Squeamish or Skeptical About QSA Fuses? Try the Outlet.
For those of you who have tried the QSA fuses, you know already what they are capable of. For those of you who are reluctant to open up your components, or are just not comfortable with the risk of being out several hundred dollars if your QSA fuse blows (they do have a replacement policy, BTW) the AC receptacle is your entry into the super natural (sounding) world of QSA.
Step 1: Replace The Wall Receptacle
There is no need to over complicate this. Simply replace your wall receptacle with a QSA. I don't care if you have a premium outlet already, or a power conditioner downstream from the wall outlet. The QSA AC receptacle will improve your entire system, and you will hear it within 5 seconds. You may also hear a little unpleasantness for awhile as the outlet breaks in, but that is soon gone, and the sound will continue to improve over the next 2 weeks. Yes, even if you have a power conditioner downstream...
Yellow
The QSA Yellow Receptacle will best any other audiophile outlet on the market at present. The margin may be closer to competitors than with the Violet, but the price reflects that. The soundstage will enlarge in all directions, and the energy of the music relaxes and becomes more natural.
Violet
The Violet AC outlet takes you further down the road. In comparison to the Yellow, it's as if another veil has been lifted off of your system. Add to this greater extension, bass control, and high frequency clarity.
Red
The QSA Red wall outlet is another leap into the sonic depths, and widths. More refined, more resolving, more textured and nuanced. Here will be the stopping point for most. This outlet does more to open up the music than nearly any power conditioner I have listened to. To be completely fair, power conditioners filter out RF and EMI, and some offer transient protection. This outlet, to my knowledge, does none of that. That being said, the sonic portrait this outlet helps your components to paint is better in many ways than a power conditioner. My theory (and Yick Man from QSA agrees) is that a power conditioner's benefits may be offset by the extra connections made from adding another box to the power chain, as well as time smearing of the filtering components.
Red/Black Ultra
The leap from Red to Red/Black Ultra should probably be reserved for those with extremely resolving and cost appropriate systems, or for those who do not use power conditioning of any sort. Break in on this receptacle was not pleasant, in my case it started out as bright. After a day or two the brightness went away and the Red/Black Ultra started uncovering more beauty and energy within the music. This was quite a significant leap in resolution from the other outlets. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better with the Red, the Red Black had activated my music ADD. Meaning I stopped whatever work, or analysis I was doing and simply sat there, smiling, shaking my head, and listening to more and more music.
Adding more QSA Receptacles Downstream
Adding more receptacles downstream from the wall, for instance a power distributor with QSA outlets or upgrading outlets on a power conditioner, will yield further improvement. The improvement however will not be as dramatic as replacing the wall outlet. It's very similar to what I've experienced with the fuses. If your component has several fuses, replacing the one at the mains input is the most beneficial, and replacing more fuses inside the same component yields less substantial improvements.
Paring with QSA Fuses
This is definitely additive. As my system was fully set with QSA fuses in every component. Adding the receptacle at the wall brought more improvement and was immediately noticeable.
Conclusion
As with the QSA fuses, the QSA AC receptacles will dramitically and significantly improve the audio performance of any system. Simply investing in one receptacle will yield gains in soundstage width, depth height, musical naturalness, and resolution.
