Importance of power supplies, cables and fuses in an audio chain

Sovrce Gear
62

I found out part of the reason my outlet seemed to not be great anymore. No one realized the bottoms cracked.

IMG_20240407_194324
IMG_20240407_1943241824×4000 311 KB

It was time for a change after 40 years i guess. The new ones are impossibly tight. I have a few more outlets to go. This one just took a while working under the desk.

@keithc i know we spoke about some of these things but I am treating this as a maintenance point vs an audio enhancement. I rent from family so nothing crazy, maybe some metal outlet covers.

I did find out some other positives. My room is on a dedicated line from the a circuit breaker sub box. It is a 20A line wired with 12awg wire. A huge pain to bend around duplex terminals, but theyre chonking. It probably isnt perfect, quality from the street still applies but it is a big step ahead of where it could be.

7 Likes
63

After some more appropriate break in time on all of the fuses I’ve tried. They’ve gotten better and my original maybe yes, maybe no reservations for lack of a better word have gone by the wayside. A good fuse is certainly worth the investment, but don’t do it on an incomplete chain, to get the most out of it, it needs to be a finishing touch implementation. The dynamics alone are worth it, but there’s been an improved feeling of harmony in the system.

Long story short, I’m actually going to throw fuses on the subs.

2 Likes
64

Cryotone sent me a fuse to try out, but they sent a higher rating than what I requested. Is it ok to use a higher rated fuse? Wanted to make sure before I try anything (will also confirm with manufacturer).

For reference, the one in my amp is 3.15A. They sent me a 6.3A fuse.

1 Like
65

I wouldnt unless the amp maker signs off.

My lampi worked semi ok with the 1.5A fuse but it would blow earlier rather than later. I wouldnt want anything blowing too late. There is also slow vs fast blow fuses

3 Likes
66

It’s not going to hurt the device, what you lose is the safety the fuse is intended to provide.
If something goes wrong it’s likely some other part of the device will act as a fuse instead of the fuse, it’s a risk.

5 Likes
67

Is the range of the rating dependant on the amp’s design? Or does it have to be exactly to spec for it to do its job?

1 Like
68

Hello,
that would be double the value of the actual fuse, which would be a bit heavy.
If it were only a few milliamperes more, like 3.5 ampere, it would still be acceptable.
Especially with tube amplifiers or dacs you can go a little higher, which is usually better, because the devices are more durable but do not go to their performance.
I was supplied with the Feliks Euforia standard with a 1a, the specified value was 1.6a.
When I got the fuse on recommendation with a 2a, these distortions were gone and it played much better.
The fuse seller told me the same as Polygonhell said, a slightly higher value is practical, the fuse triggers a little later, but he could not guarantee that other components would not work afterwards, even if it was a matter of milliseconds.
From 3.15a to 6.3a would mean roughly double the time.
That would really be a bit heavy if the fuse really had to blow, something could certainly break afterwards, not just the fuse alone.
I wouldn’t take that risk now.

1 Like
69

If the fuse is broken in, meaning you’ll only keep it in the unit a few days while evaluating it, I wouldn’t sweat it. I wouldn’t keep it in there long term like that.

That said I currently have a copper sluggo in my Firstwatt F8, so don’t do like I do.

70

Design and the country’s outlet power.

1 Like
71

Basically a designer determines how much current the design should draw, then doubles or triples it and sticks that fuse in there.
So they aren’t exact, power draw varies a bit and there is a massive surge in current draw at startup on most power supplies, which is why everything uses slow blow fuses.

If they try and get too “tight” with it you run into issues where because of home voltage variation and variations in components themselves result in some of your customers having good devices that repeatedly blow fuses. Lampizator had this issue with the US fuse spec at one point and just changed it.

All that really matters is if there is a failure somewhere that results in a dead short, the fuse dies before the expensive stuff (tranmsformers etc) or hard to service stuff. There is safety aspect to it, if the case somehow went live, the fuse would blow, but the size of the fuse isn’t very important in that case, assuming the case itself is also grounded, since the breaker would probably blow faster than the fuse.

3 Likes
72

I took advantage of their recent sale and pulled the plug on this. Have it in for a few days now. Before sharing any thoughts, use at your own risk. Assuming you use the sdfb per their instructions, you’ll probably be fine. But not trying to convince anyone and all that. I’m personally using the box, and yes it’s annoying that you need another power cable, but it is what it is.

Now that the disclaimers are out…

I’ll only talk about the slugs since the box is there for protection, so it’s not the thing contributing sonically. I tried 2 of their gold-plated copper slugs (streamer/external psu) and 2 of their latest graphene slugs (dac/amp). To get the copper slugs out of the way, yes, I’d choose this over a hi-fi tuning or synergistic research purple fuse any day (which they replaced). But the star of the show is the graphene slug.

Initial impression: WTF is this sensory overload?! This is NOT subtle :exploding_head:! I was surprised how much of an improvement this was. It was like getting a new DAC or power distributor; it was that drastic. Just to clarify, the big improvement happened after the whole system was “slugged.” Individually, they make good improvement but wasn’t that drastic.

The biggest thing that caught my attention was how it made the headphones “disappear.” It’s like there’s a sonic sphere surrounding your head which made the staging all the more convincing and involving.

As impressive as this sounded initially, after a few songs, I thought to myself that I’d probably grow tired of this “staging party trick”… and it was also getting a little fatiguing because of all the energy coming through. Still… that initial impression was a big shock and wow moment.

Couple sessions later: The sound is now more focused and refined, the harshness and excess energy are gone, and the staging sounds natural now, and not enhanced. The headphones still “disappear” but now the sound is settling in very nicely. It’s still a drastic improvement I can’t wrap my head around.

Standouts:

  • Staging - the depth, scale, and holographic-ness are all :pinched_fingers:. the transducers disappear and you’re left with a fairly convincing illusion of being “in” the music; it’s so immersive.

  • Headroom - lots of it… you can crank it up high and not lose composure or control. it feels like there’s so much power in reserve which makes the music sound so “free.” I was listening to ‘I know a name’ (elevation worship) and in that track there’s a choir in the background. the sense of power and grandeur that’s projected at you really adds to the listening experience, and I’m fairly familiar hearing choirs from the church I frequent (building is huge vertically). to experience something similar to that within headphones… :exploding_head: (obviously it’s still inside your head)

  • Bass - deep, authoritative, and dynamic… I listened to ‘Itteresshai’ (ai higuchi) and the ‘Poem of chinese drum’ (thanks for mentioning @SaberPunch), and it was just wow on the yammy hps. the low frequencies pulsating, pressurizing, and slamming your ears with such vigor and dynamism… I knew the bass on the yammy were already extremely capable, but I didn’t expect it to scale as much as it did and surpass any expectations I had. bloody spectacular bass, not sure what else to add.

  • Tangibility - texture, texture, and even more texture. the ability to delineate/outline the intensity of each hit, strike, pluck, breath, etc… adds a lot to the feeling of being able to physically “touch” the music in thin air. whole lot of subjective jargon here, but you’ll just have to experience and try it out for yourself. Sorry, I don’t think I can articulate any better than this.

TLDR: Sonically, a big no-brainer imo. The graphene slugs improved every single aspect without shifting tonality and adding colour, unlike my experience with the SR purple fuse (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). It also extends the frequency response on both ends and noticeably adds more immersion to the listening experience. I’ve not compared it to a loom of same-branded fuses so maybe for another’s system that could work out better for you, but based on what I’m experiencing on mine I’m not curious to experiment with fuses any longer… whatever color SR decides to push out next lol.

6 Likes
73

Very cool to hear.

I’ve been using a copper slug on my F8 amp, and will pick up a graphene at some point for sure now. I will say that there’s a “hint” of fear factor not using a fuse going sluggo and eschewing the fuse box and the additional power cable, it makes the whole thing pointless, costlier than necessary especially when you’re doing all of it just for the fuse.

I keep telling myself that there’s a fuse in the conditioner. lol What’s the worst thing that can happen? A small electrical house fire, I lose an amp. The things we do for sonic nirvana.

3 Likes
74

Just plain copper, I’m assuming? Or plated?

Will be curious if you experience a drastic change on your system or not with the graphene.

Totally understandable… I had my eyes closed after turning on each component one by one thinking something might happen (obviously nothing happened and the box is working just fine).

Edit: oh you meant without the box, yeah for sure

1 Like
75

I honestly forgot, will check. I think I got the gold plated because they may have been out of the copper at the time, but I’ll check eventually. There’s something to be said about a complete ecosystem as I had a transcendent breakthrough after finally getting every PC to Shunyata Alpha or Sigma V2 along with the Typhon and the Denali. A sort of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts thing perhaps?

I’m fortunate in that the only components in my chain that require a fuse are the preamp and the amp. Everything else has built in trip mechanism. The Mojo stuff uses thermistor and the Shunyata conditioners use some proprietary hydrolic trip mechanism.

Saves me from having to slug multiples. I limited my use to the amp because somehow I can justify killing the amp, I can’t justify killing the preamp. lol

YES without the box. Muy loco.

3 Likes
76

Went graphene all the way, it’s just too good I couldn’t resist.

I’m also all set with my piggy tails. Gotta say, the takshaka (which is what I got) from Snake River is equally impressive as my Allnic zl8000. Just different.

I don’t think I can evaluate it fully, given that it’s only in piggy tail form (8”), but I think it imparts some of its character in the chain, which is to say, dramatic and tasteful. I think I would still go zl8000 if I had to choose (for its “neutral purity”), but this is just based on my first impression of the takshaka. Either way, seems like a worthwhile cable to consider nonetheless.

That Idaho choco was good too, but too much sugar! :hear_no_evil_monkey:

3 Likes
77

Did you also try their signature PCs? I like their signature PC, very happy with the boomslang, kind of could go either way with their RCAs.

1 Like
78

I didn’t, my cables were already set prior to getting the swiss box so there was no reason to try the other stuff. Maybe if I had a secondary system it would be something good to consider.

2 Likes
79

Btw @keithc did a write up WBF for the new snake river PCs. I havent had a moment to check it out but it looks like a very in depth look.

1 Like
80

Has anyone tried something like an audio prism noise sniffer or something similar?

Kinda wondering how effective those kinds of devices are…