Audiophile Fuses (Paul McGowan)

[PHC1]

What does Paul McGowan say about audiophile fuses? Why don't manufacturers give us a HiFi grade fuse for our money???

https://youtu.be/kFlnQ1chBno

[Parabellum]

I think I will just duck under the counter at the saloon for now

[PHC1]

I think it is a fun topic. I've tried them. I "thought" I heard a difference but I also knew I was changing the fuse that is supposed to make a difference.

The fact that no one can explain it, including the guys that design and build our gear should not stop anyone from trying it. I have, more than once with various gear.

Sorry to say I did not experience a "profound" difference but some do insist they hear it.

A few of my audiophile friends have always done the upgrade when available. They swear by them.

I think it has much to do with the topic of actual audio memory and what we "think" we heard a minute ago but that's a topic for another day.

[Parabellum]

For the most part I believe one has to look at it with an open mind. For those non believers/haters, there is some incoherence on their discourse. On one hand, they can accept that by swapping tubes on an amplifier can make an audible difference while they clam shut when it comes to fuses. They offer little when challenged on their beliefs other than bashing company A or B or whatever. In the end, it's very simple, everything does make a difference. If I stretch things all the other way, then why Accuphase
amplifiers for example do sound different than let's say McIntosh. Looking at it simply, they both amplify the sound and that's their purpose but still, they do sound different. Same thing with cables. It's not that because one does not understand why it makes a difference that there is no difference to begin with. How does cleaner power equate better sound for example? Why? I don't know. I do hear it though. And there is always that argument about "measurements"... That's a non issue in my book. If I tell you, cable A sounds like 0.0002358% less distortion or noise, what does that tell you? Nothing. Ears though are precise instruments and can easily pick up minute variations.

[PHC1]

From a recent stereophile review but we have heard this for decades.

"We know that we can hear things we can't measure," Gordon told me. "Bill Johnson, who founded Audio Research in 1970, always made a point of saying that we measure statically but listen dynamically. When we measure, we cut off the signal in time; when we listen dynamically, the music flows. We just don't have enough measurements to describe what we're hearing. Something can measure well and sound bad. Skilled engineers learn how to tweak the circuit and parts to produce the sound they want. That's where the art lies."

Under that notion, anything goes really.

On the other hand, gear does tend to sound different so there has to be something to it. How much different is IMHO still up to our brains to fantasize over. Our consciousness is an elaborate illusion created by the brain from all the senses which are nothing more than electrical impulses through the neural network. We still don't know exactly where, how or what "memory" is.


But I do believe we set our own reality. We listen, we hear, we believe and it becomes that. The rest we can generally agree on but that is like agreeing on the taste or sight and our hearing is not the same...

I am absolutely certain we don't hear the same.

I WAS absolutely certain we don't see colors the same and I was right

"Anyone with normal color vision agrees that blood is roughly the same color as strawberries, cardinals and the planet Mars. That is, they're all red. But could it be that what you call "red" is someone else's "blue"? Could people's color wheels be rotated with respect to one another's?

"That is the question we have all asked since grade school," said Jay Neitz, a color vision scientist at the University of Washington. In the past, most scientists would have answered that people with normal vision probably do all see the same colors. The thinking went that our brains have a default way of processing the light that hits cells in our eyes, and our perceptions of the light's color are tied to universal emotional responses. But recently, the answer has changed.

"I would say recent experiments lead us down a road to the idea that we don't all see the same colors," Neitz said." https://www.livescience.com/21275-co...se's%20red.

[W9TR]

The nice part about fuses is they are easy to change out and not terribly expensive so you can try them out in your system in your home over time and make a decision based on what you hear.

[Masterlu]

All Fuses blow.

[PHC1]

What did the fuse say when it blew out?
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[crwilli]

Hahaha!

[W9TR]

Originally Posted by PHC1

What did the fuse say when it blew out?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Damn