Anyone tired a Nordost QB4 MK III?

Make that tried.

I have 3 QB4 Mk II’s - one for each circuit feeding my system. I use them in conjunction with power conditioners - not as power conditioners. Yet, I only use the ’Primary Earth’ outlet in each unit. None of the others. It provides a nice transparency to the SQ via their proprietary solid core wiring.

I took one apart. It’s well built - pretty simple inside. Star grounding - with a resistor on each outlet - except to the Primary Earth. The resistors slightly lift the ground - which ’softens’ or ’warms’ the SQ a tad bit. This could be a good thing to tame some HF harshness - if that's needed.

In order to convert the QBase to a power conditioner, the QRT plug-in enhancers would be needed. I didn’t go in that direction. Fortunately, the QB4’s play very nicely with my Transparent Audio conditioners. YMMV

Thanks for the info.  Can you recommend a good power conditioner that’s not thousands of dollars?

Power conditioner that’s not in the thousands of dollars? If you can, run a dedicated line. 

Thought about a dedicated line,  but don’t think I want to go that route.

I delayed it and regret not having it done earlier. It’s a really nice improvement. I no longer use a power conditioner. Good power cords and upgraded outlets on a dedicated circuit take care of clean power delivery. I highly recommend it. But it’s up to you. With the power conditioner you need the best power cord feeding it, or at least one that’s equal your best power cord. Cheap power conditioner is the cure that’s potentially worse than the disease. 

Call Jim from wisdom cable he can give you a good advise and price or buy used Niagara 1200, Steve Huff has a glowing review on Audioquest niagara 1200, I have one.Its very good.

Thanks for the recommendation of the Niagara 1200.

Try Furutech power distributors, you kill two birds with one stone!

Buy or try Niagara 1200 with return privileges.

I have the mkII QB8 and want to know his much better the mkIII is.

OK I have a mk3 incoming and will test directly against the mk2.

Apparent changes are; the internal PCB's are redesigned, with the ground plane now on its own dedicated PCB with more of a focus on ground sink tech.

And the internal wiring is now Nordost mono filament. On the mk2 it was just normal stranded copper. If your incoming and outgoing power cables were all Nordost Mono filament solid core, running stranded copper in-between, even in short links, was always a compromise.

But I am a big fan of the QBase mkII after having used quite a few different power conditioners and parallel filters over the years. I thought it was just an empty box and too expensive, but it beat everything else I had and am glad I took the plunge to get one.

Maybe it has a special synergy with Nordost power cables and would not work as well with other brands, but who cares if you are on the Nordost train :/

Can't wait for the update, thanks.

One thing I will mention, according to Roy Gregory, who has reviewed many Nordost QRT products (for decades literally) in the UK, the QB8 performs better than the QB4. 

You think they would be identical except for outlet number, but that’s what the Brit’s claim. Something to keep in mind if you can stump up the extra cash.

agisthos

... according to Roy Gregory, who has reviewed many Nordost QRT products ...

Roy Gregory is a shill. He works for Nordost.

On the mk2 it was just normal stranded copper.

Incorrect. Here’s a link to photos showing the innards of a Nordost QB4 MkII.

The wiring is solid core - aka monofilament. It looks like 14 awg (possibly 12awg). As you can see, they are not copper. The only wire that is stranded is the ground that goes from the pcb board to the base plate. Even then, it looks like 14awg with relatively thick stands - perhaps 5 stands.

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I thought it was just an empty box

It pretty much is. It transitions from being a power distributor to a power conditioner by adding the assorted Nordost Plug-ins. It does offer a grounding method - which all of the major cable manufacturers providing.

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. . . the QB8 performs better than the QB4

Thanks for the laugh!

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As per my earlier post, I have 3 QB4’s. They do provide improvement to my system’s SQ - even w/o the enhancers.

The QX4 QB8/4 combo is really nice. I had this with Frey 2 cables all around in a Devore/Leben system. My family would experiment turning the QX4 off and we could all tell. Agree with Steakster on the transparency.  

@cleeds He worked for Nordost for 3 years 2009-2011, after which he went back to audio journalism. It’s (par for the course) dishonesty to misinform people here by saying he works for Nordost. Is it possible to work in the industry for a time (12 years ago!) AND be a reviewer?

@steakster How would you know if all you have tried is the QB4? Although I agree it doesn’t make sense.

I had a QB8 mk2 where the fuse holder chassis insert broke and the wiring to/from the positive terminal inlet to the fuse terminal was stranded copper. Definitely not solid core monofilament. There could be production differences though, and your pics show solid core. But is it monofilament?

I was going to jump the fuse holder and wire it straight to the PCB (just like the Qbase mk I was, it had no fuse) but changed my mind and got a new replacement sent out.

Reporting back.... the mk3 bass is much better and more defined, and the soundstage has opened up. The differences between the mk2 and mk3 are subtle, but IMO worth the money. I now have the mk2 for sale.

I will also try out the new WAVE and SINE devices. I used to have the Qv2 and while it did improve things in some areas, I thought it ultimately took away some transparency and naturalness. I ended up liking my system better without it in. But that was a while ago and many things have since changed...