If you are going to use an unfused plug in an installation that complies with safety regs (and won’t kill you if you do something daft to the kettle lead) you would be using a downrated MCB or similar at the consumer unit, of comarable spec to the fuse in the plug that should typically be rated at 3, 5 or 13 Amps depending on what it protects.
So any hypothetical effect on sound quality is just transferred to the breaker which needs to be far lower rated than the 32 or 50 Amp one you probably installed in your dedicated mains circuit.
Chris,
When I did that to the fuses it was way back around 1985 at my parents house where I was then living before getting married. Their consumer unit was a very old type with re-wirable fuses - no MCB’s in sight! I believe that the house was wired radially, ie. each socket wired back to the CU rather than a ring. I think that in older installations this was usual practice.
Of course the fact that it was an older type electrical installation without an earth trip made my folly even more insane. Luckily all was well, but it really was a crazy thing to do. My dad was not at all happy about it but consented because previously they had the old round pin plugs which of course had no fuse anyway. I reasoned that what I did was no worse than this.
I do remember a worthwhile improvement in sound quality with greater immediacy and dynamics. I take your point about needing a lower rated MCB at the CU to comply with safety regs so there really would be no point now in doing it - not that I would anyway, even if it gave a huge improvement in sound. Safety first without question.
When I was very young a fuse went in a plug and, not having a spare, my dad used foil around the fuse as a make shift solution. When I plugged it in the plug exploded. It cured any itch I may have had in the future to mess around with fuses!
LOL! An absolute classic!
I have not read too many posts on this thread, so has anyone tried the Shunyata Venom power distributor? I just picked up a Saturn 201 Dac for a home demo, and my dealer wanted me to try it out. It comes with the power cord attached, which is supposed to be about a $500 dollar value. He also gave me one of Shunyatas power cords to try on the Dac, or my Nagra integrated. Looking forward to hooking it all up tomorrow.
@RvL: I am also looking into a Puritan PS108 but with anti DC. What cable do you use to connect the Puritan to your outlet?
The strip has a C20 inlet. The cable is my spur running directly to the CU so there’s no outlet or other connections in between.
That can only happen in the UK
Fuses in power cords…geeze
Not sure where you got your price from but the the RRP in the UK for the Furutech Pure Power 6E NCF is £7,940.00.
10 k euros is the cost in France.
Dutch Furutech distributor in Euro
He takes a considerable margin! Whouah!
Is it possible to buy a 13a plug with an MCB built into it…instead of a fuse?
Interesting question. Don’t know whether there may be some industrial type plugs that have that but the nearest I can see is a Masterplug plug that has a built in RCD. Appears to come in two versions - one just as a wirable plug and the other as a plug-in adapter with a socket. Poor quality no doubt and I wouldn’t even consider it for serious audio use.
Hi Richieroo, simple answer, no
Not saying it can’t be done, but will probably double the size of the plug, and I don’t suppose it’ll ever get BS approval.
And if we go back to the subject,
Do Chord power strip, users, have any new insights we can learn from?
In my case only to confirm my impressions shared previously in comparing the S6, M6 and SOtM. I did listen further over more extended periods and this only reaffirmed my initial thoughts, in fact even more clearly, in favour of the SOtM which to me sounded richer, more refined, lifelike and natural compared to the Chord M6. For some reason, both the M6 and S6 maintain a slightly drier and more detached sound presentation compared to the SOtM. Still amazes me how much of a difference a mains block can make.
Last Saturday in advance of a trip that has taken me away from home all this week I stripped the FRAIM down and rebuilt which allowed me to re route all cables in the ways we know benefit . At the same time I replaced the plug on the Chord sig lead from block to wall socket with a 15amp round pin fuse less one (all component cables to block remain unchanged). I plugged S1, 500 P/S, 2 x ND555 P/S’s, Supercap (feeding Superline) and Core all into the block. Just Solstice P/S and EE8 switch into separate wall sockets. Even after a couple of hours warm up the improvement to the sound was significant and I mean like going 552 to S1. Now how much was due to the FRAIM rebuild I can not say (it hadn’t been touched for 8 months and the fittings were far from tight). But it has reaffirmed my view that system optimisation is so important.
My findings do not align with garcon’s. There’s absolutely nothing dry or detached about the sound of my system generally, in comparison to the individual wall socket approach or my previous Musicworks block. It’s all subjective allowing for different tastes in presentation, listening room acoustics and level of components of course but it wouldn’t hurt for anyone to compare the M6 to the competition. You might really like what it does as i do….
I’m using a 20 year old Wiremold power strip I purchased prior to owning my Naim gear. It’s battle tested! I’ve upgraded the captive plug to the Furutech FI-50 Rhodium plug. It’s providing better clarity and retained all of the Naim PRaT.