A New Foundational Power Conditioning Product

Two QSA Treated Circuit Breakers

The power flowing to your audio system, be it through a wall outlet, a power conditioner, or power distributor, has a huge impact on the overall performance of your components and more importantly, your overall sense of well being when listening to music through your system.

Power, like room acoustics, isn't terribly sexy. It's hard for us audiophiles to justify spending much time or money on power conditioning components because they technically do not produce sound. They are "helper components".  They don't make sound, they make sound...Better. 

Power is the foundation of your audio system's performance. I don't care how expensive your gear is, if you have noisy, bad power, your system will not sound good. At least not as good as it could. 

In my view, a well optimized power delivery system might look something like this:

• Dedicated 20 amp Circuit
• 8-10 AWG High quality in-wall wiring 
• Audiophile grade wall receptacle with Cover
• High Current, high quality power cord
• Non-current limiting power conditioner

Experience has taught me that the further up the power chain you can go, the more potential improvement to the overall system can be realized. My hypothesis for this is that by catching noise and distortion very early on, you prevent it from trickling down further into the power chain. The components further down the chain, freed from this noise, can work on even lower levels of noise.

I have taken my Studio's power system as far as I thought I reasonably could with all of the above items installed in the Tweek Geek studio. I had even added some tweaks to the breaker box and sub panel in the store, but that was as far as I could get. I had heard about cryo treating circuit breakers, but honestly wasn't motivated to do so because of my experience with cryo on other items. It was always marginally helpful at best.  To my knowledge in the US, nobody makes an audio grade circuit breaker. Part of the problem is that there is no standardized breaker size or shape, like for example wall receptacles. So if one were to make an audio grade circuit breaker, they'd have to make at least 5 different types (that I know of) to accommodate all of the brands and sizes of breaker boxes used in homes.

I decided to take this challenge on in a different way by taking existing brands and models of breakers, and sending them to Hong Kong to be treated by QSA. I started with breakers that fit my own sub panel, and went with Black/Red. My theory was since the QSA fuses were so powerful in their effect, having a similar device at the very start of my dedicated circuit would be more powerful, and trickle down through the entire system.

If you are not familiar with QSA, they have discovered a method of treating conductors that goes way beyond cryo, zapping with tesla coils, graphene, nano fairy dust, everything (I know, I've tried it all). They treat fuses, power adapters, and signal adapters for use in audio systems. Their products are very much results oriented, and not aesthetically oriented. But for what they may lack in visual appeal, they more than make up for in the performance they squeeze out of your system. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The QSA process is the most significant tweak, bar none, that I in my 20 years as the Tweek Geek have ever encountered. It's not even close. 

Installing the Breaker

First, the obligatory warning. Do not attempt to install your own circuit breaker unless you are a licensed electrician. If you decide to do so, you do it at your own risk. There. My ass is covered. It's not a physically or mechanically difficult thing to do, it's just the risk of death from electric shock, that's all. If you are willing to bear the risks, know how to turn off the main breaker to your house, and operate a non contact voltage detector, you are half way to safely being able to replace a breaker. 

I had a main panel outside of my store that had the only main breaker switch on it, so that is what I turned off. I then checked my sub panel to make sure there were absolutely no live wires in it by using the non contact voltage detector. All Good. After unscrewing the front panel from the breaker box, I was ready to replace the existing non QSA breaker with my Black/Red QSA breaker. It was a breeze disconnecting the old and connecting the new breaker. I put the front cover back on the breaker box, left the new breaker in the off position, and headed outside to turn the main power back on. Once that was on, I turned the power on to my main audio circuit. I had an outlet tester in the receptacle that powers my system so that I would know when the power comes on to the circuit, and also to ensure the wiring was still in phase.

The Sound And My Reaction

All levels of QSA treatments offer significant improvement, but there are some that are more "special" than others. Violet is one such level, and Black/Red is what I consider to be QSA's highest value performance level. At the Black/Red level, the noise floor plummets, and there is just a sense of naturalness. Instruments sound like their base materials in a way that is just more realistic. Strain, edge, and graininess are gone. Not papered over with softened highs or transients, just gone. Three dimensionality increases very dramatically. Overall, the improvement is not just an improvement, it is a transformation towards realism. It has to be heard to be understood completely, but this is why I love this product so much. With the introduction of the QSA Breaker, all of this happened to my already heavily QSA'd and power conditioned system. But it went deeper than any of the previous QSA products had been able to go. I felt the improvement "in my bones". 

Even some of my lesser quality recordings suddenly had more dimension to them, more kick, in the drums, and definitely more listenable mids and highs. This was a huge win.

And on the good recordings, it was simply amazing. There was a physiological relaxing of my body and mind when the music played. There was no tension. It's as if any hint of artifice or electronic unnaturalness was no longer triggering a response by my ears and brain. Musical decays, and transients that one instinctively knows to be natural but often are missed even with ultra high quality playback systems were present and startled my senses. Subtle things that make the music even more real, but if absent the music can still be very satisfying and realistic. These elements were all of the sudden there and my body and brain reacted to them as if they were closer to reality. I hope I'm making sense.

A "free association" of the QSA breakers attributes would look like this to me:

• Colors and richness
• Decay
• Air
• Space
• Dimensionality
• Dynamics
• Immersiveness
• Layering
• Sweetness
• Flow
• Relaxation

A Word On Break In

A funny thing about QSA products is the break in. The higher you go in level, the longer the break in period. It normally takes about a month for a Black/Red treated product to reach it's peak consistency in performance. Sometimes at the beginning it can be pretty rough. Taking one through highs and lows over the ensuing weeks. The breaker sounded amazing immediately, and every day since then it has gotten better. I walk in to the store in the mornings and turn the system on, once the music starts playing I just have to sit and admire what an amazing sound I am getting now. So far, there are no off or bad days, but it's only been about a week.

Conclusion

I cannot imagine having an audio system that does not include the QSA Breaker as the bedrock of an audio system. If I were starting from scratch today, I would invest half of my power conditioning budget in a QSA breaker. With that in mind, I would also revamp my Optimized Power Delivery System to include a QSA breaker.

• QSA Breaker
• Dedicated 20 amp Circuit
• 8-10 AWG High quality in-wall wiring 
• QSA wall receptacle
• High Current, high quality power cord
• Non-current limiting power conditioner

Thanks for reading this far. Next time you are shopping for a power cord, conditioner, or even a new component, remember the QSA breaker and consider giving it a try.