Comments on: $39 gold-plated fuses improve sound quality

Isoclean's audiophile-grade gold-plated fuses improve the sound of speakers and amplifiers. They can help bring a fuller, weightier sound, with more 3D stereo imaging.

[sixty9y]

I've tried different fuses: Hitech, isoclean, and furutech in my system.

Hitech: smalll difference, don't think i could pick it out in a blind test.

isoclean: better, something i did pick out in a blind test (performed by my girlfriend) but not something i had to have.

furutech: Transformed my system. As big a difference as going from crappy Monster cables to actual audiophile cables.

[sixty9y]

"Also, in the same post, please demonstrate that you know the definition of the phrase 'placebo'. "

Why do some people assume that the people who are smart enough to make the money to afford these types of "snake oil" aren't smart enough to think for themselves? As if i've wasted thousands without trying blind tests myself.

I assure you that everyone i know who hears power cables, interconnects, and fuses can make a difference are all extremely skeptical (myself included). I guess the difference is some people close their minds and get a kick bullying the "idiots" while others have a listen. Generally audiophile equipment on the used market doesn't lose their value so it's very easy to buy things, try them out and resell. I've heard tons of stuff that don't make a difference or sound worse, while i've hit on some things that do improve the sound.

If you don't care that much about sound quality fair enough. But you don't have to be arrogant enough to think all others are idiots or liars.

[ROSSinDETROIT]

This is such nonsense. Reviewing expensive 'premium' parts that can make at best a microscopic difference in an audio system is a waste of time and credibility.

[alegr]

Here is a little edutorial for you, Steve and sixty9y.

The wiring can, of course, create certain distortion, but it has to be very bad for you to hear.

Non-linear distortion can occur in any bad contact. An oxide layer has weak semiconductor properties; its current-vs-voltage graph is not a straight line, but can be non-symmetric, exibit higher resistance with low voltages, and even have memory because of thermal effects. If you use non-oxidizing material, for example, gold, and tighten your contact posts well, it's not a factor.

Bad contacts can also create contact noise which exibits as its resistance variability. Again, tight non-oxidizing contacts won't have that.

Then there is skin effect. Skin depth on 20 kHz is about 0.4 mm in copper. Suppose you have a 4mm copper wire. Its resistance on DC will be 0.13 mOhm/m. A 10m pair will have 0.0026 Ohm. On 20 kHz it will have 0.32 mOhm/m, or 0.0064 Ohm for a 10m pair. This is much less than 0.1% of the speaker impedance on either frequency, and will affect the frequency response by less that 0.01 db.

It all boils down that the proper inexpensive wiring gives you much less distortion than your favorite LP already gave you. Unless all contacts are very loose and dirty.

Now what about "phase distortion". Let me tell you. The wire has so little inductance and capacitance, that it may only create phase effects on 20 kHz equivalent to much less than 1 mm of sound propagation in the air. You move a little, you already changed it more.

[stepyourgameup]

Everyone calm down, he is JOKING!

[hk2000]

If Placebo WORKS, why not. Don't underestimate the power of the mind. There are documented cases of Placebo having a PHYSIOLOGICAL effect even curing Cancer. On the other hand, if the subject knows its only Placebo, it will NOT work. Maybe the Placebo effect hightens their hearing abilities.

[borispmchan]

Steve, to my best knowledge, a fuse which does what it's meant to do is a fuse and a cable that works the way it should be working is a cable. The use of different materials can alter its impedance, and it's unlikely that you can hear the difference between identical speakers with different impedance, unless your amplifier is a crap. Speakers, amplifier and the audio sources are the most critical parts of a system, and the rest? Forget it.

[Not_A_Fool]

I just LOVE how these deluded audiophiles use terms that are impossible to quantify, or even define:

"...fuller, weightier, and the stereo imaging was more 3D"

I took 3000 hours of electronics (including vacuum tube and solid sate theory) and never once did the instructors mention terms like "fuller", "weightier", or "3D". That's because these terms mean NOTHING. They can't be measured, and you won't find "fuller" or "weightier" on any oscilloscope trace. Mr Guttenberg is a typical over-the-top audiophile who claims to hears things that are pure crap. No double-blind tests, no quantifiable numbers, no basis in real electronic theory, nothing. I laugh when I hear people like him pontificating about this nonsense. And yes, the arrows on the fuses are the funniest thing. You sure don't want them thar electrons gettin' all mixed as to which way to go!

You sir, are a fool at best and a liar at worst.

Mike

[clamwalker]

After posting blatant BS like this, why should we even consider believing anything you write in the future? Why do you still have a job with cNet?

[Audio_guru]

Folks,

You are so quick to judge. Step back for a moment and look at the facts.

- Gold has the lowest coefficient of resistance of any element on the periodic table, except for Protactinium, which is not readily available and thus is seldom used for electrical connections.
- Many years have gone by without anyone caring enough to fix what we in the audio business refer to as "the epidemic fuse problem". I think it's something of a miracle that someone has finally come along and tackled this -- and quite successfully, as it turns out.
- The idea of swapping the fuse's polarity has proven successful - audio signal does, after all, have a positive bias and a negative one. Since gold is similarly biased it only makes sense that audio quality can be improved through polarization swapping.
- Electrical signals, especially those in the audio range, have always been improved by the latticed atomic structure of gold. This is particularly favorable to the 20hz-20khz range. Not imagination, just physics.
- The left-right/right-left bias on a stereo signal is distinctly and noticeably improvable by even small drops in laminar signal flow created by gold (aurium) fusing.
- There is a hysteresis curve which comes into play in an audioized signal which is right smack in the middle of that range.

What does all of this mean? I think it's pretty clear. Gold fusing is fundamental to a strongly unified audioficated system. Speaker wires are important, certainly, but secondary to the fusing as this represents the primary link in the chain. Without clean aurium power, the signal stands less of a chance of being significantly represented. Every publication can point to that.

I can only say to everyone who disagrees -- you need to thoroughly read the data. They're all here. It's not witchcraft, it's physics. I think I have made it quite clear as to what is really being said.

I hope all of you can do the same.

Regards,

Samuel R. Smert
Audio Prevarications, Inc.

[OryxiumBlack]

Samuel,

Proactinium is radioactive. It doesn't count.

Silver is generally accepted to have the highest conductance of any metal, being slightly higher than that of copper, and much higher than that

[alegr]

I guess not everybody will check the dictionary for what "Prevarication" means... Thanks for a laugh; snake oil purification takes certain skills.

[v1m]

Put that $39 into a nice bottle of wine. Turn on your system and start drinking.

Behold as the sound improves before your very ears!

[kettlecove]

What a great country that somebody has the time and resources to build this kind of phony contraption, somebody else falls for it, then the rest of us totally debunk it. All without (hopefully) repercussions, except a thinner wallet for the fools.

Thanks for a little early AM amusement!!!

[papagers]

I understand how most of the members who posted responses felt about this article. I thought the same thing (that fuses improving sound is a lot of bull----) until a friend of mine brought a furutech fuse to the house. He said that he had replaced the fuses in his power amps and preamp with these fuses and that they improved the his sound. Just like most of you, I couldn't believe it.

I replaced the new fuse (bought from Truevalue) in my preamp with the furutech. I was surprised to notice an obvious change (without having to strain to hear it.) When I put back the original fuse, the sound became smaller and somewhat dry. I can't say anything about Isoclean fuses because I haven't heard them. But the furutech fuse I heard changed my system's sound. Was it for the better? In my opinion, it was.

There are many things we still do not understand about audio. Why do some audio equipment that measure extremely well in the lab not sound great in the listening room? And some of those that do not measure well, sound great? That's why I don't think it is fair to judge a reviewer or a product reviewed unless and until one has heard the product himself. One can theorize all he wants but as one reviewer put it, "If you haven't heard it, you don't have an opinion."

[alegr]

You say you have fuses in your preamp? Is your preamp, like 100W output or what?

[RAIDERGIL]

I have this Fuse. Also have the Furutech and the gold Hi-Fi tuning. All sound completely different. The Isoclean is very musical, The Hi-Fi tuning is laidback, and the Furutech is a little soft. This is a cheap tweek that really does what it says.

[RAIDERGIL]

I have this Fuse. Also have the Furutech and the gold Hi-Fi tuning. All sound completely different. The Isoclean is very musical, The Hi-Fi tuning is laidback, and the Furutech is a little soft. This is a cheap tweek that really does what it says.