The Ultimate "Fuse" Con

[Mr Smiley]

Hi,

Here's one to get Dave going 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150695403285&ss

[SeanB]

Nice price, fancy box, gold plated, black label, ooooooh AudioPhoolery time.......

[tom66]

Teardown time!

Why the diode and cap on the fuse I don't know. I mean, who'd believe fuses are directional? Only an idiot, right? Right...?

Oh.

[digsys]

WOW cool, I just bought 10. Will they work on my torch?

[BravoV]

WOW cool, I just bought 10. Will they work on my torch?

Yup, you will definitely "feel" the difference, the light came out from your torch will have "purer" light and more pleasing to human eyes. 

[tom66]

Also, the torch will sound more 3D.

[Short Circuit]

If they were to make 3/8" versions of these, it would really be the end of uCurrent.
Finally we could upgrade our DMM's ro measure sparkling microamps in the 10A range with virtually zero burden voltage 

Not sure about the fance box it comes in. I'm affraid you'd need to keep it closeby for the magic to happen,
preferably in sight. Ok for hifi, but that would not be very praktical for DMM use. Pity.

[tom66]

But not as bad as this:-

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina41.htm

[GeoffS]

But not as bad as this:-

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina41.htm

You'd think at that price, they would at least include free shipping...

[tom66]

I'd like it delivered in person by the chief product engineer himself, wrapped in the finest gold silk money can buy...

The explanation is hilarious, but then you realise, some people actually BUY these things. http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina42.htm

[grumpydoc]

But not as bad as this:-

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina41.htm

Please tell me that's a piss-take.

[Kibi]

You can buy extended warranty for this fuse too, just $8.49

[ejeffrey]

You're not telling me you chumps all use _stock_ fuses are you?

I be you don't even polarize the tachyon beam.

[EEVblog]

Fark, they actually sold one!

Dave.

[AntiProtonBoy]

The breast pump could have used one of these little puppies.

[Isaac-1]

This reminds me of my Fluke 1507 insulation meter, where Fluke gets about $15 each for the odd size fuse, and Amprobe sells the exact same brand and part number fuse (SIBA, FF315 DMI 1000V ) at 5 for $12.

[EEVblog]

And the same seller has these puppies!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shakti-On-lines-Electromagnetic-Stabilizer-NEW-/160858399845?pt=US_Surge_Protectors_Power_Strips&hash=item2573e86465#ht_2596wt_1139

Dave.

[ftransform]

Do you think they actually used those special materials and some kind of cryo bullshit to make that fuse?

[EEVblog]

Do you think they actually used those special materials and some kind of cryo bullshit to make that fuse?

In general, I think that most of these companies manufacture it how they claim.
Most of them do actually believe this stuff, and that what they are peddling actually makes a difference as they claim.
They are of course delusional.

Dave.

[ftransform]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenic_treatment

wiki seems like its a somewhat real process.
Do any real electronics use cryogenic treatment? I am not saying audio stuff but some kind of high end nasa/icbm/100 grand scientific equipment stuff...


.
Advantages

Comparison of cryorolling and rolling at room temperature:

    In Cryorolling, the strain hardening is retained up to the extent to which rolling is carried out. This implies that there will be no dislocation annihilation and dynamic recovery. Whereas in rolling at room temperature, dynamic recovery is inevitable and softening takes place.
    The flow stress of the material differs for the sample which is subjected to cryorolling. A cryorolled sample has a higher flow stress compared to a sample subjected to rolling at room temperature.
    Cross slip and climb of dislocations are effectively suppressed during cryorolling leading to high dislocation density which is not the case for room temperature rolling.
    The corrosion resistance of the cryorolled sample comparatively decreases due to the high residual stress involved.
    The number of electron scattering centres increases for the cryorolled sample and hence the electrical conductivity decreases significantly.
    The cryorolled sample shows a high dissolution rate.
    Ultra-fine-grained structures can be produced from cryorolled samples after subsequent annealing.


I did not pay enough attention in semiconductor physics to know if "electron scattering center" is a real phenomena

*and I don't mean actively submerging stuff in LN during its operation but doing some kind of cryogenic "treatment" on the wire.

[Neilm]

It reminded me of some gold plated optical fiber I saw here
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/31187970/840157275/Cables-4-ALL-Premium-Gold-2m-Digital-Optical-Audio-Cable/ListingDetails.html?_$ja=tsid%3a11518|cat%3a31187970|prd%3a31187970
 
Neil

[Wartex]

The breast pump could have used one of these little puppies.

Dave hacked it into a penis pump.

[T4P]

It reminded me of some gold plated optical fiber I saw here
http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/31187970/840157275/Cables-4-ALL-Premium-Gold-2m-Digital-Optical-Audio-Cable/ListingDetails.html?_$ja=tsid%3a11518|cat%3a31187970|prd%3a31187970
 
Neil

Tell me this isn't real ... well at least it doesn't cost 500 bucks neither is it cryogenically treated

[grumpydoc]

In general, I think that most of these companies manufacture it how they claim.

This seems self-evident, it's easy to check that a claim such as "the fuse is made from 95% silver/5% gold wire" is true and there is trading standards legislation in most of the world which can be brought to bear if it turns out the wire is made from highly polished brass.

Most of them do actually believe this stuff, and that what they are peddling actually makes a difference as they claim.

I find this a harder pill to swallow. At least not if the people behind the product are conventionally sane. None of these things produce an objective (i.e measurable with test equipment) or even reliably subjective (i.e reproducible in double blind trials) difference - if there's a decent engineer anywhere near the design and manufacture of these items the lack of tangible benefit must be obvious. At the very least there's a deliberate avoidance of reliable comparison techniques in favour of flowery language in descriptions.

Admittedly audio is a minefield of perceptions, psychology and personal taste. Even when you can measure things it's often the case that a signal degradation actually "improves" the perceived sound. The right type of distortion sounds "nicer" and more "musical", the right amount of echo and reverb  sounds "fuller" etc etc - there's no wonder there's room for dubious claims.

They are of course delusional.

More, or less, than the people who buy it?

I must admit though that I can sort-of see a logic to the gold plated fuse. At least it is one end of a continuum that starts with something  plausible and generally acceptable (gold plating for low voltage signal contacts), goes a little OTT - "if gold plating the input connectors improves that 0.1mV phono signal then it must improve that 50V speaker signal", then AWOL - "if gold plating the audio connectors helps then we must do it everywhere", then finally landing at the slightly bizarre "if we have a gold plated mains plug, it must need a gold plated fuse".

[IanB]

Well my car usually runs better after it has been washed and valeted, so I'm sure a hi-fi system can sound better after it has been treated to special mains cables and fuses. Who can argue with psychology?