Nordost QKORE

I agree that setting length at 2m minimum is not good, as reducing wire runs is a must and having 1m would be a nice option.

Nordost now have an upgraded higher end ground wire (of course) in black and you could possibly ask about custom lengths for that.

I just recently cleaned my audio room, took the entire system apart e.t.c

After putting it all back together it sounded great, but something was missing. I had not yet connected the QKore ground wire to the QB8 power distributor.

That single change then opened up the soundstage, removed digital-ness and made everything sound more natural. Could hear more detail, but not fatiguing, the opposite.

These grounding devices are essential. It’s hard to describe what the improvements are, because it’s not changes in tone or bass like you get with changing speaker/IC signal cables.

Just this one change made all the difference. You always wonder if a previous upgrade is as good as you think or were you just fooling yourself. Well it confirmed for me once again the QKore is awesome (connected to a Nordost QB8 anyway).

I am now going to get the QKore premium grounding wire and see if it’s any better than the stock. I need a 1m cable in that location and the premium ground wire is in 1m and 2m lengths, unlike the stock which is 2m only.

As much as I sing the praises of the QKore I do not like it with the RCA wire cable so far.

I only have a secondary SPDIF RCA input on the DAC, and another SPDIF RCA output on the Oppo player. On either I find the QKore to do little or even be a slight negative. But this is no doubt a limitation of devices available to connect it to. I have no pre-amp or integrated amp, so no unused analog RCA sockets to try it on. So the RCA cable just sits in the box for now.

Nordost has QKore USB cables, ethernet cables, XLR e.t.c So far I have not splurged the cash on trying any of these. If any of you did let us know what these connections did for you.

QKore Premium wire incoming. Was supposed to get it today but delivery held back, so Monday hopefully. I only got the banana wire for connection to the QB8, so that’s the only application I can give a report on.

If the premium qkore wire is better, at least the price differential is not multiples of the tier below, as is often the case with Nordost cable tiers.

Reporting back on QKore 6. I have made a few forum posts voicing my slight disappointment with the QKore other than grounding to the QBase power distributor (where it works awesomely).

But I had limited ways to try it, only an Oppo streamer and Teddy Pardo DAC, neither of which worked well.

Now I have new kit, a Naim 272 Streamer/DAC/Pre. Lots of ports to try it. QKore did not seem to make much of a difference on the analog RCA inputs/outputs of the pre-amp section. The digital section had a BNC output, and using an adaptor, yes this made a slight improvement.

Next up the spdif digital inputs (RCA and BNC). Bingo. Here a large improvement, so much so I am buying a QKore premium wire BNC cable just to max this particular grounding connection.

My limited experience of grounding shows its system dependant. Does not work in all, or even half the cases, but when it does its huge. So experimentation is a must.

Running another separate ground rod to earth is against code in most places so watch that. It is here in Australia, where having different ground rods can effect the MEMS connection at the fuse box.

Probably best comparison would be to compare Puritan Groundmaster City vs QKore 1 on a power distributors ground terminal. There is a large price difference, the Puritan is only $250.

I just upgraded my QKore ground wire from standard to premium for one of the connections, a BNC digital input on a Naim streamer.

From first plug in, it seemed a subtle and just OK upgrade, like better bass. But after leaving it working 48 hours, a new level of transparency and lower noise floor that was surprising. A great upgrade for the price, the 2m Premium QKore wire being only about $500 USD. One of the cheapest cable line upgrades Nordost do...

I was using a RCA-BNC adaptor on the standard QKore wire, so don't know what difference that could have made.