Audiophilepure

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“I swapped over to analog, QKORE fully engaged, and soon the complaints were replaced with compliments. “Yes! This is the sound we’re familiar with. Now it has sparkle and color.” Hmm, what’s going on?

By the next day I had it figured out. I’m always tinkering and I forgot I had doubled up the QKORE treatment on the DAC. A QKORE XLR wire was in the DIG_IN jack. In addition, the QKORE RJ45 wire was in its Ethernet jack. Doubling up made for a sonic improvement when the QKORE was only partially implemented. With full-bore QKORE, it was too much.

The QKORE effect compounds. Adding more is good…until it isn’t. You’ll know when that happens—you lose the treble and the sound becomes dull, overly cleansed, just like the guys on the panel said.

Installation

There is a family resemblance among these products. Build quality, materials, and cosmetics closely match, in line with what I’ve come to expect from Nordost. The color scheme is brushed aluminum and black, accented by a gold binding post for the QKORE wire. You won’t be embarrassed to display them on your rack.

At first, the QBASE sounds dark and tight. As the days pass, it lightens and becomes limber. Allow a full week for complete burn-in.”

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Setup was easy-peasy, but there’s an oddity in the VC-E’s design: the vacuum pump’s exhaust is blown up into the underside of the record being cleaned through a vent a few inches to one side of the spindle. I thought this a weird place for the vent, and wondered if there was a downside to having it there — such as blowing dust particles into the underside’s groove. Pro-Ject does include a clear protective plate, about the size of a 12” LP, to place over the vent. From the manual: “In regular cleaning scenarios, it is not necessary to use the protective plate. However, when cleaning many records . . . (8-10 in a row), and under certain air conditions (warm temperature and/or high humidity) steam from the ventilator outlet can become an issue. If this is the case, place the protective plate on top of the base plate of the clamp.”