QSA : My take on their expensive products
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
I would invite you to read the the actual words of my original post and then you might realize your paroxysm of defensiveness and personal attack was a bit extreme. My actual words were intended to communicate that I, personally, would be driven batty by rolling fuses, particularly when you have to 1. burn them in, 2. figure the right direction for your component by trial and error which is made more difficult by not knowing if said fuse is yet burned in or not, and.... the coup d'etat, 3. having to factor in the possibility that the directional fuse's direction is mislabeled in the wrong direction.
Definitely, not this audiophiles cup of decaf, but by all means, enjoy if this works for you!
Definitely, not this audiophiles cup of decaf, but by all means, enjoy if this works for you!
Yes - head to head in the Modwright PS 9.0 power supply. Loved and ended up keeping the SR Purple which matched the resolution of the QSA Yellow yet was very balanced, natural sounding and musical. Found the QSA Yellow to be very resolving but clinical sounding and bright in this application.
At this point I have tried:
1. QSA Light Blue: Dac, server LPS, LPS for USB card, AMP.
2. QSA Light Violet: DAC, currently breaking in.
3. QSA Yellow: Server LPS, LPS for USB card
4. SR Purple: Server LPS, Amp, LPS for USB card
Today, all 3 three light blue fuses have been upgraded. Two will be repurposed and one will be sold (for the Yggy).
Two were upgraded to SR Purple.
One upgraded to QSA Light Violet (dac).
My QSA Yellow is the digital version. It sounded better than SR Purple in my server LPS. It was more transparent, with more damping/control/texture in the bass. A bit more "in your face" and dynamic than SR Purple in this usecase. This is why it stayed there.
SR Purple in the amp was quite a bit better than QSA Blue there (I have not tried Yellow).
SR Purple was substantially better than QSA Light Blue in the USB card LPS.
I now have one extra QSA Light blue fuse I plan to sell.
The remaining Light Blues will go to LPS's that have no fuses at the moment. It will be interesting to see what having no fuse and having a decent fuse will do.
What I will say is QSA Light blue in the Yggy was an eye opening experience. QSA Light Violet is still breaking in but within the first 24 hours it has transformed my listening experience. Much improved instrument placement, more detail, more slam and musicality. This will probably be my endgame fuse for this DAC.
Cheers,
-Rob
1. QSA Light Blue: Dac, server LPS, LPS for USB card, AMP.
2. QSA Light Violet: DAC, currently breaking in.
3. QSA Yellow: Server LPS, LPS for USB card
4. SR Purple: Server LPS, Amp, LPS for USB card
Today, all 3 three light blue fuses have been upgraded. Two will be repurposed and one will be sold (for the Yggy).
Two were upgraded to SR Purple.
One upgraded to QSA Light Violet (dac).
My QSA Yellow is the digital version. It sounded better than SR Purple in my server LPS. It was more transparent, with more damping/control/texture in the bass. A bit more "in your face" and dynamic than SR Purple in this usecase. This is why it stayed there.
SR Purple in the amp was quite a bit better than QSA Blue there (I have not tried Yellow).
SR Purple was substantially better than QSA Light Blue in the USB card LPS.
I now have one extra QSA Light blue fuse I plan to sell.
The remaining Light Blues will go to LPS's that have no fuses at the moment. It will be interesting to see what having no fuse and having a decent fuse will do.
What I will say is QSA Light blue in the Yggy was an eye opening experience. QSA Light Violet is still breaking in but within the first 24 hours it has transformed my listening experience. Much improved instrument placement, more detail, more slam and musicality. This will probably be my endgame fuse for this DAC.
Cheers,
-Rob
Thanks Rob for such an interesting post
I haven't tried SR Purple so can't comment on that but have the QSA Yellow and Violet . They are both very good in my system, but the the Violet is definitely superior to the yellow as you would expect given that it is more expensive.
No immediate plans to upgrade, but may well be tempted by either a red for the power block power cable (currently a Violet),or a red receptacle for the mains outlet. Both similarly priced.
They have made a major improvement to my system and very pleased with them
I tried both QSA and SR purple.
It depends what you're looking for.
The ones to compare would be the yellow vs the purple as they are in the same price category.
I think the QSA fuses are quite special, I tried different colors and you get a house sound, just more of it as you go up the chain.
I find it quite consistent. But their signature is quite recognisable.
I tried 2 SR purple fuses, one in my dac and one in my amp and I really didn't like them, it made the sound overly smooth and milky and although the soundstage appeared bigger it seemed artificial. They didn't do it for me.
I'm considering adding QSA fuses but the ones that would make sense are probably the Silver and I'm not yet ready to spend 10k$ for 2 fuses.
I found the QSA Yellow to sound clinical to bright. SR purple was just as resolving but much more natural and musical sounding.
I did not try SR Purple in the DAC. I compared QSA Light Blue to Light Violet in the dac. The SR Purple went to my amp and USB card LPS (SJ DC4).
Needless to say, QSA Light Violet is significantly better than QSA Light blue in the dac.
I found the SR Purple to be better than the QSA Violet. It was more musical or just a better flow, better dynamics, etc. Still great detail. So good that this made one of my Rega amps sound at the same level of a LFD NCSE iii that I demoed. That right there had me convinced of how good these fuses can be.
I may try Red or Red/Black if they’re that much better than SR Purple, but this new SR fuse is such a better value..
I may try Red or Red/Black if they’re that much better than SR Purple, but this new SR fuse is such a better value..
I have owned the QSA blue, yellow, and red.
They all have a gloss/sheen that might be too bright for some systems.
I saw someone posting about the brightness of the yellow, and it's probably due to this.
I'm surprised more reviews haven't mentioned this. It's instantly recognizable.
They all have a gloss/sheen that might be too bright for some systems.
I saw someone posting about the brightness of the yellow, and it's probably due to this.
I'm surprised more reviews haven't mentioned this. It's instantly recognizable.
I posted that the yellow was not only bright but clinical sounding in the Modwright PS 9.0 power supply. I chose the SR Purple instead (after head to head comparison) which was just as resolving but much more balanced and musical.
My experience is of the yellow and the violet.
The violet gives a more rounded sound in my system whereas I found the yellow was more stark. I didn't notice any sheen with the yellow. It's an effect I experienced with some then top of the range Tellurium cables I auditioned and rejected some years ago.
There's definitely a house sound. And I feel it's harder to distinguish between recordings with this effect.
But I do like the red fuse. It's musical and dynamic.
Thanks Vert
Interesting. As I said very happy with my yellow and violets and a number of reports elsewhere about SR purple relability, though to be fair SR have replace blown fuses. In both cases there may be system dependency issues but they are not easy to identify.
Good to hear about the red. I will give them a try later n the year.
Interesting. As I said very happy with my yellow and violets and a number of reports elsewhere about SR purple relability, though to be fair SR have replace blown fuses. In both cases there may be system dependency issues but they are not easy to identify.
Good to hear about the red. I will give them a try later n the year.
Good pricing for anyone looking to try a QSA yellow fuse.
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Great to hear. What receptacle did you compare it with if you don't mind sharing? thanks
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