What annoys me today in marketing and media that too often today then talking on hi-fi, science is replaced by bizarre belief structures and marketing fluff, leading to a decades-long stagnation of the audiophile domain. Science makes progress, pseudo-science doesn’t. Hi-fi world is filled by pseudoscience, dogma and fruitloopery to the extent that it resembles a fundamentalist religion. Loudspeaker performance hasn’t tangibly improved in forty years and vast sums are spent addressing the wrong problems.
Business for Engineers: Marketers Lie article points tout that marketing tells lies — falsehoods — things that serve to convey a false impression. Marketing’s purpose is to determining how the product will be branded, positioned, and sold. It seems that there too many snake oil rubbish products marketed in the name of hifi. It is irritating to watch the stupid people in the world be fooled.
In EEVblog #29 – Audiophile Audiophoolery video David L. Jones (from EEVBlog) cuts loose on the Golden Ear Audiophiles and all their Audiophoolery snake oil rubbish. The information presented in Dave’s unique non-scripted overly enthusiastic style! He’s an enthusiastic chap, but couldn’t agree more with many of the opinions he expressed: Directional cables, thousand dollar IEC power cables, and all that rubbish. Monster Cable gets mostered. Note what he says right at the end: “If you pay ridiculous money for these cable you will hear a difference, but don’t expect your friends to”. If you want to believe, you will.
My points on hifi-nonsense:
One of the tenets of audiophile systems is that they are assembled from components, allegedly so that the user can “choose” the best combination. This is pretty largely a myth. The main advantage of component systems is that the dealer can sell ridiculously expensive cables, hand-knitted by Peruvian virgins and soaked in snake oil, to connect it all up. Say goodbye to the noughties: Yesterday’s hi-fi biz is BUSTED, bro article asks are the days of floorstanders and separates numbered? If traditional two-channel audio does have a future, then it could be as the preserve of high resolution audio. Sony has taken the industry lead in High-Res Audio.
HIFI Cable Humbug and Snake oil etc. blog posting rightly points out that there is too much emphasis placed on spending huge sums of money on HIFI cables. Most of what is written about this subject is complete tripe. HIFI magazines promote myths about the benefits of all sorts of equipment. I am as amazed as the writer that that so called audiophiles and HIFI journalists can be fooled into thinking that very expensive speaker cables etc. improve performance. I generally agree – most of this expensive interconnect cable stuff is just plain overpriced.
I can agree that in analogue interconnect cables there are few cases where better cables can really result in cleaner sound, but usually getting any noticeable difference needs that the one you compare with was very bad yo start with (clearly too thin speaker wires with resistance, interconnect that picks interference etc..) or the equipment in the systems are so that they are overly-sensitive to cable characteristics (generally bad equipment designs can make for example cable capacitance affect 100 times or more than it should). Definitely too much snake oil. Good solid engineering is all that is required (like keep LCR low, Teflon or other good insulation, shielding if required, proper gauge for application and the distance traveled). Geometry is a factor but not in the same sense these yahoos preach and deceive.
In digital interconnect cables story is different than on those analogue interconnect cables. Generally in digital interconnect cables the communication either works, does not work or sometimes work unreliably. The digital cable either gets the bits to the other end or not, it does not magically alter the sound that goes through the cable. You need to have active electronics like digital signal processor to change the tone of the audio signal traveling on the digital cable, cable will just not do that.
But this digital interconnect cables characteristics has not stopped hifi marketers to make very expensive cable products that are marketed with unbelievable claims. Ethernet has come to audio world, so there are hifi Ethernet cables. How about 500 dollar Ethernet cable? That’s ridiculous. And it’s only 1.5 meters. Then how about $10,000 audiophile ethernet cable? Bias your dielectrics with the Dielectric-Bias ethernet cable from AudioQuest: “When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio.” I see this as complete marketing crap speak. It seems that they’re made for gullible idiots. No professional would EVER waste money on those cables. Audioquest even produces iPhone sync cables in similar price ranges.
HIFI Cable insulators/supports (expensive blocks that keep cables few centimeters off the floor) are a product category I don’t get. They typically claim to offer incredible performance as well as appealing appearance. Conventional cable isolation theory holds that optimal cable performance can be achieved by elevating cables from the floor in an attempt to control vibrations and manage static fields. Typical cable elevators are made from electrically insulating materials such as wood, glass, plastic or ceramics. Most of these products claim superior performance based upon the materials or methods of elevation. I don’t get those claims.
Along with green magic markers on CDs and audio bricks is another item called the wire conditioner. The claim is that unused wires do not sound the same as wires that have been used for a period of time. I don’t get this product category. And I don’t believe claims in the line like “Natural Quartz crystals along with proprietary materials cause a molecular restructuring of the media, which reduces stress, and significantly improves its mechanical, acoustic, electric, and optical characteristics.” All sounds like just pure marketing with no real benefits.
CD no evil, hear no evil. But the key thing about the CD was that it represented an obvious leap from earlier recording media that simply weren’t good enough for delivery of post-produced material to the consumer to one that was. Once you have made that leap, there is no requirement to go further. The 16 bits of CD were effectively extended to 18 bits by the development of noise shaping, which allows over 100dB signal to noise ratio. That falls a bit short of the 140dB maximum range of human hearing, but that has never been a real goal. If you improve the digital media, the sound quality limiting problem became the transducers; the headphones and the speakers.
We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Soz, ‘audiophiles’, only IT will break the sound barrier article says that today’s loudspeakers are nowhere near as good as they could be, due in no small measure to the presence of “traditional” audiophile products. that today’s loudspeakers are nowhere near as good as they could be, due in no small measure to the presence of “traditional” audiophile products. I can agree with this. Loudspeaker performance hasn’t tangibly improved in forty years and vast sums are spent addressing the wrong problems.
We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Soz, ‘audiophiles’, only IT will break the sound barrier article makes good points on design, DSPs and the debunking of traditional hi-fi. Science makes progress, pseudo-science doesn’t. Legacy loudspeakers are omni-directional at low frequencies, but as frequency rises, the radiation becomes more directional until at the highest frequencies the sound only emerges directly forwards. Thus to enjoy the full frequency range, the listener has to sit in the so-called sweet spot. As a result legacy loudspeakers with sweet spots need extensive room treatment to soak up the deficient off-axis sound. New tools that can change speaker system designs in the future are omni-directional speakers and DSP-based room correction. It’s a scenario ripe for “disruption”.
Computers have become an integrated part of many audio setups. Back in the day integrated audio solutions in PCs had trouble earning respect. Ode To Sound Blaster: Are Discrete Audio Cards Still Worth the Investment? posting tells that it’s been 25 years since the first Sound Blaster card was introduced (a pretty remarkable feat considering the diminished reliance on discrete audio in PCs) and many enthusiasts still consider a sound card an essential piece to the PC building puzzle. It seems that in general onboard sound is finally “Good Enough”, and has been “Good Enough” for a long time now. For most users it is hard to justify the high price of special sound card on PC anymore. There are still some PCs with bad sound hardware on motherboard and buttload of cheap USB adapters with very poor performance. However, what if you want the best sound possible, the lowest noise possible, and don’t really game or use the various audio enhancements? You just want a plain-vanilla sound card, but with the highest quality audio (products typically made for music makers). You can find some really good USB solutions that will blow on-board audio out of the water for about $100 or so.
Although solid-state technology overwhelmingly dominates today’s world of electronics, vacuum tubes are holding out in two small but vibrant areas. Some people like the sound of tubes. The Cool Sound of Tubes article says that a commercially viable number of people find that they prefer the sound produced by tubed equipment in three areas: musical-instrument (MI) amplifiers (mainly guitar amps), some processing devices used in recording studios, and a small but growing percentage of high-fidelity equipment at the high end of the audiophile market. Keep those filaments lit, Design your own Vacuum Tube Audio Equipment article claims that vacuum tubes do sound better than transistors (before you hate in the comments check out this scholarly article on the topic). The difficulty is cost; tube gear is very expensive because it uses lots of copper, iron, often point-to-point wired by hand, and requires a heavy metal chassis to support all of these parts. With this high cost and relative simplicity of circuitry (compared to modern electronics) comes good justification for building your own gear. Maybe this is one of the last frontiers of do-it-yourself that is actually worth doing.
1,598 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Аudiophile stuff is overpriced junk, often worse than normal merchandise.
The music that is played on so-called audiophile systems is recorded on professional equipment where reasonable professional quality standards have been met, but not directional cables, special power cords and other such nonsense.
The gramophone records that audiophiles fawn over are mastered and mixed first on a digital system, then etched on vinyl.
So that the audiophile can then buy an expensive turntable with an ungodly expensive cartridge and directional cables, and listen to something they think is super high quality, but isn’t.
If only audiophiles had any idea how many flaws turntables have! The funny and unfortunate thing is that they abhor digital sound, claim that records have subtlety in sound, but those same records were recorded and mastered digitally. No one these days would bother to etch a record directly live in concert, and analog. Something that was done in the past.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Backstage Pass | Making of direct cut album | Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=hwvPXe0mZYa1MW9Y&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1RbNfWhNXKFMCdhOl8h0XcIWEctzwL469VHST3GycEqCsrxHhjmlEvCaU_aem_o2DM4apGeKcAuMHYN4WE-A&v=en-4B0_kYss&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Audiophile grade” is usually enough to get my bullshit sensors going.
Anyone else find that when looking for audio gear for hifi/cinema you instinctively assume anything marketed as “audiophile grade” or similar is snake oil?
Tomi Engdahl says:
CD remains the peak of music fidelity. As far as physical media goes.
In digital terms, you can do better, with higher bit rates etc, but very few people can actually tell any difference.
So for me, I’ll argue that CD is the peak of audio fidelity. End of.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Audiophiles hear with their wallets. They wouldn’t buy the service you offered because it’s not dressed up with nonsense and very expensive.
Not all audiophiles. A lot of audiophiles have systems that are DIY or budget category. I wouldn’t generalise. Not all audiophiles hear with their wallets. Not all audiophiles believe in cables or snake oil.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A resistor in series weakens the magnet, Qes gets bigger, therefore the resonant frequency becomes more dominant and therefore more bass, but overall less spl. Nothing new here common design practice that sometimes makes sense. Cabinet should be bigger as well.
Björn Berger you mean weakening the magnetic field from the coil? Is the resonant frequency on the bottom end of the speaker response curve?
yes and yes
Tomi Engdahl says:
In pro audio people either loved or hated carver amplifiers. “They don’t sound like amplifiers” whatever that means. But the story is very interesting: https://www.bobcarvercorp.com/carver-challenge
Michael Schulze Even Bob Carver did not like his first amplifiers
And his PA gear was garbage he said
Sometimes research plays off
i’m all for making fun of audiophools, but let’s look at their statements in context, at least. In this case, the audiophool is the guy who stuck in the resistors without context. Bob Carver wasn’t an audiophool. His entire approach used blind testing and pissed off the audiophools of the day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Does make sense to emulate a tubeamp’s typical higher output resistance due to the use of an output transformer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The resistor in line will definitely reduce the damping factor of a solid state amp. Seems a silly thing to do. So much for those $4K speaker cables now!
He later made amps with an option to add this 1ohm resistor, if I recall correctly. Anyway, as part of his “challenge”, he spent a long time doing more than just the resistor, trying to duplicate the sound of the other amp, and eventually got it so close they couldn’t tell them apart. So, yeah, you can introduce enough distortion in certain ways to mimic a tube amp.
If you want another variation of the tube sound, you can by tube preamp “buffers” for cheap. Roll a couple of different tube designs, even.
Years and years ago, I read a Bob Carver opinion that putting a 1 ohm resistor in series with an amplifier’s output would get it 85% of the way to tube sound.
I tried it a few weeks with a 1 ohm power resistor on each speaker, and now from my parts drawer with a 1% Mills much closer matched pair. My little class A amp still doesn’t sound closer to any tube power amp I’ve ever owned.
They’re easier to leave in than to remove, so I guess they’ll stay in.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/cLeJteMS4NiRGggY/
Tomi Engdahl says:
I remember seeing they sold pens to edge the discs with.
GREEN Sharpie pens. The color was critical.
Didn’t stop them corroding, though.
How about the “CD enhancer” spray called Finyl. At the time, the ads for Finyl claimed it would increase the number of bits of resolution. The guy that invented this “product” allegedly made a small fortune selling it.
https://www.jenalabs.com/buy-now/ultrabit_diamond-plus.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1O5zx0PLXfKIh_N8H_MmZbnWfHSe68J1yUo7hSkaU9Y-BfWptTi4HoBg8_aem_HqVy00YKkb632y5qKsV8oA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shaving Compact Discs to improve the sound (?!)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=_dqKPuVSk8ZVo44L
Tomi Engdahl says:
Today I’m using a special lathe that cuts a 36º edge into a CD to improve the sound quality. Is this madness…I aim to find out. You might also like this video about demagnetising CDs
After shaved some CDs, now let’s demagnetize one.
Demagnetizing CDs?!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mH4v8b1tGSQ&t=0s
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some people just can’t help themselves from tinkering with things that are already perfect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A salesman at a hi-fi store tried to sell me a cable that supposedly had a direction. I replied “I’m an electrician and music signal is alternating current that flows in both directions, so your cable seems to only produce one half wave of the signal correctly”. Then I went to buy a few metres of regular copper cable from a different store, as it was ten times cheaper.
Tomi Engdahl says:
There are cables with a floating ground shield connected to ground on only one side od the cable, and this side must be from the source for better emi protection. Other than that, bs all right.
Sylvain Vanier generally it is better that those all be grounded to the same location, like the preamplifier.
They still are not directional, of course… and any “arrows” should indicate which end of the sheild is grounded and nothing else.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huw Powell Audiophiles or audiophools when pointing cable directrion don’t mean single grounding point, they mean that the cable “sounds” significantly better, more transparent etc. while connected in one directrion and sound bad when connected in other direction, which is a fiction, bullshit and nonsense. So grounding is not a direction of a cable. The cable could be reversed and grounded again at the same point. So no need of such explanations. Cables have no direction. Full stop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-announces-the-hdmi-isilencer.973366/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Encoding sound in the cochlea: from receptor potential to afferent discharge
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1113/JP279189?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3w9yDdAY_aTZcDzEYO_ZQ9za8v1bfPDuqY032cji8BqLpSW-h4cGFKRPA_aem_1_QmSh_ftfb8oHBkMZYwbA
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://youtu.be/JMAu_mCxoII?si=MitBWT1sW2G4C7mo
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://pmamagazine.org/observations-at-t-h-e-show-2024/
Tomi Engdahl says:
We’re Pro Audio DIY people. I believe the “other people” factor has many of us living as close to off-grid as is reasonable already.
I will grind the attached video into powder and snort myself into overdose because it’s been a long week and I’m with you, Brother. Humanity makes me tirrreeedddd sometimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyWt3kANA3Q&t=1s
Tomi Engdahl says:
My soundstage is bigger than yours lol because my speaker cables are litz wire for RF and are spaced from the floor to improve imaging
haha
Tomi Engdahl says:
All I read is “I paid 10,000 for a speaker cable my brain will hear the difference to justify it”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Or switch to balanced devices and use simple patch cables. Balanced interconnects are the bane of the audiophile mob because the signal is no longer referred to the ground. So even any /potential/ minor difference from cheap cable to decent cable disappears. So they will tell you “balanced devices have more components and therefore after more the signal” (what?) or “XLR cables are only for pro applications and long runs” (wrong).
Tomi Engdahl says:
If you follow audiophilia you must have run into the “discrediting of all blind testing” lobby. No blind test is ever good enough. They want double blind and level matched and then they say level matching by decibel is wrong it must be by voltage. Or the opposite. No one ever references any scientific papers that make these points. But no blind test is ever good enough for some, basically because they want to spout unsupported opinions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
have had so many instances where I seriously don’t feel I can trust my ears, thoughts, or emotions. I studied psycho-acoustics in college, and concluded that the placebo effect was alive and well in audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This is a great channel with accurate scientific testing of cables. Nothing to make fun of just want to put this out there: I know we all believe this but I just wanted to show scientific proof:
https://youtu.be/aWtzGtg9ZLI?si=YaD0mo9HDwumGfHO
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Their character [is] one of true neutrality, not a manufactured perception of such.” Which means that there are people with certain magic wires who think that other people’s magic wires aren’t as magic as theirs. A hierarchy of hooey.
I had no idea we could ever have a “manufactured perception of true neutrality.” Who writes this stuff?
Looks like the same wire they used on cheap transistor radio earphones in the 1960s and like the crystal radio earplug too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
So done with audiophile fuses
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/so-done-with-audiophile-fuses
They work, they just cost to much.
“Do you walk away, from a fool and his money?” The Beatles
Well do you?
The trick is to keep the silly things working and still have fire protection AT the equipment.
Remove the fuse and put a solid piece of silver or copper wire in its place.
Put the gear with the new, improved, upgraded goodie in metal wash basin just larger than the piece of the gear.
NOW if it catches on fire you can just add a little wood and you got yourself a fire pit in the front room..
1. The fuse is to protect the manufacture from being sued if their equipment fails UN SAFE, not SAFE. FIRE!
There is a potential for a fire.. I NEVER downplay a FIRE.
Saying that, I will still have fun if there just happens to be one, a FIRE that is..
2. The fuse from the manufacture side is a doubled edged sword.
It protect his equipment from over amperage, BUT it is also a point of intermittent failure.
How would you like to be fumbling with a fuse AND it was your O2 supply?
People will spend 20K on an amp and then cheap out on HOW they power the silly thing. WHY? Think beyond the cost of the fuse and to a solution that actually WORKS…
I ask WHY all the fuss over a STUPID fuse when all you have to do is think of it “as if” it were your O2 supply.
Replace the “Point of Intemittent Failure” with a breaker that won’t make SPARKS and you have a lot better solution..
OR modify an existing fuse with a dab of silicone on the outside for a little vibration control and a dab of contact enhancer on the contact points..
More than one way NOT to spend a LOT money and get a better result.
Regards
Hate it when the dam fuses blow when they are supposed to be sounding good. It’s almost like they are designed to to that! Oh well break out the credit card.
I replaced it with a ceramic Littelfuse of the lower correct value it works fine.
So let me get this straight: you cannot hear any difference between a Synergistic Orange and a ceramic Littlefuse. Okay. I can believe that. But then why were you paying money using expensive fuses that you cannot hear in the first place?
Too many trying to be an internet influencer and mimicking memes in their best troll attempts. Griping about fuses is a very old and tired meme and not at all in keeping up with the times.
Same goes for cables, cable risers, etc. Just what is it? Was everyone born yesterday? This is like congress voting to repeal something over 60 times, knowing it won’t work, but letting all the newcomers get a chance to put their wrong foot forward so they can say they did something and be part of the pack.
All the best,
Nonoise
Not sure how someone stating that a different fuse works fine – meaning that it didn’t blow – gets translated into the person having an inability to hear.
Maybe because I read and actually comprehend all the information in the entire thread. OP clearly said he tried three different fuses- $50, Blue, and Orange. There are big differences between just Blue and Orange, and both are light years better than any $50 fuse, yet he said zip about any of that. Only thing he gives any evidence of noticing is when they blow. So at the time I made my comment all the evidence indicates he cannot hear any difference. Or that whatever differences he can hear he finds unimportant. Same conclusion either way.
goose OP496 posts05-09-2021 3:26pmI may give the Hifi fuses another swing. The only reason it blew was because of a bad rectifier tube in my power supply. It also took out the original glass fuse. I will say that it seemed to be more stable than the blue or orange fuse since it was working fine at it’s stated value. Just my experience, others have had better results.
Since the “audiophile fuses” “manufacturers” recommend a higher value…the fuse is supposed to be a safety feature to prevent things like a fire in case of circuit failure…why don’t you try a higher value regular fuse and see if you hear any difference?
Let’s get this straight. Pure and simple; a fuse is there to stop drawing more current that is desirable.
How can a fuse ever be better than the wire into the holder and and the wire out? It’s a physical impossibility and it’s all in the mind y’know.
Even when the fuse holder is soldered onto a circuit board, it can’t be better than the material used for PCB. It’s a physical impossibility and it’s all in the mind y’know.
A fuse Is a fuse. It does one thing, it blows if there is an issue to prevent the rest of amp from turning into toast. I would never open anything up and screw with it. You are just asking for problems. No one is going to differentiate one fuse from another as far as sound Is concerned, it’s pure bs.
The first failure was with a fuse in a pre amp that I bought at the stated value. After that on failed I installed a fuse that was two values higher in the same pre amp. It worked fine until I sold it (about 6 months). I removed the fuse before I sold it and installed it in my new pre amp that had the same value. It worked for about 4 months and failed. So my test was with two different pre amps from the same manufacture. I never had an issue with the stock fuse for years in the original pre amp.
I would never be comfortable using a fuse larger than what the manufacturer recommends.
The only time I’ve blown fuses is overdriving my Heils….once.
My amps and receivers have thermal overload protection circuits or are fused. The latter have Never Blown.
I would think the mfr. would know what should protect what.
So anytime y’all start farting around swapping fuses, the warranty goes ‘bye bye’….if it hasn’t expired.
If that is the case….you are on your own.
If you haven’t dealt with the AC supply prior to it’s arrival at your device, no major $ fuse is necessarily going to cover your tush….regardless of what you hear.
Unless, of course, you have a degree and experience in these affairs; then you’re free to roll the dice with knowledge in hand.
Just another sad lament on another day….
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7jjfwv/cant_wait_to_spend_my_next_paycheck_on_a_single/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/audiophile-fuses.2348393/
No, I haven’t bought any of those expensive audiophile fuses. But I did have a couple of hours to spare today while waiting for some glue to dry, and I’d earlier been watching a YouTube video of a stupid man going on about how much better his modest audio equipment sounded with audiophile fuses. Slightly earlier, I’d listened to Michael Fremer (talking about something else) and he commented that when someone makes a claim that you think is nonsense, you should listen before you mock.
So I thought of a way I could try the claims about fuses, and then mock the stupid man. If an audiophile fuse sounds better than a standard one, then a straight copper wire should sound even better, shouldn’t it? And, hey, we only need the fuse to be there if something goes wrong, right? So I extracted the fuse from my (modified) Audiolab 8000A, and soldered some copper wire across it to short it out. I must stress that I am absolutely not suggesting anyone should do the same – no, it’s better to let stupid people on the internet do it and laugh at them when it goes wrong. And it did go wrong, in a sort of way. A very unexpected but good sort of way.
I switched it all back on again, and restarted the same recording I’d previously played. I already had the words formed in my head for mocking the stupid man on YouTube… but it only took a few seconds, and my mouth was hanging open.
Yes, that little short bit of thin fuse wire carrying the mains into my amplifier was degrading the sound*. There is no mistaking the difference, particularly in imaging. It’s not subtle. I’ve spent the couple of hours since then running through a range of my favourite high quality recordings (which reminds me, my glue has probably dried – but I’ve got better things to think about now) and the improvement is unmistakeable.
Hi. You could argue that it’s impossible to know if you’ve actually heard a difference, in the absence of being able to A/B the sound.
Are you able to clone your 8000a and do double blind testing?
Well, folks, I’ve put a plain fuse back again, and… it’s immediately clear that the sound quality has degraded to what it previously was.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/audiophile-fuses.2348393/
As audiophile tweaks go, it’s not the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
A fuse works by melting if too much current passes through it. This means it must dissipate enough power to melt the wire, which means it must have significant resistance. That in turn means the voltage seen by the input to the amp’s PSU will vary, to a slightly greater extent than it would without the fuse, as the current drawn by the amp varies.
The effect on the sound may well be minimal, but there does at least exist some physical means by which a difference in sound could happen. As audiophile tweakery goes, that’s pretty unusual.
An “audiophile” fuse just needs to have a lower resistance under normal conditions. That could mean a wire with a lower melting point that doesn’t need to get as hot in order to break, or perhaps some aspect of its construction that retains heat better so less heating, and therefore less resistance, is required for it to reach melting point. There are, at least, some options that aren’t nonsense.
If you know that changing fuses can indeed make a difference to the sound of your system, you don’t have to pay silly money. If the fuse you’re changing is a clear glass type, try changing it for an equivalent sand filled ceramic fuse instead. Their main benefit is higher breaking capability, but you may find a type that’s simply different sounds better to your ears.
AndyC_772 said:
If you know that changing fuses can indeed make a difference to the sound of your system, you don’t have to pay silly money. If the fuse you’re changing is a clear glass type, try changing it for an equivalent sand filled ceramic fuse instead. Their main benefit is higher breaking capability, but you may find a type that’s simply different sounds better to your ears.
That’s an interesting thought, thanks… I only have glass fuses of the appropriate rating, so I’ll get some ceramic ones and compare to see if there’s any difference.
Ugg10 said:
This may be going off at a tangent but what if you put an RCD in place of the fuse. Are the fuses you are talking about basically a second protection just after the mains socket connection or are they after the power supply I.e. DC fuses (if such a thing exists). If the former, why not just use an RCD of say 3A at the wall and put you put you thick fuse back in place?
Just a thought.
The fuse is in the amp’s IEC socket (the power cord connector), on the AC side before the transformer, and it’s rated 2A. So it’s second in line to the fuse in the 13A wall plug. The Audiolab 8000A has no fuses on the DC side (and yes, they do exist). So yes, the RCD idea does sound interesting, thanks – and certainly plausible.
As an aside, experience has made me a bit sceptical over the value of internal fuses in amps anyway – based on the last two I’ve repaired, in which internal components had burned out just in time to protect the fuses
oscroft said:
internal components had burned out just in time to protect the fuses
They do that!
The difference, though, is that a fuse is guaranteed to fail open, whereas semiconductors can, and often do, fail short.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is the science behind audiophile fuses?
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?sort_order=desc
There were many threads on the topic of “audiophile fuses” on this forum, and I sure don’t want to open old wounds and trench warfare. The fuse on my preamp blew suddenly two days ago, which prompted me to search for a replacement. That’s when I came across the term “audiophile fuse” and the fact that they demand far-out prices. Deeper curiosity brought me to several other fora, where users posted glowing praises about their Zero fuses and other exotica. Now I am a scientist, but not a physicist or electrical engineer: so please enlighten me! How can a fuse have an audible influence on the signal, when the signal does not even pass through it? How can a fuse be “directional” when it deals with alternate current? I mean, if I recall my university physics, a fuse is basically a safety valve and nothing more. Am I completely missing an important point here? My scientific field is drug discovery, and because of this background I am thoroughly familiar with the power and reality of the placebo effect. I that’s what I am seeing here, or is it real physics? I need objective facts and not opinions, please. I really appreciate your help!
@reimarc
Fuses like any other connector work on transfer with least loss. Everyone already knew that one, right? Then I see people jumping off a dead battery expecting a few hundred (peak) amps to transfer through the .03 square inches of contact surface by way of the teeth on the clamps.
Materials and their design for wiring will make a difference and is perceived by some and not by others. (A big discussion here, often).
F1 drivers feel a difference in a single psi in one tire, but I don’t feel it in my Tundra.
Does that mean it Can’t make a difference because I couldn’t tell?
Lots of Baloney in this hobby creates many questioning of some of these products, but closing your mind, (not you, your question shows your open minded), but many say product or design X CANNOT make a difference.
The original “it can’t make a difference” people are still cooking over a campfire just outside their cave.
deep_333
1,031 posts
09-18-2023 at 01:43am
@reimarc , it depends on the design of your component. If you note that a fuse is in the signal path of a low feedback design, etc, it could potentially cause a very minor audible change…
If the fuse is not in the signal path or if you may have even the slightest hint of hearing loss, etc, don’t waste your time on stuff like this..
Only the most truly dedicated among us with a few extra bucks to literally burn would pay a fortune for a device whose job is in fact to burn up and destroy itself when needed. At least no drains involved for the money to go unexpectedly down with that one.
The HiFi Tuning fuses, 6.3A T Slow blow type arrived this morning. I installed them in my mono amps this evening and turned the amps on. One amp stayed on but the other amp turned on only for a moment and shut off. Pulled the fuse and confirmed with my Ohm meter that it had blown.
Experiment is over. I’ve had my fill of hifi fuses. I hope I can get a refund from the vendor for these two. I already took it on the chin for the last two fuses.
The Hifi Tuning fuse in my DAC is still working fine and it sounds good. I’m not touching it.
This is audio. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Not knowing isn’t an option. And if anyone wants to claim confirmation bias, I’m almost certain the one amp would not have made any sound had I left the hifi fuses in place.
ceramic fuse
Heat resistant, strong outer fuse body, usually constructed from ceramic or fibreglass. The cavity inside the fuse body is commonly filled with fine silica sand or quartz to absorb the heat and energy of an over-current.
Shrink tubing around ? the sand ?
maybe around the body and ends if it’s the pig tail type but otherwise nah .
tonywinga
844 posts
08-29-2023 at 11:23pm
I’m starting to think that the function of these fuses isn’t about conductance. It’s about mechanical dampening. I know someone else brought that up before. It has a silver filament and that’s it for electrical properties apparently. The ceramic tube and then the rubber tube inside that isolate and dampen the filament.
From that standpoint you are getting what you pay for. These are likely hand made and painstakingly assembled. Now, the real question is do they work? In the end you are paying for a product to provide a function. In the case of my DAC the hifi fuse helps. In the case of my amps, that is still to be determined. What I do know now is that the current factory fuse in my amp is not an electrical bottleneck or a restriction for power or sound. The copper slugs proved that- from a hearing standpoint. So will a damped and isolated fuse sound different in my amps? To be determined…
tonywinga
844 posts
08-29-2023 at 08:38pm
Not to be intimidated by costly errors, I pressed on with my inquiry into fuses. I made two copper (99.9% pure) slugs, 5x20mm for my mono bloc amps. The engineer in me, being all too well acquainted with Murphy’s Law, was a bit reticent but I pushed on. With the two copper slugs installed in place of the slow blo fuses I listened to several songs. I detected no difference in sound. I put the fuses back and listened again and everything still sounds the same to me. I have two new slo blow HiFi tuning fuses arriving tomorrow but now I’m not sure it will be worth the trouble to swap out the factory fuses.
Now the fuse swap in my DAC made a noticeable difference in the sound- for the better. But in the case with my amps, I’m not expecting to hear a difference since the copper slugs had no impact on the sound. We will see.
So I ground the cap off of one end of my blown hifi fuse and peaked inside. I see a ceramic tube with the two metal end caps. Inside the ceramic tube is a piece of white shrink tubing that fits snugly within the ceramic tube. Inside that shrink tubing are the remains of a filament. It looks like silver wire and has a small shiny ball on the end. I’m sure that’s due to the current draw melting the wire when I powered up my amp. I don’t see any foo foo dust- unless it vanished when I ground the end off.
Anyone willing to sacrifice one of their $400 fuses to peak inside?
riccitone
222 posts
08-29-2023 at 04:38am
Something to do with electron flow around (not through) affected by different types of conductors and materials, yada, etc. I tried them, did notice quite a difference. Wish I hadn’t, because I did not believe they would until I swapped even just one.
Too clear and palpable to be my brain lying to me simply for having purchased something more expensive than one dollar. Sorry, just another opinion!
invalid
1,120 posts
08-29-2023 at 03:03am
@mapman you don’t think many audiophiles don’t take out the fuses and reseat them on occasion? I’m sure some have even put their old fuses back in to compare.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?sort_order=desc
tonywinga
844 posts
08-29-2023 at 12:25am
I don’t disagree. In this case however, I took the fuses out last week to verify the ratings and then reseated them. I detected no change in the sound.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?sort_order=desc
mapman
21,976 posts
08-29-2023 at 12:17am
Reseating an existing fuse that is still in good condition alone can help the sound. Best to make sure what you have has no issues before throwing money at the problem and drawing conclusions.
A corollary of that is that almost any replacement fuse when needed can make a difference.
tonywinga
844 posts
08-28-2023 at 11:37pm
I’m no closer to understanding how audio grade fuses work but I got my new Hifi Tuning fuses earlier today for my amps and DAC. I installed the fuse in my DAC. The change in sound was immediate and apparent. Deeper 3D imaging. A little more clarity and crispness. Images have an even more defined body to them. And this is listening in the middle of the day, in the heat with the A/C running. Can’t wait until tonight to see how it sounds. This audio hobby is just like a drug addiction- always looking for the next big fix.
Now the other part of this story is a sad and tragic tale. A tale of woe. A costly and tragic tale of woe. I ordered two fast blo Hifi Tuning fuses for my mono bloc amps. I originally intended to test the fuses in the amps first and then in a day or two try the other fuse in the DAC. But alas, ignorance can be costly. My amps require slo blo fuses. When I pulled them out to check the ratings I saw a single filament in the fuse tube and assumed fast blo. All I had to do was 1) Look on the back of the amp where it said slo blo or 2) Know and understand that the letter “T” on the end of the fuse stands for slo blo. And so my amps powered up with the new fuses for just the briefest of moments and then poof. The fuses are toast. An expensive lesson but now I know; and a word of wisdom for others who read these woeful words. (Good thing I didn’t start out with those $400 brands). These Hifi Tuning fuses are much less than $100 right now on sale. It still hurts.
After hearing the change the new fuse made to the DAC, I mustered up some intestinal fortitude and reordered the proper fuses, this time for my Amps.
Yes, high end hifi gets into the subtleties and nuances of music reproduction. Most don’t hear it and don’t care. Some people look at a painting and are moved in a profound way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?sort_order=desc
orthomead
115 posts
08-28-2023 at 03:11am
Certain things (at least at this point) cannot be measured in order to provide data that can be interpreted by independent observers demonstrating ironclad proof of an effect or lack thereof. It doesn’t mean there is no effect. A foolproof test simply does not currently exist. At this point, I think that is the state of fuses. Having said that, there is no doubt in my mind that different fuses have a palpable effect on my system. Starting with Oregonpapa, my journey began. It is super apparent with the swiss digital fuse box. There are copper, brass, and gold infused sluggos, each with a distinct sonic footprint. These are easily exchanged and the difference is very obvious.
vair68robert
608 posts
08-27-2023 at 07:46pm
Whatever your brain convinces the ears ! ?
I’ve experienced listening to a fuse shootout on a guitar amp using a glass fuse , a Littlefuse ( or Bussmann ) , a cryro’d ceramic and a gold plated ceramic . Yes I heard differences ( small but discernable ) the end result the My brain convinced My ears that the Littlefuse sounded best , does that make the other fuses inferior ? No I liked the sound of the plain ceramic fuse .
Now , my amp has 7 fuses 1 main and 6 on the board so I went to our local electronics supply and was able to purchase the 3 different values of generic ceramic fuses replacing the glass ones . A few months later no sound out of one channel so lifting the 56 lb. amp on to the bench and testing the fuses I found one of the four 6 am fuses blown . This pissed me off ( my own fault for using generic fuses , so I ordered Bussmann fuses and Wow just changing from the generic fuses made a sonic difference/ improvement . $2.00 each verse 50 cents , OK so how o\would a HiFi Tuning , a Synergistic Research or some other Audiophile fuse sound ? I considered the HiFi Tuning because they were the least expensive but when a Furutech showed up at 1/2 price $35.00 I had to try it on the mains input only . Does it sound better ? Well My brain convinced my ears that is does BUT when doing a back and forth with the Bussmann and the Furtech my wallet said yes the Furutech sounded a little bit better but not nearly enough to even consider replacing the other 6 fuses on the amp . I have replaced all glass fuses in my system with Bussmann or Littlefuse ceramic ones . But if I win the Lottery then maybe ?
tonywinga
844 posts
08-27-2023 at 07:19pm
“Nothing has been established-just as expected.”
Sure, from your dogmatic, inexperienced in things hifi point of view nothing is established. The prose, these words written here have given you no great revelation. You came in with the “Audiophool” attitude so why would you expect anything different?
Just as I wrote earlier, these types of discussions were much less common when audio stores were more prevalent. People could hear for themselves the sound of different brands and levels of components. Now days, we have so many, “armchair audiophiles” with little to no experience in things hifi, who have not heard some great hifi systems in person and therefore believe or want to believe that anything more than they are willing to spend on Amazon for gear is a waste of money.
Don’t even get me started on people who review systems they hear on YouTube. Just like TV commercials in the 1970s showing us how their TV has a better picture than the TV we are watching the commercial on.
britamerican
52 posts
08-27-2023 at 05:37pm
If we apply that same rule, why do 90% of the owners of amplifiers such as Boulder, Pass, Soulution, etc. buy a power cable, when the device already comes with one as standard.
Probably because they can.
Perhaps those that buy those amps are more susceptible to suggestions surrounding why they made that purchase in the first place?
Everyone jumping on the bandwagon is rarely a good argument.
Either way, does not answer the ops question.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?page=2&sort_order=desc
tonywinga
844 posts
08-26-2023 at 05:17pm
The topic, “Do more expensive amps/gear sound better than cheaper gear?” didn’t exist a few decades back because we had a proliferation of Brick and Mortar Audio Stores. One could walk in and hear a dozen combinations of amps, preamps, speakers, turntables and CD players and then decide for themselves what sounded best to their ears. And if the sales person sensed you were close to buying they might escort you into their high end hifi room hoping they were not tugging on the line too hard to rip the hook out of your mouth.
These days the brick and mortar stores are more difficult to find and people prefer to shop online. My son, for example avoids shopping at the grocery store. He orders nearly everything online. So it is easier to believe that all electronics sound basically the same and with little to no listening experience of a good hifi rig, they just order that SMSL amp from Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
nadimjaber
23 posts
08-26-2023 at 04:40pm
A whole other thing is personal experimentation with what a fuse in your audio system can do and whether you can hear the difference in sound and whether that difference in sound justifies the purchase. Each and every one of these issues are subjective and personal. It is very hard and slow to change a fuse in a device, and that the auditory memory does not betray you in that interval. For this reason, very few of those who have bought a HIFI fuse are willing to do those A vs. B tests, and in general terms we just assume the purchase and forget about it. All this under the idea that this new fuse is not going to cause the equipment to sound worse.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?page=2&sort_order=desc
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-is-the-science-behind-audiophile-fuses?page=2&sort_order=desc
nadimjaber
23 posts
08-26-2023 at 04:32pm
HI, I see the issue of fuses like so many other things in the world of audio and that revolves around why it is worth buying a power cable, or any audio component from certain famous and expensive brands. A class D power amp can be had for less than $1000 and can play music from 20hz to 20khz. However, there are people who buy $100,000 power amps that also play 20hz to 20khz music. Those who can afford it will say that this purchase is because subjectively the music sounds better with that amplifier than with another one at a much lower cost. Spending $600 on a penny-priced fuse is one of those situations. I am not satisfied with the statements that a HIFI fuse has no effect on the sound of a device, based on the fact that the manufacturer would put it as standard if that improvement in sound was true. If we apply that same rule, why do 90% of the owners of amplifiers such as Boulder, Pass, Soulution, etc. buy a power cable, when the device already comes with one as standard. I don’t know many people who keep their black power cords in their high-end appliances.
tonywinga
844 posts
08-26-2023 at 04:25pm
Is everyone familiar with Murphy’s Law? It states that if something can go wrong it will.
Corollary 1: When left to themselves, things go from bad to worse.
My favorite: in order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty, but everything can become dirty without anything becoming clean.
tonywinga
844 posts
08-26-2023 at 02:46pm
No way! I’m ordering the copper slug. Wait. What if the copper slug does more for the sound than upgraded fuses? Then I’ll be torn between protecting my amps vs better sound. Or worse, I have to spend more money and get the SDFB’s. The saying is so true: “Ignorance is bliss.”
A corollary to Murphy’s Law: A $10 transistor will blow to protect a $0.10 fuse.
carlsbad2
1,476 posts
08-26-2023 at 02:05pm
@thyname thanks for the shout out as the original “we don’t need no stinking fuses” guy.
I have tested the Swiss Digital Fuse Box and recommend it over any fuse.
My impression was that it wasn’t as good as the “large gauge piece of metal” (high conductivity copper) but not a lot of difference. If you feel you need/want electrical protection, I recommend the SDFB.
I think some people are confused about the configuration of the SDFB. It provides better protection than a fuse. Generally a magnetic current monitoring circuit will trip much faster than a slow blo fuse.
Of course we’ve all had experience where a compoent failed and the fuse didn’t protect it. that’s just the nature of electronics the fuse protects against upstream disturbances more than downstream failures.
Jerry
helomech
1,546 posts
08-25-2023 at 11:01pm
The science is psychoacoustics.
Look up the video of TAS’s tour of Synergistic Research. Note at no point in the video do they even allude to SR having an R&D lab in the building.
jeffrey125
282 posts
08-25-2023 at 07:38pm
Thought the subject was audiophile fuse. Some of you are worse than my cat that has adhd. I am not a believer in the “science” of audiophile fuses, I have experimented with them and returned them all, ceramic fuses work fine for me. I do believe in a higher power also and for all we know it may have come here in a UFO.
It looks like some of the measurementalists in this group are especially intolerant of religions that are not their own. That is a very bad look.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half of Vinyl Buyers in the US Don’t Have a Record Player, New Study Shows
Per Luminate’s “Top Entertainment Trends for 2023” report
https://consequence.net/2023/04/half-vinyl-buyers-record-player-study/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2I_M1m4viA9_7HyxNhZ4nH7lg4mzSRBWlP_hJFfYdkD2oXCj2Kca7NPXM_aem_PcMAYwS84WjN3PULOdf6RQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Better” components don’t automatically provide “better” sound, if the way in which they are better make no difference at that point in the circuit. For example I don’t see any reason why higher speed diodes in a power supply operating at 50 or 60Hz would result in any improvement, especially given that the bridge is followed by a very low frequency low pass filter. If you feel the diodes are noisy, it would make a bigger difference adding more and better filtering than it would changing the diodes. Same goes for power cord improvements.. if an esoteric power cord ever made any difference (which I doubt), it only indicates a shortcoming in the power supply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bob Bybee TBH there used to be a time where optical in some cases sounded audibly worse than coax. For instance between the transport and the DAC of the Sony 555 components. Some audiophiles still use those! But that was caused by enormous amounts of jitter.
The fact that some people believe a particular USB cable can have “tighter bass” than another — assuming both are decent — on modern equipment with buffering and reclocking, well, I agree, is pure delusion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bob Bybee //If they can hear the difference in digital cables, they can probably…//
Here’s the result of a Digital cable (HDMI) that failed a Signal Integrity test, even though all the conductors showed good continuity. Do you think could tell the difference in sound? ABSOLUTELY (presuming it was a sound channel, video you would have *seen* a difference)
This was just one cable of many of the same (good) make, some failed, some did not. You CAN hear/see the difference more importantly *measure* the difference, how one perceives that difference is another matter. But not all ‘digital’ cables are equal, even from the same brand, it’s all about Signal Integrity.
David Povey You’re referring to *defective* digital cables. I’m referring to differences between a properly functioning digital cable and one that has been boiled in snake oil, burned in, and insulated with pure oxygen-free hummingbird feathers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The difference is in the individual components rendering of each format….even the same dac will sound different running the same files via optical or coaxial….it’s not the format it’s the implementation of hardware and software.
Back when I was a starving student circa 2001/2002, at the very dawn of FLAC, I had an AMD K6 2 desktop complete with soundblaster 16 card. On this system, playing a FLAC would cause more buzzing than playing a WAV, presumably because decompression demanded more juice from the dodgy power supply. On any system since, there’s been no difference – like, obviously.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.egmaudio.com.au/collections/audio-connectors-accessories
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/546017/what-types-of-cables-do-ferrite-beads-chokes-have-a-beneficial-effect-on
Tomi Engdahl says:
“The fact the cables are directional is a subject of much debate but our experience is that these differences range from slight to quite marked.”
Claim from
https://chord.co.uk/speaker-cable-guide/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hi-fi tweaks: The simple £50 change that will make your hi-fi system sound a million dollars
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/tech/hi-fi-tweaks-the-simple-ps50-change-that-will-make-your-hi-fi-system-sound-a-million-dollars-4702984?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1yeTsjAjkHylUt2FRlkyTGxigWadv8rfWEw60peBs02kA9BXt0Lj0pT7M_aem_MA32kM77nvT3YTk48hLRbw
A room with hardwood flooring will benefit greatly from having rugs placed between the speakers and the listening position. Picture: Scott Reid
“In my mind it’s a fundamental part of the system building process.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ZMrYoK9Jmrtiboqz/
But you lose so much of the soundstage and presence. Those midranges never come forward in a digital recording. So that’s why I have to listen on a minimum $10000 system.
midrange can feel to come in forward in analog recording if the media happens to attenuate low and high frequencies somewhat… like consumer formats like vinyl and c cassette often do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Eichmann Bullet versus WBT Nextgen phono plugs
https://www.tnt-audio.com/accessories/bullet_vs_nextgen_e.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1kpCGqrgoT3xqv47HQAdYRVuPZrNHqenyAe9KajsFaaacXo4X9wqZj1Cg_aem_Z-D9FJBh2XpDl9fgfBRJqQ
Introduction
For many of us the idea that cables are an important component of the reproduction chain is still questionable. I do have to say that I too have my doubts sometimes, especially about cost effectiveness. I have heard differences between cables, mostly between speaker cables actually. But even the fact that, under certain circumstances, you can hear a difference, an improvement perhaps, doesn’t necessarily mean that meaningful and financially effective progress is being made. So, the idea of actually considering different connectors to be used with cables must be very doubtful, if not completely futile.
The first company to challenge the established ways of connecting up phono leads was Eichmann. Their famous Bullet plug revolutionised the cable world. It uses a ‘single point of contact’ principle for the earth connection. This is said to prevent eddy-currents, thereby keeping the signal clean and free of time smear. I’ve used them for a while now, and have to admit that they make a difference. A clear difference, in fact. But, sadly, for many purposes this was no more than a proof of concept, as the Eichmann Bullet plugs have a bit of a problem. Their construction isn’t very robust. Plugging and unplugging them is something that has to be done with great care, especially as they are quite tight. On top of that, soldering the cable to Bullet plugs can be difficult. The lugs provided for that are very tiny, especially the one that connects to earth. And earth is precisely the side where the shielding of most cables has to be connected. You end up with a large piece of copper (o silver) that has to be soldered to a bit of metal about a tenth the size of it. It is possible, but it certainly isn’t very practical. I have once damaged one during soldering, although it was still usable after that.
As a result of this the Eichmann Bullet plug hasn’t been very popular with cable manufacturers.
Enter WBT with their new Nextgen plug. Clearly inspired by the Bullet plug, using the same ‘single point of contact’ principle. But there are a few differences between them too. To begin with the Nextgen has the WBT fixing collar, where you put the plug on the socket and then turn the housing to make it grip the socket tightly. Removing it is done by first unscrewing the collar after which the plug comes away very easily. Although this can be a pain if you don’t have much space, it does prevent too much force being applied to the delicate connectors, while ensuring a very good connection at the same time. In addition, the whole construction is much more robust.
A big advantage, certainly for a DIY guy like me. The only real disadvantage is the price, which is 3-4 times higher than the Bullet plugs, sadly.
Sound
I started by replacing my existing Bullet plug cables with the cables build with the copper Nextgen plugs. And I did hear a difference. Music was more lively and detailed, but also a little bit more metallic. Dynamics were a bit better and I had the tendency to play louder than before.