Strictly for fans of Audio Note UK (all things Audio Note UK)

You bought the same amp, albeit different versions, 3 times over that's love and dedication if I ever saw it!

 

Yes, I figured what the heck, I can listen to beautiful music over the 30 years it'll take to pay off that new second mortgage.

 

Hi footsburg, kinda agree with you why about being able to tell the difference, but then I've never tried a different fuse.
The fuse has two jobs to blow with too much current, but critically most of the time its passing current, and AN have are quite serious about that on the rest of their components on both the signal and power circuits.
Maybe its just too short a piece of wire to really matter?

 

Interesting, matched in what way...gain, loading? Not sure I've heard this before and curious. My AN RIAA literally has zero adjustability so I figured it's basically optimized for AN products, not saying it won't work with others though.

 

There’s a Jinro on EBay right now. Three days left on the auction. Seller is in Hungary.

This is just a FYI. No connection to the seller.

 

I totally agree with you. Too short to matter. Also where most fuses are generally located, the fuse is simply passing AC current from the input mains to the power transformer taps. I know there are a lot of opinions regarding power cables and how they effect or not effect sound. If one were to reason that a particular AC mains cable changes the sound, but the rate limiting step is a thin strand of tin that the AC current flows through after it comes in from the particular AC cable, that the thin strand of tin would be limiting the effect of the AC cable. That is a very reasonable assumption. The only way to test this would be to bypass the fuses and run a solid high quality silver or copper wire from the AC mains to the transformer taps and try to determine if there is any difference in the sound. It would be difficult to tell for sure due to the inability to quickly A/B compare and listener bias being introduced. I have not read about anyone conducting such an experiment so I don't know for sure what the outcome would be. My guess is no difference in the sound. AC current is AC current going from a wall outlet to transformer mains in my opinion. Would not matter if it went through tin, lead, silver or copper given that the resistance was roughly equal (zero) with all four materials. Once AC turns to DC and the voltage is now in the signal path, material types certainly do matter as we all know. AN uses modest bench quality copper wire from the mains to the transformers in most of its products, but there are some notable exceptions.

 

@Footsurg
Lots of nice reasoning here, but the unfortunate fact is that fuses do affect the sound. This is certainly easy enough to determine. Just buy one of the “audiophile-approved” fuses and try it out. That’s what I did. And I followed the advice not to judge it prematurely but rather to give it a few days to break in. After all that there was indeed a difference and it wasn’t hard to detect—the “audiophile” fuse was lean and bright. The skewed tonal balance could perhaps be heard as “more detailed” but in my view it was just an artifact caused by the unnatural tonal balance.

So “audiophile” fuses are not necessarily an improvement but they can certainly affect the sound.

 

Was not aware that "audiophile" fuses existed. What kind do you use? Before passing absolute judgement I am willing to try them. I am rather skeptical that I will hear any improvement but I am more than willing to give them a try.

 

There is a whole world of after-market fuses and lots of discussion about them on the forums. Here's a list of just some of them:
Audiophile Fuses - VH Audio

Chris VenHaus (owner of VH Audio) is a straight shooter and will recommend particular products for specific needs.

The one I bought is a Hifi-Tuning fuse. I'm not sure of the model but it's an older one from maybe 10 years ago. At some point I also borrowed another fuse from a friend and I didn't like it either but I don't recall the brand or any details.

I imagine that the current crop of audiophile fuses sounds better than the ones I tried.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one other drawback of audiophile fuses. From my very cursory reading about them on the forums, some of them tend to fail rather quickly and for no apparent reason.

 

I am open to tweaking, and hear benefits from various tweaks including isolation/coupling products, contact enhancer, etc.

I have tried Synergistic Research Orange fuses and HiFi Tuning Silver fuses in my Audio Note Conquest Silver amplifiers, and I hear no effect whatsoever. That includes changing the direction of the fuse, which is the standard response when someone like me says they hear no difference.

YMMV

I second the recommendation of Chris Venhaus. My experience with Chris has been that he will stand behind and replace fuses that blow too soon. SR fuses have blown prematurely in my amps.

 

@Footsurg @Salectric @Gjo

Interesting discussion and one that is very divisive with many people.

I like, and agree with the reasoning from @Footsurg.

For info I have two sets of SR Purple Fuses to go into my Tomei and M6RIAA, as these are supposed to be the best - I have a couple of other power cable changes (inc. an AudioLab DC Block) to try first but i'll report back when I can if you're interested?

For interest there is a bit of a discussion going on over on one of the AN related FB pages about which rating to use. i.e. do you use a Like for Like rated fuse or do you increase the rating by a minimum of 25% to protect the more 'fragile' audiophile fuses blowing, which seems odd to me... and is certainly not recommended by AN (UK) as I've checked. SO I'll be using Liek for Like...

nige

 

@Salectric saw the Jinro. i have a new one coming imminently and so of course it interests me. 8 years old. so not entirely clear whether built using the improved transformers that came in around 2013 i think. certainly would be missing some of the more recent resistor developments although that could be done of course (if u can schlep it to somebody - 40 kgs).

someone is about to get themselves a bargain i daresay

 

I have an older Jinro, but have never heard about the improved transformers or any other changes made during the years. Can you elaborate a bit more on this?

 

I’m not sure if a week is a long time or it seems like yesterday. Sunday, finish a rewire on a clients SPe HE E’s with SPx and a different client’s Tonmeister Silver with Silver Niobium’s , 3.2 mtrs of SPx and 6 resistors, not much. I also reterminated a pair of Sootto interconnects with the new NCF 102 rca connectors.
Monday , turn on, great, no smoke, CD on repeat, 10 hours , sounds okay, nothing to write home about. Tuesday, turn on and same CD, run for 11 hours, have a listen, system sound sucks, broken , disaster, tears, what the ...., sleepless night. Wednesday, no better, 12 hours run time. Seriously, the sound is rubbish.
Thursday, have a conversation with old client, apologise for having put him through this numerous times with numerous component changes in his AN system. He tells me to suck it up princess. I leave the system running at 6 pm ,go have dinner and return to switch off at 11 pm and while I have been away, angels or fairies have been kind to me and it doesn’t sound too bad. Go to bed and sleep better.
Friday, switch on at 10 am and off At 11 pm. The joy, beauty has returned, not a little bit but big time. I use the same CD on repeat which is my way of having a constant and hearing the good and bad and is an album I have heard a thousand times and still is a joy to listen to. Tonight was exceptional and by Tuesday next week it will be ready to give back.
I hate weeks like this last one, the frustration of change, dropping tree limbs from a big Jacaranda tree and they decide to fall where I don’t want them to and miss my head by 15 cms, relatively close and the arm bled a bit. Count your blessings and get professional tree loppers in next time.
The HiFi sounds really good though and the tequila eases the pain in the arm.

 

What's the CD?

I'm not sure I own a CD I could play that often. LOL.

Tequila certainly helps...

 

On that same note - have you ever upgraded Oto SE Signature? Since the caps are not Kaisei, upgrading them seems like a sensible first move. Perhaps even Black Gates? I wonder what that would sound like (and if it actually even makes sense, given how good the amp sounds).

 

Anouar Brahem “ the astounding eyes of Rita” ECM, one of the most beautiful collections of music.
Patron Anjero tonight.

 

If you want photos, look at our Facebook page on what’s possible with an Oto SE Sig.

 

This is the first I have heard of the new Furutech RCA plugs. Have you used them before?

 

Ah yes, I'm familiar with "The Astounding Eyes of Rita". It's excellent.

Patron Anjero. The good stuff. Cheers!

 

Oh, now I see how silly the question was. Wow, the EL84 output stage... looks like the only original part left is the board piece itself...

OK, obviously you can replace all the caps with Kaisei or BG, put those tantalum resistors in etc. But how does the sound of Oto Sig actually improve? To my ears the Sig is one of the best balanced amps I've heard, and a real chameleon, adjusting to the different sound styles of the recordings, not forcing them to adjust to some specific sound signature of the amp. Replace the guts and... is it still as balanced? Is it better or is it different?

 

Finn what's your FB page? I assume you mean your company and not the AN page?