Well, sorry for the delay in my response but we had an earthquake nearby… while I was on a conference call and it was cool as I felt it first then it was felt by others on the call the further they were from the epicenter. Science.
A lot of thoughts and at this point I didn’t want to get too deep because frankly my reservation is that, do we really need another avenue for tweaking and throwing money at the hobby? The answer is yes and no. I limited the effort to my F8 amp and my Microzotl pre as far as components go. I also upgraded the fuses on my Richard Gray power conditioner, that one takes two fuses one for each bank. There I went with an interesting fuse (a Cardas copper Hi-Fi tuning fuse)
The amp and preamp I went with Synnergistic Research Orange fuses. (when I spoke to M0N way back he told me he settled on the Purple fuses as an upgrade to the Orange fuses but he was happy with the Orange.
I’d have to say that in all cases the impact was evident, not so subtle but nothing drastic like changing to a high end AC cable had shown me in the past. My idea as to why they’re not as dramatic is because the gains in the fuse upgrade are just current improvement versus the AC power cables being noise shielding/filtering and current improvements.
The AC conditioner game me more dynamic “power” not something that would be easy to miss. It felt like I had turned the volume up a notch and there was more authority, especially in the bass of the subs, this while making absolutely no changes anywhere else.
The pre was interesting as I did that after I had done the amp and AC conditioner. It was also more complicated as it requires two fuses on the AC input and one fuse internally on the preamp board. But again an across the board improvement in sound. Didn’t change the nature of it’s signature, and there wasn’t more detail or nuance or anything like that, it just had more control and bigger swings it felt quicker, snappier, equivalent to more torque in a car.
It’s not something hat was needed but certainly appreciated when it’s finally implemented.
The negatives, I did buy some $20 chi-fi fuses for the power conditioner and it was schrill, grating and it didn’t change much even after a day’s worth of listening and then I took it out because I couldn’t. The SR fuses and then the Hi-Fi tuning fuses I ultimately went with for the power conditioner were good from the get-go and they got better. SR recommends 300 hours if I recall. They’re also directional which means that you do need to do your homework and trace the AC flow to know which direction it needs to be oriented in. I didn’t try it reversed so no idea as to what impact it would have, just putting it out there that direction is a thing according to the manufacturer.
Another point, me being me and always looking for rock bottom pricing… the reason I dove into this was that I was able with A LOT of patience buy all of the SR Orange fuses I went with used. You just have to keep checking daily and it’s a PITA as not only are you looking for the right size and amperage, you’re also looking for fast/slow blow depending on what’s being called for by the manufacturer. You can however save a good bit of money buying them used through USAM. the SR fuses are easy to search for but finding the right size/amperage will take a lot time. Which is why it’s a good idea to leave it to the end of your audio journey as you’ll have the time. Also wouldn’t recommend doing it unless it’s a “keeper” of a component. The fuse won’t add value to the resale IMO.