Nordost QBASE Reference QB10

But with so many alternative solutions on offer, with so many of those solutions being bigger, claiming greater sophistication and demanding far higher prices, it was time for Nordost to up its game: not by replacing the QB8, but by introducing a more capable, more refined and more sophisticated model of its own. Enter then, the QBASE QB10 Reference…

Ten out of eight does go…

The QB10 set out to achieve two goals: to deliver superior performance to the QB8 and, at the same time, address the few practical and topological shortcomings in the original design, issues that have emerged over the years. Take one look at the QB10 and it’s clearly a very different beast.

The most obvious difference is the change in shape and orientation. The QB8 is a flat strip, 120mm (not quite 5”) wide with cables entering vertically. It’s a space efficient arrangement and allows the unit to sit comfortably behind a rack without taking up too much space. However, it’s also not without its challenges. Put eight of Nordost’s springy power cords into the QB8 and the whole octopoid creature starts to take on a life of its own, tipping or twisting to the torque in the cables. With the QB8 sat on the floor, you can normally dress the wiring to balance it out and keep it upright, but with increasing awareness of mechanical influence on the AC supply, users started perching QB8s on various different support products. Eventually, Nordost produced bolt-on cradles that allow you to sit the distribution block on a quartet of their Sort Kones – which works up to a point, but also makes the whole arrangement almost twice as wide.

The QB10 addresses these challenges in two different ways. It is a far more massive, rectangular section block, measuring 200mm deep and 145mm tall, with the power connections entering from the rear. The extruded casework with its massive, milled end-caps weighs in at a substantial 11.75kg (25.9Lbs) and comes ready equipped with four of Nordost’s Sort Füt mechanical grounding devices, adjustable on threaded posts set at each corner. With its increased mass and integral feet, not only is it significantly more stable and well able to anchor a full complement of AC cables, the rear-entry topology clearly signals the company’s belief that the QB10 should be placed in an audio rack, like any other mechanically sensitive audio device. On the one hand that means factoring in the cost of providing an extra shelf – but on the other, given the systems that the QB10 is likely to find itself in, that is pretty small beer compared to the clear performance advantages. As an added bonus, the rear-entry topology also looks an awful lot neater, the unit’s neat front plate effectively hiding the cables behind it. The black and silver livery has just enough of each to suit most systems and the QB10 certainly looks the part.

But this is about way more than looks and good practice. The QB10 is a far more practical, configurable and tuneable device than the QB8. For starters, these days, eight sockets simply isn’t enough for a lot of systems and a lot of that system growth is the result of having sprouted additional digital components, from streamers or servers to the network components that feed them. The QB10 addresses that situation by raising the socket count to – you guessed it – ten. But it also includes pairs of Nordost’s QWave (QW) and QSine (QS) circuits, allowing users to differentially ‘treat’ or tune the left and right halves of the unit. That way, you can split the AC distribution into digital and analogue, or possibly, separate network components from the audio chain.