The good news is that ridding yourself of the pesky pads is straightforward. The only problem is that, while removing the rubber discs themselves is easy, removing the (equally obstructive and sonically damaging) adhesive layer they leave behind takes considerably more effort and persistence. It’s best done by unscrewing the feet, rubbing away the adhesive with your thumb and then cleaning the surface with isopropyl alcohol. It’s also possible to replace the feet with alternatives, such as the RevOpods, but I’d try the Sort Füt sans rubber approach first – given that you’ve already invested in the hardware. If you’ve had a demonstraion with the pads in place, just wait until you hear the QB10 ‘naked’…
Other than that, it’s worth making sure that the unit is level and the four feet are equally loaded. I prefer to wind the feet about 1cm down their threaded posts. It might give a slightly stilt-lime appearance but it certainly makes precise adjustment of the feet easier. I feel that it also delivers slightly more air and musical freedom. Would I swear to that? No, but given the choice I’m going to indulge the impression.
QB8 versus QB10
Although, as my ‘go-to’ distribution block, I’ve used the QB8 in a wide number of different cable contexts – including AudioQuest, Chord, Crystal Cable, Siltech, CFM, Mont Audio and Sternklang – all with considerable success, there’s no escaping the fact that most of the time I’m using it with various Nordost cables. Just as, I suspect, that in the vast majority of customer systems it is also used with Nordost cables. But in most of my usage, it’s been something of (although not always) a given. Whenever I have had need or opportunity to compare its performance with other offerings, it has always established its sonic and musical superiority.
With the arrival of the QB10, it was possible to conduct a range of comparative listening across different systems and equipment, both by exchanging the QB10 for a QB8 that was in use and by making comparisons when establishing new system configurations and installing new equipment. Irrespective of cables or equipment employed, the results were remarkably consistent. In every case, the QB10 built on the dynamic, rhythmic and musical coherence that is the hallmark of the QB8, adding purpose, focus and transparency to the picture. Instruments and voices become more precisely focussed in space, with a clearer musical and spatial relationship between them. The QB10 also brought a lower noise floor, which offered a far greater sense of the placement of notes and the spaces between them, greater definition of instrumental textures and harmonic layers. Do the same comparison and you’ll hear the results in the almost physical quality the QB10 brings to the body of a guitar, the bowing of a Cello and the way in which it effortlessly decodes a pianist’s note-weight and attack. This is not a subtle difference or one that’s confined to sonic niceties or flourishes. Yes, the QB10 will make your system sound like better hi-fi – but it will weld those performance attributes to the musical performance as a whole, with a greater sense of instrumental or vocal presence, a greater sense that this is humans doing something human. It makes both the facts of and the intent that drives a performance more powerful, direct and more easily understood. This isn’t hi-fi performance for the sake of it: it’s hi-fi performance that actually delivers. It delivers more from music you know. It makes more music that you don’t know, more accessible.