Audio Voodo

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

I found another interesting 'voodoo' post.

Curious about fuses

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=80263

I have recently heard about "audiophile grade" fuses. While there is some sense to the theory, at $30 each for a standard 5A 115V fuse, that seems extreme. Any thoughts or experience with these? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

John Curl responded;

I hear that they sound good. Met a manufacturer of them at CES, he is OK.

If you read the rest of the 10 pages, the discussion is just retarted.

This is a popular forum where more engineering questions are raised,

many skilled electronics people participate, but because they have this high skill,

that doesn't make them immune to BS and audio voodoo. I see this alot in the

electronics business I work in, many engineers can lack common sense as their

brain is stuck in the text book too much that they loose touch with reality.

I guess the point of this is to show another truth about audio, never believe everything

you hear from engineers. What you do is you poll the engineering community and

tally the scores, then form your own conclusion on what makes more sense.

Click to read more...

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

It all of course depends on whether the fuse is in the path of the audio signal, most decent amps will avoid that issue alltogether though.

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

Low level signal fusing -> sonic non issue and it's rarely implemented.

I can honestly say I've never seen a fuse installed in preamp signal paths,

I've seen relays though.

Fuses on loudspeakers can reduce power output slightly, but usually it's not

audible and usually loudspeakers are not fused and if they are, only the tweeters.

I fuse my tweeters since day one, 20 years ago and never heard a gremlin manifest.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Sure, what it all comes down to is "where does it end?" I'm not totally skeptical of all of the audio tweaks, but the level of equipment required and the concentration needed to notice these effects only detracts from the fun and from the MUSIC. Sadly, many "audiophiles" out there are just audio snobs and have long ceased their enjoyment of music. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

I'm fairly sensitive to the quality of sound so I don't put up with lower-fi setups but at the same time I'm not going to spend spend spend to gain a smidgen of clarity.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Sure, what it all comes down to is "where does it end?" I'm not totally skeptical of all of the audio tweaks, but the level of equipment required and the concentration needed to notice these effects only detracts from the fun and from the MUSIC. Sadly, many "audiophiles" out there are just audio snobs and have long ceased their enjoyment of music. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif
I'm fairly sensitive to the quality of sound so I don't put up with lower-fi setups but at the same time I'm not going to spend spend spend to gain a smidgen of clarity.

I'm with you 100% on this one, friend.

I'm not going to go and invest several hundred or even thousands of dollars to gain what might be a minimal gain (if any at all) best case scenario.

The payoff just doesn't justify the investment.

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

I would have to say that the fuse isn't going to make a large improvement under any conditions. This argument is like the cable argument, but only for 3/4 of an inch. The only thing that is different is the size of the cable can allow more current to flow (bigger is better usually), but a fuse is made to only let so much flow (bigger is not better). I see no purpose especially for those prices....

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

I've seen fused subwoofers out there, and my first reaction was "wtf?"

A lot of older equipment had "fuses" or light bulbs in them so that if they got a power, freq, or DC the fuse or bulb would blow before the speaker would. But it honestly makes no sense to put one in a sub lol....