QSA : My take on their expensive products

[Maril555]

Let me guess, if their fuses are up to $10,000, then the outlets are $27,000?

 

[Roger]

Do you have a power conditioner or do you plug all of your components direct to your outlets? If so, which components do you have goign to which outlet?

 

[Roger]

I have Entreq olympis powercable from Wall and fore all my stereo

 

[Roger]

I have Tried Hdmi cable for my esoteric mono dac
timeportal best and audioquest and qsa purple red
timeportal is good but to much bas .
With qsa everything was in harmony more details and perfeca bas
soi recomendet qsa Hdmi if you use Hdmi in your hifi

 

[E.simpson]

Hey guys, I’ve read this thread regarding sr vs Qsa fuses and I am aware that the Qsa red is a little on the warm side just a tad. For a heads up my system and dac is pretty revealing and analytical with Russ andrews ultra fuses as they gave a very neutral but a bit bright sound signature but lacked warmth and connection and bass. I am aware that some users stated that sr purple can bring very nice mids and warmth and bass to your system if it’s ss (which mine is and the amp is known for being a tad warm but mainly on the cool side with great transients) and I’ve recently installed 2 sr purple fuses in the main conditioner extension and my dac, and left the Russ andrews fuse in the amplifier.

I noticed that the life and warmth came back after 6 hours burn in and it was pleasant to hear on my speakers as the mids were beautiful, tiny bit strong but a little dark on the top end and less open but after 15h it opened up just a little more and the bass came in and the mids calmed down a tad bit but I only compared the headphone result 6h-15h not in the speakers (still a big improvement and less fatiguing in headphones compared to Russ andrews fuses with a bit more resolution, 1.5x). Obviously I know these need at least 200 hours burn in
But I was curious to know if the Qsa violets would help open up transients and sound stage and analytical detail if I put it in the power condition plug which is at the start of the chain. Can it make a difference?

I’m thinking that two sr purples are doubling up the sound signature and the violets might just help open up the dac side a little (yes I know it needs more burn in but it’s a thought just in case) and is it also worth having an sr purple in the conditioner and the Qsa violet in the dac further up the chain or will it create a bottle neck?

my amplifier also has a 2.5amp fast blow ceramic fuse so if I wanted to alter the signature more is it ok to put a higher grade fuse in at the last point? say the Qsa violet? even though I have an sr purple in the amps plug and, or, a Qsa violet in the conditioner?

I was also thinking in the future to update to the audio quest niagara 1200. I don’t see myself going to Qsa red or anything higher than the niagara conditioner and certainly not anytime soon. I am just curious if anyone has fully burned in the sr purple and had a chance to compare it to the Qsa violet, plus the fuse chain orientation and how it could affect things.

 

[highstream]

While I can’t answer your Violet Vs. SR Purple question specifically — you’re right to ask and read and ask everywhere, and not just here — I would make two suggestions: 1) any of these fuses mentioned will open up the sound vs. an OEM fuse, but using fuses to balance the tone between hardware is awfully tricky — and likely expensive. Perhaps trying one of each, on an audition basis if possible, might be a fruitful approach; and 2) My experience is that in the vast majority of cases, after one has narrowed choices through research, evaluation at anything less than 300 hours of burn in, including with fuses, is apt to lead to major mistakes in judgment and, again, use of money. Like most things in life, finding lasting pleasure in audio takes patience through the initial ups and downs..

 

[E.simpson]

While I can’t answer your Violet Vs. SR Purple question specifically — you’re right to ask and read and ask everywhere, and not just here — I would make two suggestions: 1) any of these fuses mentioned will open up the sound vs. an OEM fuse, but using fuses to balance the tone between hardware is awfully tricky — and likely expensive. Perhaps trying one of each, on an audition basis if possible, might be a fruitful approach; and 2) My experience is that in the vast majority of cases, after one has narrowed choices through research, evaluation at anything less than 300 hours of burn in, including with fuses, is apt to lead to major mistakes in judgment and, again, use of money. Like most things in life, finding lasting pleasure in audio takes patience through the initial ups and downs..

You are correct. I fully burned in the sr purples and they are amazingly warm, little dark, low background noise but pretty bassy. I ended up using it in my dac to warm it up a bit, put the qsa violet in my wall plug that feeds an audio quest niagara 1200 to help open up the sr purples focus. This worked very well for me and I’m using occ NEOTECH and furutech ends which are gold plated.

it’s magical, but this is where it gets very interesting. I put my Tacima power conditioner into my WiFi router which is separate to the pc and put a fully burned in Russ andrews ultra fuse inside it, bearing in mind I compared all fuses from stock to sr purple in this lead, stock is perfect for the average wide range music level for novices but wow!!! The Russ andrews with its wide 3d and amazing transient details and neutrality in the warmth region really completed everything. It sounds like I have an orchestra in my ears. The stock fuse is great and tightens everything with a less lively sound, detail and separation. The Russ Andrews gives 10 times more what that fuse does and removes a hint of bass and mid bass but adds timbre and a real touch of air.

the niagara still isn’t fully burned in, and I’m still tweaking the sound on the speaker side but for now, the headphones are incredibly perfect! I ordered a qsa violet 3a fuse for the amplifier, but because I’ve tinkered with 13a I know the 13 gives the full amount of everything. However, these speakers are not big so the sound is too big for the l cabinets, I put the stock 3a fuse back in and it made it sound it’s size without being too boomy so now I will test it with the qsa 3amp but i have a feeling the 5 might be perfect.

bear in mind I have a Russ andrews superfuse 2.5a fast blow in the actual amp which opens everything up in a very nice warm but airy balance so I don’t think I will touch this, I went from stock glass and ceramic and both didn’t compare to the glass superfuse.

on top of all this, I cleaned the WiFi fuse which was a little shitty looking and made it shine and put furutech contact enhancer on everything to do with the WiFi, plugs, cat8, power in from the transformer to the WiFi, leads, and everything I have including the niagara which I opened up. The WiFi was the last thing after the ultra fuse I had to enhance and wow!! Another 8-10% in clean accurate timbre and sound!! Just from cleaning the fuse and extra contact enhancer strictly on the WiFi router!

so everyone, fuses in your extension feeding the wifi do affect the sound it will output. So clean your whole router with contact enhancer and play with the whole setup. I don’t think the sound in my headphones can get any better it’s like I’m not wearing any at all. The WiFi router fuse is stock as it helps with the bold house sound and I will leave it like that as I’m not rich enough to play with it further. It sounds amazing!!!

 

[E.simpson]

Guys quick update, I ended up putting the sr purple in the main plug at the start of the chain before the niagara 1200, got some yarbo 1100 cable from eBay which is incredibly natural and occ double shielded, and upgraded the qsa to a sr master in the pc plug for the dac. My god, regardless of the cable which did add silence and separation and added to the depth the master gave, u have to say, the right dynamics and flow, the rythimic sound for all genres and the full sound and less harshness and neutral it’s absolutely worth it.

The qsa after a full burn in with the sr purple in the conditioner plug it sounded like the soul was gone but detail was there and separation but over emphasised a few frequencies a little. The master fuse dampened all of that and gave it the sound that you usually hear in very good headphones like jbl, but obviously it’s just so good. The Russ andrews didn’t compare after a few trials to the sr and was too wide of a sound. I was aiming for detail, feel, soul, accuracy, tonal accuracy, and a very good slightly warm but details sound so that at parties all songs sound like how they should
But extremely enhanced and I have reached that target.

the amplifier still has the qsa violet as it balances and adds extra detail and timbre and separation and I have ordered a 2.5 fast blow qsa violet to add to the spear room and detail.
The bass from the master and thickness has also increased to normal values now as there was a lack of it before and vocals stood out more than a lot of other things now it’s less fatiguing.

now time to let it burn in fully with the cable, yea the sr master sounds very good out of the box. I also swapped the fuse from the WiFi power conditioner as it did make it too wide which was better for movies but it only had a Russ andrews in. I would probably put a qsa violet in it or eve maybe the sr master and it would sound better but I can’t afford it.

Anyway, The master adds emotional attachment deep within and allows you to really enjoy any song instead of being over analytical and dead with soul. I have all yarbo cables as they are very very good and added the furutech and NEOTECH occ ends to it so it was much cheaper than buying a high end cable but is up there with over £500 worth of it.

so yes, the search has finally ended. I have realised that source (dac) fuse changes overrides amp sounds regardless of fuses but the fuse does add like a 15-30% influence so the main thing is the dac aka source. Once you are in love with the source you can fine tune the amp side of it with fuses to just perfect it depending on the speakers you have. I only have a topping tp-60 I’ve modified and remade my Dali z1 crossover with mundorfs on a custom board. For everything being diy, the sound I’m getting is worth 5x or more of the stock equipment value easily maybe more. I see no reason to ever buy a new amp.

 

[Barry2013]

Guys quick update, I ended up putting the sr purple in the main plug at the start of the chain before the niagara 1200, got some yarbo 1100 cable from eBay which is incredibly natural and occ double shielded, and upgraded the qsa to a sr master in the pc plug for the dac. My god, regardless of the cable which did add silence and separation and added to the depth the master gave, u have to say, the right dynamics and flow, the rythimic sound for all genres and the full sound and less harshness and neutral it’s absolutely worth it.

The qsa after a full burn in with the sr purple in the conditioner plug it sounded like the soul was gone but detail was there and separation but over emphasised a few frequencies a little. The master fuse dampened all of that and gave it the sound that you usually hear in very good headphones like jbl, but obviously it’s just so good. The Russ andrews didn’t compare after a few trials to the sr and was too wide of a sound. I was aiming for detail, feel, soul, accuracy, tonal accuracy, and a very good slightly warm but details sound so that at parties all songs sound like how they should
But extremely enhanced and I have reached that target.

the amplifier still has the qsa violet as it balances and adds extra detail and timbre and separation and I have ordered a 2.5 fast blow qsa violet to add to the spear room and detail.
The bass from the master and thickness has also increased to normal values now as there was a lack of it before and vocals stood out more than a lot of other things now it’s less fatiguing.

now time to let it burn in fully with the cable, yea the sr master sounds very good out of the box. I also swapped the fuse from the WiFi power conditioner as it did make it too wide which was better for movies but it only had a Russ andrews in. I would probably put a qsa violet in it or eve maybe the sr master and it would sound better but I can’t afford it.

Anyway, The master adds emotional attachment deep within and allows you to really enjoy any song instead of being over analytical and dead with soul. I have all yarbo cables as they are very very good and added the furutech and NEOTECH occ ends to it so it was much cheaper than buying a high end cable but is up there with over £500 worth of it.

so yes, the search has finally ended. I have realised that source (dac) fuse changes overrides amp sounds regardless of fuses but the fuse does add like a 15-30% influence so the main thing is the dac aka source. Once you are in love with the source you can fine tune the amp side of it with fuses to just perfect it depending on the speakers you have. I only have a topping tp-60 I’ve modified and remade my Dali z1 crossover with mundorfs on a custom board. For everything being diy, the sound I’m getting is worth 5x or more of the stock equipment value easily maybe more. I see no reason to ever buy a new amp.

I have only installed the QSA violets and like you have found they materially improve the sound quality of my system.
A subsequent QSA Orange Jitter Plug on the mains outlet which feeds the power block via an Entreq Atlantis power cable has also been very beneficial to all my sources and amplification

 

[LL21]

My listening notes during burn-in of QSA IEC Jitter Gold.

- Hour 0 - 100: The clarity and completeness of sound enabled the volume to go down 5-7db and not feel any lack of detail, or power
- Hour 0 - 100: Starting to reveal details in choral understandability, etc or electronic music that had not heard before but clearly are in the mix...an excellent sign providing the sound remains organic and natural...it does

- Hour 148: Treble got warbly and inconsistent...in fact, the whole spectrum did. Bill Evans suddenly gets a lumpy spectrum from bottom to top
- Hour 190: Treble comes back to normal...but it appears the improved detailing and sense of resolve remain from Hours 0 - 100....the problem is...
- Hour 180: The mid bass has started to wane...
- Hour 190: When I emailed around Hour 148, the Dealer had said around 200 midbass will disappear and then come back a few days later
- Hour 240: So now with bated breathe we wait.
- Hour 240: My sense is that the treble/mids are more resolved, more secure than ever before...but the bass is so distractingly light by that maddening little touch (i am a bass freak) that it takes away from focusing on these other very important elements

more to come...if the original Hour 0 - 100 bass returns which allows for lower volume magic playing...but with the upper/mid resolve of hour 190, then this is a very special result.

- Hour 252: Bass returns. Thank goodness! And more articulate than before which is nice though there seems to slightly more power than it can control
- Hour 264: Control has taken over the bass. So now we have power and we have a tighter more resolved detailing to the bass. Impressive
- Hour 288: So now we go back through all the tracks again...with a complete, full spectrum of improved sound...and start listening for inconsistencies in piano keyboard, listening for the change in weight as you go up and down the keyboard, listening for even-handedness in crescendos where as opposed to all-out extreme ring...you find in better resolved systems there is no extreme 'zing' (which was artifact of distortion) but you feel a strong fulsome ring which also has a three-dimensional finish to the note.

I am still sensing minor, ever-so-slight inconsistency in keyboard two octaves above middle C or so...the weight is a hair light. But overall, compared to without, I genuinely find that on certain tracks, I look up from working because a voice I am used to hearing in the background of a piece is suddenly clear, polished and completely understandable even though he is in the back of the recording soundstage.

Hour 313: so the very uppermost mids have filled in. Done. But equally, the upper bass continues to refine and refine. A very slightly bass reverb has disappeared so that the signal is very definitive and defined. Its wonderful to hear upright bass with Bill Evans where you can sit back and just follow the bass tune alone full spectrum up and down. It does not have to be accompaniment but can standalone if you wish...or just enjoy the ensemble playing together.

From du Pre to house music to Bill Evans Trio to Yo Yo Ma and Glenn Gould...a lot of these actually sound different and in a much better way. And these are test tracks, so it is nice to see that this has managed to extract genuine detail not just nuance and shadings. Very cool. It is staying.

Hour 315: Here is a neat one. Listening to Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations 1981, for the first time ever (by a long way) when you listen, you actually can 'watch' the keys being played because you really hear each key in its place on the keyboard, literally inch by inch and key by key at a time. It is that resolved now. I did not expect that. And his humming suddenly has a place on a head connected in proportion to hands. Quite cool. Apparently more to come until about Hour 500.

 

[Willgolf]

I placed a silver crystal Jitter plug at the end of my Inakustic Power Conditioner to the wall SR outlet and received immediate results that energized my whole system. However, there will be another major change. In route now is a QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity Power cord which I will place at the end of my Inakustic power conditioner. The Silver Jitterplug will be tried in my JVC movie projector to see if I get ny results of improved Picture quality. If not, I will use the Silver Jitter plug for my DAC.

 

[treitz3]

Hour 315: Here is a neat one. Listening to Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations 1981, for the first time ever (by a long way) when you listen, you actually can 'watch' the keys being played because you really hear each key in its place on the keyboard, literally inch by inch and key by key at a time. It is that resolved now. I did not expect that. And his humming suddenly has a place on a head connected in proportion to hands. Quite cool. Apparently more to come until about Hour 500.

FWIW, I have experienced the same thing with the QSA Red and Black fuse. I didn't post about this due to many observations being over the top....but I am getting the same thing.

On a great recording? It's quite obvious.

Sarah Bareilles, "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", live at the Variety Playhouse comes to mind. You can completely tell the position of the piano, what you said, and where she is in relation to the piano.

It is a reproductive effort like this that "puts the musicians in your room" for a wonderful performance. Much more than one would expect.

Tom

 

[flkin]

..
Sarah Bareilles, "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", live at the Variety Playhouse comes to mind. You can completely tell the position of the piano, what you said, and where she is in relation to the piano.
..

This is such a great album, excellent recording and she is so good here.

The last track where she remakes Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is so good it’s like an entire new song. Elton acknowledged it as one of the best interpretations he’s heard

 

[flkin]

I placed a silver crystal Jitter plug at the end of my Inakustic Power Conditioner to the wall SR outlet and received immediate results that energized my whole system. However, there will be another major change. In route now is a QSA Lanedri Ultimatum Infinity Power cord which I will place at the end of my Inakustic power conditioner. The Silver Jitterplug will be tried in my JVC movie projector to see if I get ny results of improved Picture quality. If not, I will use the Silver Jitter plug for my DAC.

That QSAL UI PC is something to behold! Having used the GR and GI versions of their PC and a variety of other QSAL cables including their UI-SC, I can only imagine how positively the UI will affect the sound.

I have 2 black/red jitter plugs I’m using alongside the QSAL cables and I have to report that after using them for a few months in different positions (power amps, pre, power source to USB card, streamer), I’m not able to find a position that improves the sound. I’m getting a more compressed effect which initially comes across as more focused but ultimately less musical than before.

I guess using jitter plugs alongside QSAL cables, one might have to consider trying the higher versions like the silver or gold. The red/black is not working well.

Not saying the QSA red/black plugs don’t work, they may be just fine in a system not using QSAL cables. This I will be testing by lending the plugs to friends not currently using QSAL cables shortly.

 

[LL21]

FWIW, I have experienced the same thing with the QSA Red and Black fuse. I didn't post about this due to many observations being over the top....but I am getting the same thing.

On a great recording? It's quite obvious.

Sarah Bareilles, "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", live at the Variety Playhouse comes to mind. You can completely tell the position of the piano, what you said, and where she is in relation to the piano.

It is a reproductive effort like this that "puts the musicians in your room" for a wonderful performance. Much more than one would expect.

Tom

Thanks for taking the time to compare notes and good to hear! Enjoy.

 

[LL21]

That QSAL UI PC is something to behold! Having used the GR and GI versions of their PC and a variety of other QSAL cables including their UI-SC, I can only imagine how positively the UI will affect the sound.

I have 2 black/red jitter plugs I’m using alongside the QSAL cables and I have to report that after using them for a few months in different positions (power amps, pre, power source to USB card, streamer), I’m not able to find a position that improves the sound. I’m getting a more compressed effect which initially comes across as more focused but ultimately less musical than before.

I guess using jitter plugs alongside QSAL cables, one might have to consider trying the higher versions like the silver or gold. The red/black is not working well.

Not saying the QSA red/black plugs don’t work, they may be just fine in a system not using QSAL cables. This I will be testing by lending the plugs to friends not currently using QSAL cables shortly.

After now having the Org Gold LAN Jitter and the IEC Jitter Gold...I have to say...it is becoming more tempting to try taking our 2 Sablon Prince PCs which power the mono amps...and sending them to Lanedri to get them upgraded to QSA Lanedri Sablon Prince!

 

[divertiti]

Maybe, but we don't really care.
It's the sound that matters.
We are convinced after comparing the Ultra Back-Red to SR Blue, Furutech rhodium and QSA Red in 3 diff home systems.

BTW QSA has just successfully developed the higher Silver receptecle.
This time I have no interest because it will be beyond my budget for sure.

Can someone try to explain how "gem stones" glued to the plastic casing of an AC outlet impacts the sound?

 

[Maril555]

Can someone try to explain how "gem stones" glued to the plastic casing of an AC outlet impacts the sound?

After they impact your bank account you are forced to believe they sound better

 

[Roger]

Now i get qsa router and gold switsch and gold Hdmi cable
and Fuse silver
i have plaaying 2 hours and sound get better

 

[Roger]

Now i get qsa router and gold switsch and gold Hdmi cable
and Fuse silver
i have plaaying 2 hours and sound get better