechanical expertise and his ability to hear changes in the quality (better or worse) of what he is listening to.

If the difference is so prominent then set up a test that switches between the crap fuses and the "audiophile" fuses and post it for all to hear. The way you describe the difference, it should be easy to hear when switching between the two.

This is a can of bullshit, not worms. And you own the canning factory. "I can't explain to you exactly why." You might as well start your own religion, man, you'd be a natural.

As a licensed professional engineer, it’s remarkable to me that someone who calls himself an engineer, would make such ridiculous claims for a 1” piece of wire! He starts off explaining the basic differences between slow-blow and standard fuses, which he gets mostly correct (an EE should understand sand filled and ceramic fuses), but then goes completely off the rails, spewing pure, unadulterated nonsense regarding so called, audiophile fuses. His statements demonstrate a complete lack of understanding regarding basic electrical engineering and the mathematical and physical principles it is based on.

Yes Hifi fuses do make a difference, but you also need to upgrade speaker and power cables, replace wall adapters with independent power boxes and upgraded wall outlets. Makes a big difference. Just did a comparison on my KZfaq Channel and was very pleased with the results of the test.

Ckt. breakers have their own "issues" really, nooooo, the correct ckt breaker to a listed use (UL) have no problems, if there is, it's a defective or improperly applied component!

This sounds like total BS to me, and it would be EXTREMELY easy to test the effect by simply bypassing the fuse altogether. Since WHEN is a fuse even in the audio path, buddy? Next you'll be telling us how you music sounds better, depending on which birds are perched on the telephone/electric lines to your house.

I did have respect for this Q&A in the beginning, but it goes lower and lower now with each episode. "Audiophile fuse", really? ;/

More like BSaudio. Here I was, hoodwinked into thinking this guy might have tested so-called "audiophile"-which these days seems more appropriately meant as "sucker-fuses because he has a bunch of test equipment in the background. Damn! Just like the guy in the white coat in the TV commercials, nothing but playing "doctor dress-up" or the lawyer in front of a shelf of law books. I want my 6 minutes and 44 seconds back!

I just bought a fuse. Why? Because Paul said I should. Thanks, Paul.

I wonder if the haters who never researched this before going on about fuses "having one purpose and not changing anything" would also say capacitors dont make a difference, or any other circuit doesn't make a difference all amps sound the same as long as they work, right?

Another "WOW, it was a day and night difference. My wife could hear the difference from the next room."

Have you ever tried nuclear power instead of wind energy? It sounds more spacious and airier. Yeah right, If another cable or fuse makes the difference, you have designed a bad power supply.

Here’s a list of tweaks that some of you have probably performed on your systems that some people have deemed dubious and vehemently assert have no impact on reproduction/sound/sonic signature/performance. This list starts with several [not all] “tweaks” that are now common, widely accepted as effective through to the most esoteric end of the spectrum. · Gold plated connections · Upgraded internal components (resistors, capacitors, switches, connectors, circuit boards, etc) · EMI/RFI Noise Suppression Devices · Interconnect Cable Upgrades · Speaker Cable Upgrades · Power Cable Upgrades · Conductor directionality · Power Conditioning · Component Isolation · Grounding · Room Acoustic Treatments · Demagnitization · Fuse upgrade · Acoustical Tuning · Cryogenic Treatment · Schumann Resonance · Quantum Resonance Keep in mind; these are considerations that people have deemed as questionable at one time or another and, in some cases, continue to dismiss them outright. Some people still think it is a fool’s game to invest more than $300 in a complete system. They just want to hear music and don’t care about “quality” and probably couldn’t hear the difference any. Heck, I’d go so far as to assert, that if certain people do venture to try some of these tweaks, it is truly a fool’s game as they may be incapable of hearing a difference anyway - for many reasons. If you’re one of those people who think that everything has to be measurable, or you don’t care about quality, or you poo-poo the notion of audiophilia and the hobby, then why are you here? Just to troll?! If you are not one of those people, and you believe or have tried and detected improvement with any of the tweaks listed here, then you are doing a disservice to yourself and the hobby/art when you discount any of the tweaks on the esoteric end of the spectrum. ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVENT TRIED THEM!!!! Our current reality/history is replete with examples of things and phenomena that can be observed but not measured. Assuredly, with time and technology, this will change - as it always does. Also, for many of you, even if Paul or anyone else were able to "show you the numbers"/produce measurements, you would still cast doubt on the tweak because of your inherent bias(es) - you would find some way to undermine the findings. The minute anyone says anything is bullshit snake oil without having first tried or tested it themselves, they too are "BIASED" and should be considered just as full of shit [if not more] as the people they are criticizing.

Fuse fog... I'm looking forward to seeing your snake oil video, lol

Well no surprise, Paul was going to get a lot of negative responses to this video from all the non believers. Its a well known fact from real audiophiles. The better the system the more obvious the changes can be heard and evaluated. It only shows the ignorance of those who don’t know. I like analogy’s. It’s like the race car driver who can feel the difference in small changes in tire pressure where the consumer would never notice. More tuned in the car the more differences will be felt when changes are made. Small changes in horse power, suspension, breaking etc. that same analogy can be applied to many other experiences. So until you have experienced a true high end system you don’t know. You also are missing out on a truly wonderful experience and hobby. The challenge for audiophiles is determining if a change or alteration in the system is an improvement or not. Many things change the sound, not all are good.

Total BS. Zero link to reality.

OMG Paul! Please refrain from "I don't know how" explanations, and "it really makes a difference" statements. If this proves anything it is that the ear/brain relationship is truly a marvel of design & creation, being able to differentiate infinitely minute details..... But are the differences MUSICALLY better or worse? ;-)

Placebo effect. But if you think it's better, then the only injury is to your finances.

I am thinking the iPhone X wouldn't be possible if it was designed by audiophiles...