Because there will typically be an earth screen which will be connected to one end of the interconnect. The directionality is more about the connections and which end a particular connection goes.
There is also sometimes the case of the signal being super imposed on a DC offset, ie by a particular design not centred around ground or zero volts, and ultra subtle differences as a consequence can be heard by some.
With true AC as with mains or an audio signal balanced across 0 volts, there is no overall directionality but alternating directionality such as with mains 100 times or 120 times a second.
On the mains there can be very low level DC due to distortion on the mains due to asymmetric loading. This is ideally to be avoided and is typically evidenced by buzzing/rasping sound coming from high efficiency transformers saturating.
If there is a difference heard with fuse direction etc… it may because of of mechanical vibration within the geometry of a fuse holder or plug with respect to the physical design of the fuse with the current flowing or some other aspect, but won’t be down to the directionality of the current… as over time the directionality is zero. If it wasn’t transformers wouldn’t work… full stop.
IIRC that’s also far more likely to manifest on a UK ring main than a radial. Although I can’t recall the specifics of why. Though the increased number of sockets per ring and the sort of things you put on the ring (cookers, ovens, washing machines) would seem sufficient to load the dice in that scenario.
If you have any of these on the same ring main as your HiFi you need to sack your electrician. In a standard UK house the kitchen would have its own ring separate from other living areas, and high current devices such as electric cookers always have their own separate circuit.
BUT,.please tell me what practical listening experiences you base your statement on…??
BECAUSE,.I take it for granted that you have evaluated this via practical listening before… You Are Going Against Naim Audio’s Own Recommendation Regarding The Direction Of The Fuse.
Hi
Yes just an opinion as you rightly point out.
Over the past 40 years I’ve wasted my time trying a variety of tweaks. We tried the fuse tweak at my friends house, he said he could hear a difference, to him he thought it was sounding more open in the top end. I couldn’t here any difference at all. Came to the same conclusion with the Tangerine Audio Evenstar pick for the LP12 again he perceived a difference saying it now sounded more dynamic I couldn’t tell the difference. My opinion is brain worm.
The only tweak that has ever produced any tangible results for me are speaker positioning and interconnect cables. Everything else I’ve tried over the years has changed the sound in a way that I didn’t enjoy or made no perceived difference.
I guess my comment was rather flippant so I apologize for that. No offense meant and hopefully none taken. We all hear things differently and when you have made a significant investment in your system who can deny you the opportunity to eak out more performance from the kit.
@Khan64, Going back to your opening post, IIUC you had been using your system with the fuse one way round. On this occasion, you took the fuse out turned it round and put it back in (perhaps the first time you had done that since originally installing it?). Then after several hours of listening you concluded that the “slightly hot/sharp treble” that had been experiencing had gone. Before starting this thread, you didn’t go back and with this the fuse again to see if that slight sharpness to the sound returned, to then reversed again and confirm that the better sound was restored? If this is correct, you actually have no idea if the difference you heard was due to the direction of the fuse, or whether perhaps it was poorly seated or the contacts had oxidised, etc. (I note your fuse has silver contact surfaces - silver is particularly prone to oxidation.) N.B. Checking such detail has nothing to do with blind testing, though blind would minimise possibility of psychological bias.
When setting up the system a few months ago I rearranged the plugs and cables on the MusicWorks G3. I put the highest gauge cable from the socket to the G3 which would be my Audioquest Hurricane High Current. At the time I didn’t think to message Audioquest as I couldn’t figure out which pin on the plug was connected to the Live wire thus unable to be 100% sure about the directionality of the fuse, so I used one of the other plugs of a different brand as a guide. I always seat the fuses in all the plugs securely so no that couldn’t have been the cause. I will flip the fuse around again at some point for the sake of experimentation for you but no I don’t imagine I’ll discover anything more than I already have.
I will repeat, the difference is similar to when I had the NAC A5 plugged in, in the wrong direction. The sound was a little brighter, harsh even with more treble and less warmth. Correctly setup the sound snaps into focus.
As some of you may know I used to use AMR gold fuses. They presented a louder more open sound with more body to the mids and a sweeter treble but eventually after listening to the original Nait 1, I began to crave the snap to the sound so I reverted to the Bussman silver plated fuses. I’ve now purchased one Synergistic Research fuse for the Hurricane cable to see if it makes an appreciable difference in my system. I’ll report back after a few days.
First impression of the fuse is it seems a little heavier than the Bussman or the AMR fuse I used to have.
The approach we suggest when doing an A/B comparison is to listen to component A, then listen to B. If one sounds better, buy it. We have always said, “If it sounds better, then it is better.”
You will find it easier to compare components in an A/B situation if you play only a brief passage of music (as little as ten seconds and certainly no more than thirty seconds) on one component. Repeat this brief passage a few times on the first product then switch to the second component and play the same passage.
By keeping the passages short, you will keep the “tune” fresh in your mind and therefore be more able to judge the relative difficulties in following the tune on each component.
If you have any problems in detecting differences in regard to the ease of following the tune, don’t panic. Just sit back, relax and try again. Ask yourself a few simple questions:
Can you hear all the musicians playing all of the instruments all of the time? Can you always follow the tune played by every instrument? How easy is it to sing-along/follow with the melody?
FOR THIS METHOD A SINGLE COMPARISON BETWEEN A AND B IS SUFFICIENT. IF YOU HEAR ITS BETTER, THEY DON’T SAY TO REVERSE TO A, AND AGAIN B. THIS METHOD HAS FLAWS.
And whilst one component might come out to be better than the other on that one 10-30 second passage, it might be the reverse with a different passage having quite a different balance of sound. Or whilst the “tune” aspect focused upon might be better with one component, some other aspect may be worse, making the choice a balance of pros and cons, requiring a lot more assessment and consideration… At the very least I’d want to test with a variety of music (e.g. simple with clear tones etc, highly complex and layered, etc.
This is only a very small part of Tune-Dem.
To really understand,.you have to be there when someone does it, and learn by participating practically yourself.
That has been the opinion of most people for decades.
Despite this,.some never learn as I said before.
Like everything else in life,.some have the gift, others don’t.
I think that depends on how old your house is. My 1991 house has one ring downstairs covering all rooms including kitchen. I believed one reason it changed later was to allow kitchen fitters to be partially competent to do certain electrical work
But when you apply this tune dem method, do you reverse to B, then return again to A?
Because when you compare for example A cable with B, for a short time, B may appear better on the first impression. But in fact sometimes it’s just different, or better on some areas and lesser for others.
So it’s necessary to reverse to A, then B again, and do it a few times during 2 or 3 days, to be sure and not be influenced by the mood.
It’s the why I always found these comparisons exhausting and I am glad to have reached a balance I like.
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You Are Going Against Naim Audio’s Own Recommendation Regarding The Direction Of The Fuse.
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