Quote:
Originally Posted by John49
Are the fuses in these mains plugs anything special or just the same as used in generic types? Is there any benefit to fitting SR Orange or similar?
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I was told by my UK Dealer that the AMR Gold fuse in my Alpha NR V1 plug was further treated by Shunyata (KPIP maybe). His view was that I don't need to worry about fuse rolling.
Well, I didn't worry for a while, but then I tried a temporary bypass test with a copper rod of same diameter (el cheapo from ebay). The difference was considerable - at least as great as changing to the Alpha in the first place (from an elderly Audience cord of around £600).
There was a slight downside in that considerable extra clarity and dynamics came with a slight increase in brightness. So 3 steps forward and 1 step back. That brightness was later fixed by a soldered silver wire to replace the copper rod (note that even more caution is required with soldering - and it will leave a mark on the fuse holder if you ever reverse this tweak).
The obvious "don't try this at home" warning is the safety risk. So an SR Orange (my favourite) is a safer, but more expensive, bet. So don't try the bypass unless you really understand the risks. But I maintain that a 13A fuse in the UK mains plug is completely redundant as long as you have the correctly spec'd fuse inside your component and the appropriate RCD protection at the Consumer Unit ("fuse box"). Most source components have a low fuse rating, often less than 3A, so a 13A fuse in the mains plug is useless in such circumstances.
The bottom line of my 1 test in 1 circumstance is that the current fuse in the Shunyata UK mains plug is severely holding back the potential of their power cords. YMMV.
My related question: Is there any difference to the NR V1 and V2 UK plugs? The US V1/V2 plugs look very different, but I can't tell with the UK ones.