QSA Stones

Stoned to the bone.

Mine are on the Blackhawk transformers. I first tried them one at a time. The colors are apt in that red is warmer, clear really is more clear, etc. That is the main thing to keep in mind, they are sort of refined system tuning devices. Not tone controls, the effect is much more sophisticated than that. I could see someone fairly happy with their system but just wishing it was very slightly less aggressive or edgy and not wanting to risk something like cables that might change it a lot the red stones might be just the ticket.

Or if you already had plenty of body and wanted a little more lively dynamic detail then blue or maybe clear would get you there. Or if all three are used together they combine to come back to being an overall neutral across the board improvement. Pretty cool. Only thing I don't like they look like little brown cow pies. With a really, really cheap looking QSA decal. Proving once again you can never have it all.

I did try the colors individually on my power conditioner, with the first batch. I decided that I like all 3 together best. This effectively means I have to buy 6 at a time, as the individual colors are sold in packs of 2. Not complaining, though, the improvements are well worth the price to me. I’m thinking I may get a batch for my DAC and pre next. Then there are the output transformers on my amp… Don’t know if there’s a point where they become too much of a good thing, but, if they work similarly to the PPT stuff, maybe not.

I was also considering upgrading one of my blue fuses to yellow, but, for not much more, I got improvements in two components, instead of just one.

Yes the Stones are quite good. If you want more I would try the QSA Light Blue fuse which is very similar results (if not more) but costs less than Stones.

I currently have QSA blue fuses in all of my components. How much of a jump is there going from blue to yellow?

Pretty big. I went from Light Blue to Violet, that was insane! Frank has compared QSA Yellow with the new SR Purple and he slightly prefers Purple. I like Yellow enough to feel it is not worth the time and trouble. Now if Ted wants to send me one for free, hint hint, happy to compare! 

I would do it anyway but the darn things are different sizes. I don't mind different values for comparing but different sizes just don't fit. My general approach anyway is once one thing like this is elevated above stock then instead of looking to upgrade that one again it is better to look for something else. Like Pods, elevators, outlets, contacts, that kind of thing. The nice thing about QSA though at least via tweak geeks you can exchange for full value towards a better one. So many little things to consider....

I’m ignorant about these things, so I gotta ask....what are they? They’re called "stones", but I assume there’s more to them than that? Are they magnets of some sort? Insulator shields? Some technical explanations please!

Some technical explanations please!

The only technical info you’ll get on these, is. 😴


Cheers George

I passed a qsa stone once. Damn near killed me.

QSA Stones are one of a number of different things that do make a very noticeable improvement in sound quality, in spite of the fact no one has a very good explanation of how they work. There are many such things in this world. For example, no one has a very good explanation for why things that work bug certain people so much. Why don't they just pass on to the next thing? Why so triggered they have to make jokes about things they don't understand? No one knows. Yet the lack of a reason never stops them trying to not make their system better. So why should it stop us trying to make our systems better?

There is good reason to think things like this work some sort of effect on the field, which is after all the music signal. Most talk about electricity using the water metaphor, which is all well and good but hopelessly inadequate. Water in a pipe is not affected by radiation outside the pipe. Electricity in a wire most certainly is. This is in fact the principle upon which transformers, phono cartridges, amps and speakers all work.

If you look at any of the Synergistic Research fuses or AC outlets you will notice little blobs of goop stuck on there. They will tell you not to remove the blobs. If sold separately people would mock the blobs. Heck they mock the fuses, they are like Walt in Breaking Bad, "I am the one who mocks!" But it is no surprise the blob is one of the active ingredients.

QSA fuses, when you go up into the more expensive ones they have black stuff stuck on the outside. The more expensive the more black stuff. What is it? How's it work? WTF cares????!!! Are you trying to improve your system or make your own? If improve your system I strongly suggest ignore WHY and focus instead on WHAT. When people say they hear it, do you want to hear it? Or do you want to argue about why?

If you want to build your own then in that case I strongly suggest start reading mahgister. He is doing all the same stuff, only using easily obtainable inexpensive ingredients. Go ask him why. Me, I just want the sound.

As Thomas Tusser said in his poem…..

you might try the stones in the main circuit box as the power enters from the street.

you might try the stones in the main circuit box as the power enters from the street.

Throw them in the hydro water dam that generates your ac juice at the start.

Cheers George

Everybody must get stones.

Seriously,
Have any of you stoners tried an ordinary stone from your yard or from a mountain trip? Why wouldn't they have similar effects? Is it the paint? Have you cut open a stone to see what's inside? I can't believe I am asking such hard questions, seriously. 
Isn't there a song titled "I gave my sweetheart a cherry, she gave me a stone."
Not sure what that means, but it has to relate somehow. 

Man you’ve got to have stones to even Suggest and admit to trying that sort of utter bunk. Glue them to cable elevators but make sure they’re pure porcelain and white. Next it will be a variety of pies in aluminum plates starting with cherry because of the possibility of stones in red goop…..

I did one search of the name, and it appeared to be a round black polished stone with a logo, but interestingly, there seemed to be a red faceted round stone turned upside down on its table glued to the front. Do they all have that? Is that glass, or synthetic corundum?

Oh my sides hurt. The material on here has been so great the past couple of days. These 2 take the cake: 1. Speakers are less important than your speaker cables, interconnects, and power cord. And 2. Buy expensive stone, put it on top of your amp/bash yourself in the face for paying $80 for a rock…A ROCK. Geology would tell you it’s millions of years of sediment / sand / pressure. Rock mean much more to audiofile tho. 

You guys crack me up lol. How do you even come up with this drivel ?

How do you even come up with this drivel ?

+1

Is that glass, or synthetic corundum?

That’s the "red" rock you pay $86 for, the bit it’s glued to is the plinth for it. (you can have red, blue, or clear) how thoughtful of them as they say they all have different tonal characteristics
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-bfa86/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/1848/6211/Red-Stones-01__232...
As I said before they should follow the kidney stone arch2 passed

Cheers George

This is just another joke right? 🙄

  These snake oil products are making Audiogon a dumping ground for rubbish to sell to the gullible.

Cheers George

I actually have a fourth type of QSA Stone: the extremely rare nothing stone. It’s supposed to be a clear color stone but there is absolutely nothing there on top. Just a completely smooth brown cow chip. Doesn’t say much for QSA’s quality control. I did inform Mike of the problem but he never got back to me. No big deal, maybe it will be a rare collector’s item one day.

A quick check of the people interested only in mockery shows most of them don't even have a system. One has a decent entry level setup on a normal shelf in front of a fireplace. Just the kind of thing that could be improved a lot for not much investment of money if only he were interested in investing some brainpower to improvement instead of mockery. This is how you do it. Another one seems okay until reading down the system components we find "Cables Gone thru so so many". So a guy who has yet to figure out the basics is mocking more advanced audiophiles.

For reference- and I do mean reference- here is the system of the kind of advanced audiophile you all should be doing your level best to learn from. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 It really doesn't have to cost a lot to make some big moves in the right direction. Just last week someone posted how much better their system sounds just from routing cables as I recommended here. You guys could do it too. First step, maybe not be such a yugebohner. 

QSA stones are pretty far down on my "wish" list, but I don’t doubt that they do "something" to your system. Whether or not I understand it is irrelevant.

I wonder if they have a similar effect to SR’s GCT’s (or whatever they’re called)? Those, supposedly, are the bees knees, but I have no experience with them.

Dear God .... Such *Desperate for attention*  arrogance ...

”For reference- and I do mean reference- here is the system of the kind of advanced audiophile you all should be doing your level best to learn from. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 ”

It's not the insults, it's the constant insults. ONE is never enough, it has to be over and over and over... It's like living next door to a neighbor that has a dog outside YOUR window that barks all the time. It's HIS dog...

It's like trying to talk to a Klingon (Grand Nagus Zek DS9)

Regards

I wonder if they have a similar effect to SR’s GCT’s (or whatever they’re called)? Those, supposedly, are the bees knees, but I have no experience with them.

SR has so many you got to get it right- HFT, ECT, PHT, probably more. Some like their fuses and outlets use a similar substance. So does NPS1260, so did PPT Total Contact. There are a lot of different aspects to improving sound, and a lot of different approaches resulting from this. A lot of these are complimentary and work together very well. I have a lot of different things in my system that work. Not everything I've tried does work. But everything used in my system sure does, and I have done the demos with people to prove it.

Synergistic Research ECT’s. (Had to look it up. That’s a lot of **T’s to keep straight, for sure!)
I don’t have any external power supplies/power conditioners on my system, so not sure if the stones would be of any benefit to me.

Like I say, I don’t doubt that the QSA stones do "something", just not sure it’s something I need in my particular system. Perhaps someday I will give them a shot, but I need to get some other things straightened out first. (Currently remodeling/re-doing my listening room/office.)

Thanks for the info guys.

+1 @mijostyn your brain works like mine...

Pet rocks?

For those who have an like these stones, I wonder if you might try some stones from your yard or nearby and report back about any differences. I’m open to trying things, but DIY seems the best, first route.

Magic stones - another chapter in the Flat Earth Science textbook! 

This Tweak Geek fella would have been hawking elixir’s back in the Old Wild West.
Who thinks of these cons?

Cannot blame the guy though, A sucker is born…..

If you think this is all bunk, or can’t see how these type of things can have any impact on the sound, that’s fine, but I’ll politely ask you to refrain from making repeated posts to that effect. The QSA Stones are obviously not for you, nor is this thread directed towards you.


Reading is apparently not a lot of people's strong suit here.

Go kick rocks y’all ;-)

Now, when is someone gonna throw this dog a stone! 

Yes @millercarbon and coralkong: I’ve only tried the stones directly on top of my preamp and amp's output transformers. To my ears, very similar in effect to the SR ECT’s.

Reminds me of when I was a kid.  If someone didn't know what else to say, the response was "you're stupid".  Or as Bambi said  "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".  Or the kid that always has to get the last word in.

Oh,  I put springs under my speakers and it was/is one of  the biggest improvements yet.  Cost me $100 for subs and speakers.  Clarity, transients, bass, soundstage wider and deeper.  Voices OMG.  READY, SET, GO.  Tell me I wasted my money or I am imagining the results.

@coralkong I see you are a true believer and I will respect that. I also have the right to debunk junk science. Especially when one can not even begin to validate it with science other than voodoo science. Now if you told me this was a stone that was a Ferrite core/choke and it was reducing EMI and transient parasitic signals with a pretty blue or red stone on top and could support your findings with factual data, I would believe it.

BTW you can buy 2, 15mm Ferrite Cores for $25.00 on Amazon.

@daledeee1 the thread is bout stones not $39.00 springs on Amazon. I am a firm believer in Vibration Control and that is well documented and science supports that in audio, electrical and mechanical power transmission. Vibration and it's the parasitic energy/drag effect efficiencies.

I have Springs or Suspension under all my equipment and have brass pucks on top of my equipment to help reduce vibrations.

Hunks of rock with crystals not so much. Kind of like drinking tigers blood or snorting Rino Horn will make a hard man.

So keep it in context you are comparing real engineering and science with VOODOO.

Do you guys wear power crystals around your neck to give you strength?
Reminds me of the Eastern European (no rub on Eastern Europe or the wonderful people) that sold copper bracelets on the streets of Cicero IL down by the Danly Machine Factory claiming they cured arthritis (debunked by the medical field for centuries).

Apples for apples and keep it real.

I only buy rocks made in the USA. These look like Chinese-made knock-off rocks. 

I think Everyone wants great sound and some will do (especially the gullible), anything to achieve it.Unfortunately and undeniable Great sound is going to cost big money for equipment upfront. No amount of voodoo and propped up BS gimmicks Will change that fact and/or make junk sound like a Ken Fritz stereo !! I truly feel sorry for anyone who gets scammed by some of the crap out there. And I certainly don’t have any respect for people with either no friends not much of a life or shirts with holes too small for their heads. In this world we live by science we create by science. Fluke does happen but can be explained by science.
Some of us will remember..Is it live or is it Memorex sales S… Technology and science changed that thinking fast enough. So is it regression that we find Ourselves in a gravel pit looking for rocks to put on our equipment. If nothing else it proves humour is constant.

jerryg123"I see you are a true believer and I will respect that. I also have the right to debunk junk science. Especially when one can not even begin to validate it with science other than voodoo science"

So when will you commence you're debunking so far all I see from you is a lot of words and mostly just bunking.