It’s been a long time since I posted my original query. Here I am years later with a drink in my hand stumbling across it.
So, for the sake of completeness, and for future generations and civilisations who might wonder also about the benefits of QSA wall plates I will set out now my conclusions....and yes I did buy the double red wall plate.
Simply, the £700 I spent on a double wall plate was roughly the same as I spent on our new rinky-dinky Bosch fridge-freezer (my wife loves it). In that perspective any rational person might conclude I was a reckless fool. Yes and no. The impact of this simple wall plate was greater than any other upgrade I subjected my system to. Better than any cable, any mains conditioner costing far more.
How is this possible? No idea. I have a Masters in Computing Science and yet I don’t completely 100% understand how a PC works, nose to tail. This doesn’t mean, however, that a PC doesn’t work just cos I don’t understand it. Likewise, I don’t have to understand how QSA products work. But work, they do.
After much swapping around over the intervening months I’ve discovered that any component with an analogue stage will benefit the most. So, I have my Hegel integrated amp in one socket, and my Gustard DAC in the other. Moving my DAC plug from my Isotek mains conditioner to the QSA was perhaps the biggest surprise. It really is that obvious. I guess we’ve all kidded ourselves that cable A sounds different to cable B if we listen hard enough. With QSA you don’t have to stare at the sound, just sit back and enjoy the new.
I just wish I’d spent double and bought the red-black wall plate instead.