QSA LANEDRI Series

Hi Steven,
Very glad yo see that there is a QSA Forum on WBF.
Congratulations!

QSA : My take on their expensive products

Threre has been another WBF thread on QSA fuses for some weeks already, but I still want to share with WBF brothers my personal audition/comparison experience. Disclaimer : I am NOT in anyway in the music/hifi industry in Hong Kong. I am only an audiophile and consumer. All WBF brothers who...

www.whatsbestforum.com

I think I wrote the first QSA review on WBF, back in 2012.

QSA : My take on their expensive products

Threre has been another WBF thread on QSA fuses for some weeks already, but I still want to share with WBF brothers my personal audition/comparison experience. Disclaimer : I am NOT in anyway in the music/hifi industry in Hong Kong. I am only an audiophile and consumer. All WBF brothers who...

www.whatsbestforum.com

May I ask you two questions?

Firstly, I notice on you website that QSA-Lanedri cables are being launched.

HOME | QSA LANEDRI

www.qsa-lanedri.com

May you tell us more about them?
What metals are employed and what special features do they have?

Secondly, several frds of mine in Hong Kong have bought QSA JitterPower.


Again, please tell the WBF members more about these series of accessories.

Many thanks!

Cheers,
CK

 

I only responded because yesterday this forum chose use my email address to sent me a QSA Lanedri marketing email. That’s never been done to me before from any forum. I was offended. I don’t join a forum to be hawked products, good or bad.

The mail you received was sent from promotions@whatsbestforum.com. This is sent monthly. In September, the manufacturer that was featured was Ars Machinae, who sells turntables. You likely received that one too as you joined here just before that went out. Why would rip into @QSA-LANEDRI when the mail was clearly sent from whatsbestforum.com? Most likely you had opted into receiving these newsletters when you joined WBF. It looks like you've only been a member for just over two months so this is new to you so that's why it came as a surprise to you. Those of us who have been members for a long time have been receiving these for many months. It's not a big deal. It's easy to unsubscribe. There's a risk of receiving promotional mails any time we sign up for something on the internet. There's almost always an easy opt-out mechanism.

 

The mail you received was sent from promotions@whatsbestforum.com. This is sent monthly. In September, the manufacturer that was featured was Ars Machinae, who sells turntables. You likely received that one too as you joined here just before that went out. Why would rip into @QSA-LANEDRI when the mail was clearly sent from whatsbestforum.com? Most likely you had opted into receiving these newsletters when you joined WBF. It looks like you've only been a member for just over two months so this is new to you so that's why it came as a surprise to you. Those of us who have been members for a long time have been receiving these for many months. It's not a big deal. It's easy to unsubscribe. There's a risk of receiving promotional mails any time we sign up for something on the internet. There's almost always an easy opt-out mechanism. Most adults are used to having to do exactly that as it just comes with the territory.

I did mention above that on a second look I saw the Unsubscribe option and apologied to WBF for not noticing.
This is the only forum through which I have ever received direct marketing.

The claims made for the QSA process and the reasons for secrecy seem quite exceptional, even with the voodoo that creeps around audio. So if he makes pretty extreme claims publicly on any forum, even one he pays for, it seems entirely legitimate that he faces questions that might be asked of any manufacturer.

My only other issue with QSA was with 13A fuses in particular (not other fuses) that have a specific safety use in UK electrical systems that is heavily legislated, entirely separate from component fuses that are not. I did not target QSA, I spoke to 4 or 5 manufacturers. One withdrew their product because they'd lost their certificate, one said they'd stopped selling it, QSA's distributor suggested making changes that haven't happened. Another is quite clear that they are rebranding a compliant product.

 

I did mention above that on a second look I saw the Unsubscribe option and apologied to WBF for not noticing.

Apologies for missing that.

This is the only forum through which I have ever received direct marketing.

WBF is a sponsored forum. The manufacturers have their own sub-forums. It costs these sponsors a big chunk of change so WBF has to make it worth the cost to them, so sponsors also get prominent ad placement and promotional newsletters occasionally sent out on their behalf. This is smart on WBF’s part as it covers the cost to keep the site running and also brings more of us here to interact directly with participating manufacturers.

 

For the QSA Lanedri brand, we are currently utilizing a direct online sales model. We firmly believe that the best way to truly experience our cables is in the comfort of your own setup, where you're most familiar and can conduct more efficient A/B comparisons. This is where our 30-day money-back guarantee comes into play, making it easier for our clients to explore the impact of QSA Lanedri.

If you have any topics related to orders, please feel free to send us a private message.

Do you terminate bulk cable? (You use Telegarter and they don't.)
My Blue Jeans ethernet cables came with the TIA/EIA test documents. That's all that matters with ethernet cables and why many people buy them. Do you provide test certification?

You only price 3m. My modem to server cable is 15m without a switch. I run both CAT6a and fibre.

 

Do you terminate bulk cable? (You use Telegarter and they don't.)
My Blue Jeans ethernet cables came with the TIA/EIA test documents. That's all that matters with ethernet cables and why many people buy them. Do you provide test certification?

As previously mentioned, we have a close collaboration with Blue Jeans Cable to supply the base cables used for our Gamma Series. They customize these cables according to our technical specifications to maximize the QSA impacts, and they deliver cables that have passed their rigorous quality tests. When it comes to Ethernet cables, we requested the Telegarter termination from Blue Jeans Cable, as it produces the most significant impacts for the Gamma Ethernet cable.

You only price 3m. My modem to server cable is 15m without a switch. I run both CAT6a and fibre.

We do offer longer cables for an additional fee. If you have any inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us via email.

 

This is Chapter 2 of my ongoing adventures with the QSA Lanedri DC extension cable. Note that QSA-L is no longer selling the extension cable, which generally requires another DC cable in the chain and often requires adapters. Rather, you can now buy a DC cable with custom terminations that work with whatever components you are connecting the DC cable to. I'll insert a spoiler here and tell you that I bought two of the last DC extension cables that QSA-L sold.

DC extension cable in front of the router:

Obviously, I like QSA treatment on a DC cable. Over the last ten days, I was able to bring an extension cable to a second home where I have a nice headphone system. That system is all-digital and begins with a router/modem supplied by my ISP and manufactured by Zhone. I have been powering that router with an Uptone JS-2, so that provides the first opportunity to insert a DC cable in the chain. I should note that I also borrow one of my QSA Gamma Revelation power cords to power the JS-2, so I've already been benefiting from that combo. My default DC cable is Uptone's Sapphire silver-plated star-quad cable, which they sell for $110.

Insertion of the QSA-L Gamma Infinity extension cable required a cheap 2.5 to 2.1 adapter followed by a Zenwave copper DC cable followed by the QSA extension cable directly into the Zhone router. Initially, I used another cheap adapter between the router and the QSA-L cable before I discovered that the 2.1 male termination on the QSA-L actually worked on the 2.5 female input of the router (you can't count on this happening; you just have to try and see if it works with a given component). You wouldn't need another DC cable, nor would you need any cheap adapters if you were to order a QSA-L DC cable with custom terminations.

In any event, the QSA-L DC cable in front of my router had a number of very positive effects. For example, Arthur Rubinstein's Chopin was more realistic and harmonically richer in overtones. I just wanted the sustain to last forever and I could hear subtle gradations in Rubinstein’s touch more clearly. Other good things happened with the QSA cable: vocals had more body, there was a tonal richness and music was a little more forward in an immersive and compelling way.

After I discovered that I did not need an adapter going into the router, I found that the adapter had been doing some harm. Without the adapter, there was an unsubtle uptick in clarity and music became even more engaging. I was not prepared for the magnitude of improvement by removing this one adapter.

DC Cable in front of OpticalModule and EtherRegen:

I next moved the QSA-L DC extension cable to a new location: between my Farad Super 3 power supply and a Sonore OpticalModule (OM) and Uptone EtherRegen (ER). The OM and ER are the last components before I feed an ethernet signal directly into my dCS Bartok headphone amp/DAC. FWIW, I am using one of my QSA-L Gamma Revelation power cords on my Bartok.

I am able to power both the OM and ER at the same time with one Farad power supply because both components accept a 7 volt input and because I use a Y cable supplied by Ghent Audio. The female end of the QSA-L cable attached to the stock DC cable supplied by Farad. I then used a cheap female-to-female adapter to connect the Y cable, which then connected directly to the OM and ER.

How did this compare to using the DC extension cable in front of the router? I was expecting the impact to be greater with the router because that is what happened in my primary system when I compared the impact of the DC cable on router vs EtherRegen using the same Farad power supply with the ER and the same JS-2 power supply with the router. Well, this is why we do tests and listen because the outcome was different in my headphone system.

In that system, the impact of the DC cable was greater with the OM and ER. Compared to using the DC cable with the router, there was a significant increase in clarity that rendered previously obscured vocals intelligible. There was greater separation between instruments and voices, bass clarity improved, and there was a feeling of greater control. The music was more engaging but the presentation was not quite as forward. If I had just one DC extension cable (and I did when I conducted these tests), I would insert it before the OM and ER in this system. In my big speaker system in Seattle, I would insert the DC cable before the router. The comparison is of course not apples to apples since we are talking two completely different systems here and the DC cable preceded both an OM and ER in my headphone system.

What I heard was impressive enough that I went ahead and ordered two Gamma Infinity DC extension cables. Chapter 3 of this series will look at what happens with two QSA-L DC cables in the chain in two different systems.

I'm happy to provide more info on the headphone system if anyone is interested.

 

This is Chapter 2 of my ongoing adventures with the QSA Lanedri DC extension cable. Note that QSA-L is no longer selling the extension cable, which generally requires another DC cable in the chain and often requires adapters. Rather, you can now buy a DC cable with custom terminations that work with whatever components you are connecting the DC cable to. I'll insert a spoiler here and tell you that I bought two of the last DC extension cables that QSA-L sold.

DC extension cable in front of the router:

Obviously, I like QSA treatment on a DC cable. Over the last ten days, I was able to bring an extension cable to a second home where I have a nice headphone system. That system is all-digital and begins with a router/modem supplied by my ISP and manufactured by Zhone. I have been powering that router with an Uptone JS-2, so that provides the first opportunity to insert a DC cable in the chain. I should note that I also borrow one of my QSA Gamma Revelation power cords to power the JS-2, so I've already been benefiting from that combo. My default DC cable is Uptone's Sapphire silver-plated star-quad cable, which they sell for $110.

Insertion of the QSA-L Gamma Infinity extension cable required a cheap 2.5 to 2.1 adapter followed by a Zenwave copper DC cable followed by the QSA extension cable directly into the Zhone router. Initially, I used another cheap adapter between the router and the QSA-L cable before I discovered that the 2.1 male termination on the QSA-L actually worked on the 2.5 female input of the router (you can't count on this happening; you just have to try and see if it works with a given component). You wouldn't need another DC cable, nor would you need any cheap adapters if you were to order a QSA-L DC cable with custom terminations.

In any event, the QSA-L DC cable in front of my router had a number of very positive effects. For example, Arthur Rubinstein's Chopin was more realistic and harmonically richer in overtones. I just wanted the sustain to last forever and I could hear subtle gradations in Rubinstein’s touch more clearly. Other good things happened with the QSA cable: vocals had more body, there was a tonal richness and music was a little more forward in an immersive and compelling way.

After I discovered that I did not need an adapter going into the router, I found that the adapter had been doing some harm. Without the adapter, there was an unsubtle uptick in clarity and music became even more engaging. I was not prepared for the magnitude of improvement by removing this one adapter.

DC Cable in front of OpticalModule and EtherRegen:

I next moved the QSA-L DC extension cable to a new location: between my Farad Super 3 power supply and a Sonore OpticalModule (OM) and Uptone EtherRegen (ER). The OM and ER are the last components before I feed an ethernet signal directly into my dCS Bartok headphone amp/DAC. FWIW, I am using one of my QSA-L Gamma Revelation power cords on my Bartok.

I am able to power both the OM and ER at the same time with one Farad power supply because both components accept a 7 volt input and because I use a Y cable supplied by Ghent Audio. The female end of the QSA-L cable attached to the stock DC cable supplied by Farad. I then used a cheap female-to-female adapter to connect the Y cable, which then connected directly to the OM and ER.

How did this compare to using the DC extension cable in front of the router? I was expecting the impact to be greater with the router because that is what happened in my primary system when I compared the impact of the DC cable on router vs EtherRegen using the same Farad power supply with the ER and the same JS-2 power supply with the router. Well, this is why we do tests and listen because the outcome was different in my headphone system.

In that system, the impact of the DC cable was greater with the OM and ER. Compared to using the DC cable with the router, there was a significant increase in clarity that rendered previously obscured vocals intelligible. There was greater separation between instruments and voices, bass clarity improved, and there was a feeling of greater control. The music was more engaging but the presentation was not quite as forward. If I had just one DC extension cable (and I did when I conducted these tests), I would insert it before the OM and ER in this system. In my big speaker system in Seattle, I would insert the DC cable before the router. The comparison is of course not apples to apples since we are talking two completely different systems here and the DC cable preceded both an OM and ER in my headphone system.

What I heard was impressive enough that I went ahead and ordered two Gamma Infinity DC extension cables. Chapter 3 of this series will look at what happens with two QSA-L DC cables in the chain in two different systems.

I'm happy to provide more info on the headphone system if anyone is interested.

What Rubenstein were you listening to? His recording career spanned 78 shellac to the PCM era, and he often rerecorded due to improvements, like stereo.

 

Note that QSA-L is no longer selling the extension cable, which generally requires another DC cable in the chain and often requires adapters. Rather, you can now buy a DC cable with custom terminations that work with whatever components you are connecting the DC cable to. I'll insert a spoiler here and tell you that I bought two of the last DC extension cables that QSA-L sold.

My recommendation to folks is that they jump to take advantage of special pricing offered by @QSA-LANEDRI. I had also snagged two of these and the combined effect may be the most significant improvement I’ve heard from any outlay of two grand.

I had reported previously of trying the extension between my Farad Super3 and EtherRegen. I had also reported about using it between a Unifi Security Gateway (essentially my router) and its power supply. The latter brought the more profound improvement but the former was quite profound on its own. But now with both gaining an extension cable, the increase in transparency seems to be greater than the sum of the parts. The ability to hear into the recording is astonishing and even also surprising as insight is able to be gleaned even with recordings I thought I knew like the back of my hand. The first Yes album includes the track “Something’s Coming”. There’s a bit of a drum solo at the beginning. I’ve heard this so often that I have stopped taking note of it, and yet when it came up randomly I was forced to stop doing everything and just take note of Bill Bruford’s fine cymbal work. It was as if I was in the room with him - so it became a wow experience.

There has yet to be a track that hasn’t had me astonished by how much more clear and open it sounds. It’s as if some grain had been somehow stripped away. What’s emerged is more goodness across the board. My system is now doing a better job of getting out of the way of the music. It’s astonishing that DC cables can have this kind of impact as none of my previous experiences with DC cables prepared me for anything like this. In fact, my initial reaction to hearing about the QSA Lanedri DC extension cables was total skepticism. Now I know better.

 

What Rubenstein were you listening to? His recording career spanned 78 shellac to the PCM era, and he often rerecorded due to improvements, like stereo.

Hi @ssfas. The Rubinstein album I listened to is the RCA Living Stereo Chopin Ballades and Scherzos. Specifically, the SACD remaster. It was ripped to a DSF DSD64 file and played through the dCS Mosaic app using Filter 5 on my Bartok. I have to say that this 1959 album sounds pretty damn good and while Rubinstein may not be the most technically spectacular pianist, his musicality is excellent.

 

This is the next chapter in my ongoing adventures with QSA-L DC extension cables. You might want to review my posts #462 and #506 in this thread to see what I said about my initial experience with a single DC extension cable in my two systems.

What’s new this time around is the fact that I now have two DC extension cables and I can evaluate their cumulative impact. The question, in both my primary Seattle system and in my vacation home headphone system, is what a second cable brings to the table. Is it worth another $1250 or $2500? (Those are the sale prices for custom-terminated Gamma DC cables through the end of the year. Please note that I have extension cables that are not custom-terminated and that require adapters and/or other DC cables – so you would presumably have greater impact with cables terminated to your specifications for your components.)

Normally, I would expect incremental gains when adding the same cable elsewhere in the system. That would be especially true where that addition was in a location that had already shown less impact. As reported earlier in this thread, the impact of the DC extension cable when placed between my Farad Super 3 power supply and my EtherRegen (ER) was not as great as when placed between my JS-2 power supply and Greenwave modem/router.

Nevertheless, the change when using two DC cables was obvious and clear from the start, with the emphasis on “clear.” As my friend @kennyb123 said when evaluating the impact of two DC extension cables in his system (and in similar locations), the “ability to hear into the recording is astonishing.” Ken also said that the combined effect of the two cables “seems to be greater than the sum of the parts.” I agree. It’s as if 1+1 = 3.

Removing the DC extension cable from the ER (while keeping a DC extension cable on the router) resulted in a loss of clarity. There was less refinement and air around singers’ voices. Dynamics were slightly diminished. While I did not do a lot of A-B comparisons between local files and streaming, my gut told me that the beneficial impact of the DC cables is greater when streaming.

An additional note: my AV system in Seattle also benefited from two DC cables. The first cable remained on the router. The second cable stayed between the Farad and the EtherRegen, but I moved the ER to the AV system. I reported earlier that just having one DC extension cable on the router did not have a significant impact on either picture quality or sound in my Seattle AV system (despite using the ER in that system with decent quality DC cables). I now have to report that two QSA-L DC extension cables made a clear difference. Not only were images sharper and colors more saturated, but the sound actually became more clear. Whether simple dialogue or other music or sounds, it was nice to see the cables adding value to a completely different system. I don’t have a state of the art home theater setup by any means, and it’s a bit of a pain to switch the cabling and components around. I’ll just reserve it for shows or events that I really care about.

Speaking of another system, I was also able to evaluate the impact of two DC extension cables in my headphone system in our vacation home. As detailed in post #506 in this thread, this system is centered around a dCS Bartok headphone amp/DAC. I reported earlier that, unlike my experience in Seattle, I heard more benefit from the QSA-L DC extension cable when used to help power both a Sonore OpticalModule (OM) and EtherRegen (thanks to the use of a DC Y cable from Ghent Audio) than I did when the same cable was used to help power my router/modem.

Would using two DC cables result in additional improvement? Emphatically, yes. Use of two cables gave me the best sound I have yet to hear from this system. I quickly went into that listening mode we have all experienced at one time or another: mounting excitement as I go from familiar tune to familiar tune, reveling in the new sound. The predominant feeling was once again the sensation of bracing clarity. I love my dCS Bartok (non-APEX) and HiFiMan HE1000 headphones but they have always come up short in the clarity and detail department when compared to my Extreme - Chord DAVE (powered by Sean Jacobs ARC6 DC4) combo, especially on PGGB files. They still do. But wow, there is an unmistakable leap with two of these DC extension cables in the headphone system.

A few examples:

Last week we attended a live performance by Roomful of Teeth, a fantastic vocal octet that only performs works commissioned for it. This was in a fairly large auditorium at the University of Washington (Meany Hall) with just OK acoustics. Not necessarily the best venue for chamber music and all music was amplified. I felt like some of the balances were off. Comparing this live experience to the Teeth's recent recording of one of the pieces we heard (Caroline Shaw's "The Isle"), there is no doubt in my mind that the recording was the higher fidelity experience. Every one of the eight voices in this piece (no other instruments) was clearly heard through my headphone system with beautiful balances and exquisite vocal nuance and detail.

Although I really just wanted to continue to listen to music without doing analytical A-B-A comparisons, your dutiful reviewer succumbed after a few days and removed the DC extension cable on the ER and OM to do these comparisons. With Rubinstein's Chopin, I heard more air and a much greater sense of the recording space, plus greater microdynamics and greater transient clarity.

With a live performance by Erykah Badu (Qobuz 16/44 streaming), greater clarity and refinement were easily heard. The overall feeling was of a smoother (not smoothed-over), slightly darker, more natural presentation.

In a long chamber music piece (Jennifer Higdon's Zaka performed by the sextet Eighth Blackbird), there are a few sections where my mind tends to wander a bit. That happened when listening without the DC extension cable. Reinserting it, I found myself newly riveted by sections that sounded like I'd never really heard them properly before.

Sure, you could say I suffer from expectation bias. Maybe there is some of that at play. But I'm going to push back because these changes were obvious -- from the first few seconds.

Anas Lanedri has always claimed that the effect of adding QSA cables is additive. It sounds like a marketing strategy. Of course it is a marketing strategy but it happens to correlate with my real world experience, not just with DC cables but with QSA-L power and signal cables. Would I have ever expected to pay thousands of dollars for a couple DC cables? Would I have ever expected them to make a dramatic difference in my systems? The questions are rhetorical. There is something a little weird and special going on here.

 

Anas Lanedri has always claimed that the effect of adding QSA cables is additive. It sounds like a marketing strategy. Of course it is a marketing strategy but it happens to correlate with my real world experience, not just with DC cables but with QSA-L power and signal cables. Would I have ever expected to pay thousands of dollars for a couple DC cables? Would I have ever expected them to make a dramatic difference in my systems? The questions are rhetorical. There is something a little weird and special going on here.

"Weird and special" is exactly right as far as these QSA-L DC cables. What these cables seem to make "clear" is that regular/untreated cables do more harm than anyone would normally expect.

 

"Weird and special" is exactly right as far as these QSA-L DC cables. What these cables seem to make "clear" is that regular/untreated cables do more harm than anyone would normally expect.

And even stranger is that the harm stems from places few would suspect and has downstream effects that reach further than fewer could predict...

People who are skeptical about power treatment often site the "miles and miles" of "dubious quality cable" and "very noisy transformers" (etc.) between the local hub and your house, and oft ridicule those listening with ears wide open about how "the handful of feet at the end of the line can't possibly make a difference!"

Yet here in these forums we read testimony after testimony of how even a small rat-tail extension cable, properly treated, inserted into the power inlet of a cheaply made, consumer-oriented device that is further separated and isolated from the listening system by hundreds of feet of cable, switches, moats, and (in some cases) powered by a cheap switch-mode power supply* slotted into a noisy home circuit (and perhaps even a noisier UPS or surge protector in someone's garage or office) somehow, against all odds, manages to improve the clarity, depth, and musicality of a music playback system that is often several rooms away and hidden behind layers of state-of-the-art defenses against unwelcome, parasitic noise.

It boggles the mind, but once you've heard it, you can't deny it...

* of course, we also hear testimonies that the effect is even more profound when a quality power supply is used. "Garbage in, garbage out" is the usual mantra, but when QSA enters the picture it feels more like Alchemy and less like Science.

 

Well said, @jeremya!

 

I received my Ultimatum Infinity PC yesterday. I have never seen a power cord this big and heavy in my life. In fact it was so big I was worried it would not fit in my Inakustic 4500 Power conditioner. It did thank God. The picture below does not do it justice.

I just plugged it in so I am not going to comment until I get around 300 hours on it. I still have a Silver Crystal QSA Outlet coming so in combination with the Ultimatum Infinity PC, I would assume I can not get much better.

 

I received my Ultimatum Infinity PC yesterday. I have never seen a power cord this big and heavy in my life. In fact it was so big I was worried it would not fit in my Inakustic 4500 Power conditioner. It did thank God. The picture below does not do it justice.

I just plugged it in so I am not going to comment until I get around 300 hours on it. I still have a Silver Crystal QSA Outlet coming so in combination with the Ultimatum Infinity PC, I would assume I can not get much better.

We've recently discovered a cosmetic issue in the Ultimatum Infinity power cables and have temporarily ceased shipping as we are fixing the issue to ensure delivery in the month of December. Only two units have been dispatched, and we're committed to ensuring that the aesthetic imperfections are rectified.

In fact, Lately, after shipping the two units, we received a resistance/stress test report on the raw plastic material used to build the connectors, we found that the raw plastic material in the connectors doesn't align with our stringent standards, despite it posing no functional risk. To uphold our promise of excellence, we're in the process of replacing connectors on the entire first batch of approximately 50 cables.

The cosmetic defect has no impact on the audio performance, and on the two cables that were shipped to clients, including @Willgolf, we will replace those two cables with the final versions.

We will also make up for the delay and inconvenience caused by this issue for all who clients who ordered the Ultimatum Power cables on this first batch. We understand the importance of flawlessness, and we strive for perfection on all levels.


The Ultimatum Infinity power cable is a testament to our relentless pursuit of innovation in audio technology. It embodies our commitment to overcome challenges while delivering a transformative listening experience. It is one of a kind in the world, and we have put all our effort on the security side to tackle all constraints while ensuring the transformational impact on audio.

Damien, our second client, who received the Ultimatum Infinity power cable, has encountered difficulties accessing his WBF account. However, he has sent his initial thoughts today via email, which he has permitted me to share here until he's able to post a detailed review on WBF himself.

Damien's feedback on the Ultimatum Infinity power cable:
"
Hi Anas
I'm not sure if I have shared this but I have a LOT of QSA stuff:
Mains jitters and mains inlets, IEC jitters, lan jitters, fuses in all my components (generally Silver), and the QSA Gold router.

I see the QSA sound signature to be relatively consistent (but varying in degree, and tone sometimes): lower noise floor unveiling hidden details, tonal purity, improved timing and flow, more holographic space (which I presume is linked to the noise floor). Rarely with downsides (but see below, my experience with your cables!). It's why I love and have invested so much in QSA pieces.

Currently, the new Ultimatum PC runs from the QSA mains socket (only black/red!) to my mains conditioner. This is a Puritan Audio psm156 with QSA Gold and Silver sockets. This feeds all my main components - Tidal Audio Contros (a combined streamer, DAC and preamp); spl active crossover; Tidal Intra power amp; and a Ediscreation Firebird LPS that feeds my QSA router and EtherRegen switch).

Onto my impressions on my Ultimatums:
I love the Ultimatum speaker cables - way above my previous references; it's like the signal is totally unconstricted.
However, I find the PC transformatory - while initially it marginally bested my reference ($10k Furutech V1's) with a lower noise floor, better tonal transparency, better timing (all marginal), it also had a glare that felt 'digital'. Within a few hours, those advantages were gone - and a day later it sounded like a blanket had been thrown on the speakers. The following day that veil was gone, and it's been rapid improvement since - at around 100 hours now, it's everything the speaker cable is, and more!

While the QSA sound signature (as above) is here in spades, it also has a kind of 'architectural solidity' that gives the impression of separate instruments in space (more 3-D, more solid). Combined with a total lack of glare (now) instruments are more real, and the interplay between musicians more touching.
Hence my request for another to go from the Puritan conditioner to my Contros!

Thanks Anas!!
Damien
"

 

This is a review of the latest combo cable of Anas and QSA team that combines a King Sablon and a Horn Silver gamma cable. Before diving into the weeds, please bear with me for a long winded introduction, as I'll provide a little background about my system and where I stand at the moment. Firstly, I have been in a very good place with my system, I had found a house sound that I can relate to with Mark's fantastic Sablon cable, that provides a divine combination of precision, density and imaging with a loom of his cables. I am truly impressed by his (or one of) masterpiece with the Sablon King, and little can really be improved upon IMOH. I was pretty much there with the Dave, that has off chart PRAT and provides this near holographic experience. Last, the cherry on the cake was a fantastic Woo Wa33 that provides resolution, slam, and this mid-bloom. So "what else" ? This was pretty much end-game and I have been happy with this system for the last couple of year.

Now, something happened, which reminds me of another revolution in the field of photography. For a long time in the early millennium you'd have been happy with a Zeiss lens, you'd have this fantastic microcontrast, warm colours, and magic 3D pop and a "je ne sais quoi" that provides charm to the composition, with Batis, Loxia, Otus as kings of their game. Then came the ultra-high resolution sensors, and the Zeiss lens kept-up as it was merely more pixels that resolve more noise, the "grain" didn't bring much to the table. Until ultra-high resolution and technical lenses came into the game, and then unfortunately that was Zeiss' demise (they actually this year officially announced that they wouldn't produce any development on the lens side). The combo high-resolution lenses and sensors just started to beat German engineering, the tech science of oxide transistors versus decades of craftsmanship, providing both character AND precision.

So back to audio, what happened here? It started with Taiko, that hinted that the DAC ultimately doesn't matter so much (10-30% according to Emile) once you get a uber-low noise source. Especially true if you pass the DAC filter by offloading the upscaling (PGGB another key component here, several million tap at 256 bit precision, not something you can or want to do in a DAC in real time!). A different take, different continent, but Dan Mance from Audiowise had been advocating for RF/EMI pollution as a key limiting factor for years, and made the fantastic discovery that a Chord Mojo2 with the latest Rob Watts crown achievement FPGA, at 104 bit resolution for noise shaping (he has provided a true gift to the masses here, putting a new revolutionary FPGA in a miniature device that comes at the lowest point of the price chain), ultra-low power (you have to see the size of this thing!) and running on battery, actually beats (by far I have to say!) a Chord Dave. This involves some engineering as well, eg bypass USB with SRC-DX, and the typical Chord-like quirks. Shielding this with Mu-metal for magnetic screening also helps, and Dan now has a cool technology on filtering RF with skin-effect to avoid
inducing extra losses in the chain (a review on this soon at as I am awaiting Dan's new tech).

Anyhow, off my Dave went (similarly to my old Zeiss lens), left with my Woo, that revealed part of this large chunk of resolution, but now, was the Woo a limiting factor? I had another solid state amp under the radar, and went for a road-test. The extra resolution unfortunately was even more apparent, but also coupled to noise, in analogy to all these extra pixels that provide noise at high ISO. So a mix bag!

I should say that I live in a crowded place, and I early could tell my system is in a bath of RF and EMI,
I don't have the luxury of setting a dedicated line as we are renting. So RF and power noise are definitely there, what about taking care of this? I have invested into an Everest, that does a magnificent job, now the Altaira Signal, that again brought the noise floor down.

What came as a last resort is QSA. I'll be honest, I have been very skeptical, and another factor is my
reluctance at going any inch from the Sablon cables. Anas kindly suggested that I try one of his new
development, the so-called combo power cable, that creates a hybrid creature out of a Sablon King and
a Gamma Horn Silver treated. Beyond all the gold, silver, horns, Kings, that are all very jolly and bring a little bit of a 1001 Arabian night feel, we just entered into serious business here:

Plugging this cable into the Extreme, and replacing a Sablon Prince and King untreated, brought down the noise floor so low, combined with my little Mojo running on battery, that my SS amp (also running on battery) now was clearly singing like never I thought it would! I had now both the resolution AND the
velvet of the Woo, my SS amp was very much tube like now! Everything comes at a price, the Woo
still wins with macrodynamics, soundstage is a little wider, but hey, the Woo is one of the best amp that you may find out there, and at 10W it will do a little better in some way than my Shanling SS M30. But in any case, the combination of resolution and lack of harshness gave me a little taste of what's coming next in the Taiko world, the Extreme on battery!

In conclusion, I was very skeptical, but the latest Lanedri cable does tackle RF and noise, and is an additional fantastic tool in the toolbox to address this. If you live like me in a dense urban area, I think
there is simply no single magic wand to treat RF and EMI, you need a breadth of approaches, and
here QSA excels. It will be very system dependent, and YMMV, but it definitely worked very well in my
system, that now runs on battery with the Taiko on QSA combo cable. It made my system simpler,
and also strange! You get now an Extreme connected to a Mojo 2, itself connected to a modest M30,
beating my Dave+Woo Wa33. But again, I took an open minded empirical approach, I follow what actually works against what should work, and see where it takes me, against all odds! Something that might
put a final note on my chain is the recently released Korean/Japanese Enleum RM23.

If you fancy yourself a Woo, let me know as it is now up for sale! (with the great TK274). As we need
to save on space estate, it also fits better the WAF atm. I hope you somehow enjoyed reading this, and it provides some useful data points, I tried to remain objective throughout, but you may discern some
excitement here, so add a grain of salt to mitigate the feedback . As a final note, I should say that all these developments rest really upon the shoulder of giants, Mark Coles, Dan Mance, Robb Watts, Emile/Ed from Taiko and team, and I think Anas may have joined the choir in a timely manner.

 

This is a review of the latest combo cable of Anas and QSA team that combines a King Sablon and a Horn Silver gamma cable. Before diving into the weeds, please bear with me for a long winded introduction, as I'll provide a little background about my system and where I stand at the moment. Firstly, I have been in a very good place with my system, I had found a house sound that I can relate to with Mark's fantastic Sablon cable, that provides a divine combination of precision, density and imaging with a loom of his cables. I am truly impressed by his (or one of) masterpiece with the Sablon King, and little can really be improved upon IMOH. I was pretty much there with the Dave, that has off chart PRAT and provides this near holographic experience. Last, the cherry on the cake was a fantastic Woo Wa33 that provides resolution, slam, and this mid-bloom. So "what else" ? This was pretty much end-game and I have been happy with this system for the last couple of year.

Now, something happened, which reminds me of another revolution in the field of photography. For a long time in the early millennium you'd have been happy with a Zeiss lens, you'd have this fantastic microcontrast, warm colours, and magic 3D pop and a "je ne sais quoi" that provides charm to the composition, with Batis, Loxia, Otus as kings of their game. Then came the ultra-high resolution sensors, and the Zeiss lens kept-up as it was merely more pixels that resolve more noise, the "grain" didn't bring much to the table. Until ultra-high resolution and technical lenses came into the game, and then unfortunately that was Zeiss' demise (they actually this year officially announced that they wouldn't produce any development on the lens side). The combo high-resolution lenses and sensors just started to beat German engineering, the tech science of oxide transistors versus decades of craftsmanship, providing both character AND precision.

So back to audio, what happened here? It started with Taiko, that hinted that the DAC ultimately doesn't matter so much (10-30% according to Emile) once you get a uber-low noise source. Especially true if you pass the DAC filter by offloading the upscaling (PGGB another key component here, several million tap at 256 bit precision, not something you can or want to do in a DAC in real time!). A different take, different continent, but Dan Mance from Audiowise had been advocating for RF/EMI pollution as a key limiting factor for years, and made the fantastic discovery that a Chord Mojo2 with the latest Rob Watts crown achievement FPGA, at 104 bit resolution for noise shaping (he has provided a true gift to the masses here, putting a new revolutionary FPGA in a miniature device that comes at the lowest point of the price chain), ultra-low power (you have to see the size of this thing!) and running on battery, actually beats (by far I have to say!) a Chord Dave. This involves some engineering as well, eg bypass USB with SRC-DX, and the typical Chord-like quirks. Shielding this with Mu-metal for magnetic screening also helps, and Dan now has a cool technology on filtering RF with skin-effect to avoid
inducing extra losses in the chain (a review on this soon at as I am awaiting Dan's new tech).

Anyhow, off my Dave went (similarly to my old Zeiss lens), left with my Woo, that revealed part of this large chunk of resolution, but now, was the Woo a limiting factor? I had another solid state amp under the radar, and went for a road-test. The extra resolution unfortunately was even more apparent, but also coupled to noise, in analogy to all these extra pixels that provide noise at high ISO. So a mix bag!

I should say that I live in a crowded place, and I early could tell my system is in a bath of RF and EMI,
I don't have the luxury of setting a dedicated line as we are renting. So RF and power noise are definitely there, what about taking care of this? I have invested into an Everest, that does a magnificent job, now the Altaira Signal, that again brought the noise floor down.

What came as a last resort is QSA. I'll be honest, I have been very skeptical, and another factor is my
reluctance at going any inch from the Sablon cables. Anas kindly suggested that I try one of his new
development, the so-called combo power cable, that creates a hybrid creature out of a Sablon King and
a Gamma Horn Silver treated. Beyond all the gold, silver, horns, Kings, that are all very jolly and bring a little bit of a 1001 Arabian night feel, we just entered into serious business here:

Plugging this cable into the Extreme, and replacing a Sablon Prince and King untreated, brought down the noise floor so low, combined with my little Mojo running on battery, that my SS amp (also running on battery) now was clearly singing like never I thought it would! I had now both the resolution AND the
velvet of the Woo, my SS amp was very much tube like now! Everything comes at a price, the Woo
still wins with macrodynamics, soundstage is a little wider, but hey, the Woo is one of the best amp that you may find out there, and at 10W it will do a little better in some way than my Shanling SS M30. But in any case, the combination of resolution and lack of harshness gave me a little taste of what's coming next in the Taiko world, the Extreme on battery!

In conclusion, I was very skeptical, but the latest Lanedri cable does tackle RF and noise, and is an additional fantastic tool in the toolbox to address this. If you live like me in a dense urban area, I think
there is simply no single magic wand to treat RF and EMI, you need a breadth of approaches, and
here QSA excels. It will be very system dependent, and YMMV, but it definitely worked very well in my
system, that now runs on battery with the Taiko on QSA combo cable. It made my system simpler,
and also strange! You get now an Extreme connected to a Mojo 2, itself connected to a modest M30,
beating my Dave+Woo Wa33. But again, I took an open minded empirical approach, I follow what actually works against what should work, and see where it takes me, against all odds! Something that might
put a final note on my chain is the recently released Korean/Japanese Enleum RM23.

If you fancy yourself a Woo, let me know as it is now up for sale! (with the great TK274). As we need
to save on space estate, it also fits better the WAF atm. I hope you somehow enjoyed reading this, and it provides some useful data points, I tried to remain objective throughout, but you may discern some
excitement here, so add a grain of salt to mitigate the feedback . As a final note, I should say that all these developments rest really upon the shoulder of giants, Mark Coles, Dan Mance, Robb Watts, Emile/Ed from Taiko and team, and I think Anas may have joined the choir in a timely manner.

Thank you @QuantumWave , I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts on those cables. The credit goes first and foremost to Steven for the creation of QSA technology, and together, we created the QSA Lanedri with the vision of covering the end-to-end audio chain. Our mission is to spread the unique music joy that this cable has brought to our lives, and knowing it resonates with a fellow music enthusiast like you is incredibly fulfilling.

Our partnership with Mark Coles, leveraging Sablon's cables, gave birth to the Spectra series. With the introduction of the Combo Line on the Spectra Ethernet cables, you're at the forefront, experiencing the next level of audio excellence with the Spectra Combo Line on power cables. We’re committed to continually enhancing our technology, providing an upgrade path from the Spectra Infinity to the Spectra Combo power cables for the Sablon Prince and King lines.

The Spectra Combo power cable, in our opinion, is peerless—rivaled only by the Ultimatum Infinity power cable, which truly operates in its own echelon. Among the myriad factors that contribute to the QSA Lanedri cables' superior performance, the cable gauge is notably significant. With the Gamma series boasting a 10awg gauge, the Spectra line using 6awg for the Sablon Prince and 5awg for the Sablon King, and the Ultimatum power cable's impressive 1/0awg.

As for the Ultimatum series, it's the culmination of our bespoke endeavors, integrating QSA into the very fabric of every custom component, crafted with the singular aim of providing the quintessential endgame in audio performance, ensuring an unparalleled, transformative impact on the listening experience.

 

For the last several years a company named Quantum Science Audio (QSA) has caused waves across the audio community with several product lines of fuses, duplex outlets, and 'jitter plugs'; they were known for quite a devoted following and also their high prices. In the beginning of 2023, a new brand named QSA-Lanedri was started to tackle the cable market using QSA technology. This is a review of my purchased QSA-Lanedri cables.

TLDR: I tried these cables and, holy cow, I'm keeping them!

Let's first tackle the 800 lbs gorilla in the room upfront when, almost a year ago now, I first heard about QSA-Lanedri cables: "What is this expensive non-sense? Do they really have some secret technology?" Doubt was understandably my initial impression of these cables despite the rave from some audiophiles who I trust and respect. The audio cable market is crowded with many esoteric companies, and QSA-Lanedri sounded to be on the outlandish end. As more trusted folks adopted QSA-Lanedri into their systems, my bias still did not change. QSA's vague descriptions of "acting at the quantum level", "superior flow of electrons", and "musical metal technology" really made it worse for me -- like many fellow audiophiles I consider myself educated in an area of science, and I tend to believe things that make sense and seem plausible. I especially like to be wowed by measurable demonstrations and logical electrical design, explaining why I am a fan of Shunyata cables. And then there's QSA-Lanedri's high prices.... it is even harder to overcome disbelief when a manufacturer tries to sell fairy dust and unicorn essence for $4,000 to $22,0000 (per cable).



Fast forward a year, and I bought QSA-Lanedri's Spectra Prince Infinity and the Gamma Infinity AC cords. So what happened? How did Keith break?

1. I let go of the desire to justify QSA's claims. No, I am not convinced they can actually measure quantum structure of metals, nor have the means to room-temperature superconductivity. But none of that matters. As an audiophile, I don't really need to know how my gears work -- it does not matter how my DAC measures, or my equipment's frequency response curves, or how my Valvo tube measures against the Telefunken. All that matters is that it sounds damn good to me. I am okay with believing voodoo (my words) if it truly blows me away; we make the same argument all the time in comparing digital front ends or NOS tubes. While I am sure some folks (ahem ASR) might flay me for this purely subjective approach, I'd also challenge those on the Objective camp to show me the psychoacoustic equations that will guarantee Keith's musical enjoyment.
2. Anas Lanedri offers a money-back trial that de-risks trying them in my own system. If I can try it and don't like it, no harm. And that facilitates our holy grail quest to pursue the best in sound, right?
3. Enough folks raved about them. My doubt weakened against the idea that there could be a growing international fanbase falling for some delusional placebo effect, especially when some of these people started with the same skepticism as I had. FOMO hit me that there might be something real here that I just need to try it out for myself.

Anas Lanedri is the co-founder of QSA-Lanedri, and he is the customer-oriented interface who kindly answered my myriad of questions and recommended specific cables for my needs. The poor guy gets bombarded with, let's just say 'passionate' and 'strong willed', questions from audiophiles all day especially due to their marketing, and he handles them with a kind patience and I appreciate that. He is also quick to respond either by email or his website chat. I was concerned about a potential placebo effect during the recommended 300-hour burn in, so Anas also kindly burned in my cables for a full week prior to shipping. The cables took less than 1 week to arrive from Belgium to Seattle, and each had a build quality commiserate with their price.

Over the subsequent weeks, the Spectra replaced the Shunyata Sigma V2 to supply the Denali V2/6000 power condition. The Gamma was tried both in place of my Shunyata Venom V10NR supplying my digital music server, and also for my Shunyata Alpha V2 supplying my dual mono tubed amplifier; the latter was found to achieve the overall best results. I took the QSA-Lanedri cables out of my system several times in my best attempts to do an A/B comparison, but this is somewhat difficult when I have to unpower my entire Denali conditioner. Accounting for the slight differences in my listening mood at various times of day/night, the below observations were consistent in my A/B/A/B/A/B testing.



With the QSA-Lanedri cables in place, what first hit me was an immediate increase in microdetails. While I already considered my system to be quite resolving, now I could hear über plankton: there was a low-level tape hiss from the mixing, a singer's off-mic quiet inhalation, and a marimba that I never noticed before. On another song, I swear that there is the very quiet squeal of a door opening which I never knew was hidden in the recording. Background instruments and vocals are more defined, clear, and slightly more prominent; an example of this is at 2:49 on Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine, I never had noticed Axel's oooooooh background singing during this famous guitar rift; I discovered new background string plucks from Norah Jones' Come Away with Me. Macrodynamic swings were more impactful, and it felt as if the system had been freed from a restriction which I never knew it had.

The biggest change, however, was the culmination of everything that result in the music just sounding more real and conveyed greater expressiveness. I am now this much closer to the performers and did not realize previously I was only looking in through a window. There is just no other way to describe this. I cannot remember the original Broadway Cast of Les Miserables ever sounding this good, and I can hear the echo of the stage size and see the figures under the spot lights. Artists are more impressive in their talent, but without any hifi-esque fatigue. It would be silly to quantify the magnitude of the changes above; after all, even if it is 10%, in our common pursuit, that last 10% can be a very difficult gain. That 10% is when Eva Cassidy's What A Wonderful World brings a goosebump-raising smile when I'm listening at night. When you hear it, you'll know it's good.

A few days after I drafted this review, I pulled these cables out of my system as a sanity check. Yup, it's real. I never thought I'd say this, but my old loom sounds broken in comparison.

In full disclosure, I went into this QSA-Lanedri trial with a hopeful skepticism -- I wanted an improvement, but given the price of these cables, I would also have been delighted if they just did not work and I am absolved of its cost. My left brain still does not like Steven and Anas' marketing of using some weird secret treatment in which I'm asked to have faith but cannot fathom. And admittedly I also had some stubborn pride in my initial doubt that maybe these cables aren't as great as others had attested.

But happily, I'll eat my words: God damn, these cables are awesome! If you have the means, I'd suggest you try them as well.


ps. Anas also sent me the Gamma ethernet cable, which is the next subject of testing. Frankly I'm somewhat scared to listen to them, but will be jumping into that rabbit hole with a smile.

 

Most interesting...I am enjoying the QSA LAN Jitter Org Gold and the QSA IEC Jitter Gold powering the Torus (which powers to the whole system). And even 'more real' is exactly what I hear, along with greater and greater 'release' of details heretofore hidden away in the recesses of the recording.

I am seriously contemplating taking the 2 Sablon Princes which power the Robert Koda mono amps...and having them QSA'd by Lanedri (their Spectra series).

 

Most interesting...I am enjoying the QSA LAN Jitter Org Gold and the QSA IEC Jitter Gold powering the Torus (which powers to the whole system). And even 'more real' is exactly what I hear, along with greater and greater 'release' of details heretofore hidden away in the recesses of the recording.

I am seriously contemplating taking the 2 Sablon Princes which power the Robert Koda mono amps...and having them QSA'd by Lanedri (their Spectra series).

I have a 'normal' Sablon Prince here powering the Lampizator. At some point I'm hoping to do a comparison w/ the Spectra Prince...