Nordost's QBase blocks give your system a solid base
As an Upscale customer, we know you understand the importance of everything in the audio chain, all the way from the breaker in your panel, through your entire system, to the back of the listening room where you've carefully "tamed reflections." So we know your pain when you walk into a fellow enthusiast's house, admire their cool gear, and then spot that common and egregious hi-fi crime: Running the system off a cheap power strip complete with flickering red LED switch, and—horror of horrors—surge protection.
Full-on power conditioning at a level that befits this system would be a hard sell to someone who doesn't grasp the notion that they are doing the equivalent of running the Porsche in their garage on fryer oil. But they could be convinced to at least try a power distribution block, and when they hear that their $10,000 system has been performing at a third of its capability, $1,400 for a Nordost QBase QB4 Mk III will be a bargain.
Heavy-Duty Passive Tech
The principle of the QBase is simple: give every component direct access to the wall outlet, and control ground flow so it flows in the same direction as signal, all without using any in-line filtering and active circuitry.
"Ground flows in all directions typically," explains Michael Taylor, Nordost's VP of North American sales. "So by forcing it to flow from source components to the pre-amp just like the signal, it lowers the noise floor.”
There's no active circuitry, so why is it so expensive? Remember, these days, integrated circuits are cheap, and high-quality materials are expensive. It's like wondering why a heavy-duty restaurant blender with just an on-off switch is more expensive than your home blender with a touchscreen and 14 "blend programs."
In fact, the QBase series runs all the way up to $18,000 for the Nordost QBase QB10 Reference, a 26 lb. unit that also offers Nordost's harmonizer technologies. Even if this is way out of your budget, remember that reference products are universities for brands; places where they learn how to make ever better lower-end products.
Creating a Solid Power Base
For instance, Nordost clearly heard the benefits of isolation even for the power block, so you have the option of using Nordost Sort Kones should you want to optimize further. The Mark III has a number of improvements over the Mark II, including a separate PCB for ground and another for hot and neutral, so there's no cross-talk or other contamination between them.
"PCB?" you ask. "Didn't you say it has no circuitry?"
Instead of stuffing the QBase with a nest of wires, Nordost uses a circuit board with heavy-duty traces to run the power to each outlet.
"The boards have no components on them," explains Michael of Nordost. "It is completely passive. The only components we employ are the resistors we use to lift the ground impedance by that tiny amount on the non-primary earth outlets."
That last detail is where most of the magic lies, says Michael. By slightly raising the impedance (but not lifting the ground) of all the outlets except the primary earth where your pre-amplifier goes, it forces ground currents to flow in the proper direction towards the preamp. "The source components don’t see each other anymore, just the preamp. It’s such a simple thing we do, but it really lowers the noise floor."
Michael also points out how most products like this use standard stranded wire, but Nordost uses solid conductor monofilament wiring. "Just like our power cords use."
Save your friend from running his exotic sports car on used french-fry oil! Connect him and his system to a Nordost QBase today.