Product Reviews

STAR QUALITY – THE NORDOST QB8 MK. III DISTRIBUTION BLOCK

The latest QB8 should open the window on your recordings wider than ever before, not least because its benefits spread across every component in your system, allowing every single one to work better . . .

Publication: GY8
Date: June 2023
Reviewer: Roy Gregory

NORDOST QNET – WINNER – DIGITAL COMPONENT: NETWORK SWITCH

QNET goes to the next level, as befits what is very likely the next generation in a fast-moving subset of audio.

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Issue / Date: 214 / December 2022
Reviewer: Alan Sircom

NORDOST QNET ETHERNET SWITCH

[With the QNET] It was clearly a move forward with small improvements across the board, and one major shift. The transformation of soundstage depth was extraordinary, as flat space became deep. The impression of 3D was so great it caused me to question, could this be an artifact?

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: No 123 / October 21, 2022
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QNET AND QSOURCE – NETWORK SWITCH AND LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

I can honestly say that the QNet/QSource pairing transported me closer to my ultimate goal, which is to move closer to the source of artistic creation and the artists I love.

Publication: Stereophile
Issue / Date: Vol. 45 No.10 / October 2022
Reviewer: Jason Victor Serinus

NORDOST QNET NETWORK SWITCH

Thanks to Nordost’s QNET, network audio just took a leap forward in listenability. It makes your streamed music sound more like music and it’s only when you realise just how far from that goal we usually are with networked audio that you begin to understand how important this humble- looking audiophile hockey puck is going to be.

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Issue / Date: 209 / July 2022
Reviewer: Alan Sircom

NORDOST QPOINT SYNCHRONIZER

…the QPOINT locks down the map of the stage and increases the grip, adding body mass and boosting low frequency response. The sound is more pure and becomes easier to read, as if the signal has been cleaned up and extraneous stuff removed.

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: No 120 / April 1, 2022
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QSOURCE LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

To introduce intangibles like atmosphere and timbral finesse, along with tangibles like deep resolution and transparency out to the corners, you might consider the Nordost QSOURCE… the level of refinement the QSOURCE LPS brought exceeded my expectations; my quest for a Hi-End LPS ends here.

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: No 119 / January 29, 2022
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST PREMIUM QKORE WIRE

The major impact of the Premium QKORE wires is purity of the high frequencies. Secondary effects include increased image mass, a boost in dynamics, and dialing in focus. On the subjective side, there's more drama and impact… If you've already invested in the Nordost QKORE solution, this one's a no-brainer. For what you will get, they're not asking a lot.

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: No 118 / November 22, 2021
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QKORE GROUND UNITS AND QKORE WIRE | REVIEW

When the time came for me to remove the Nordost QKORE grounding units from the system, I noticed the difference immediately. … I felt my system lost just a bit of its edge and clarity . . .

Publication: Part-Time Audiophile
Date: December 27, 2020
Reviewer: Marc Phillips

NORDOST QRT QPOINT AND QRT QSOURCE — STRANGE BUT TRUE

With the introduction of the QPOINTS, the orchestra really snapped into place. It was like a photo that went from blurry to sharp in the blink of an eye. It was a sheer pleasure to hear . . . What a revelation!

Publication: The Absolute Sound
Issue / Date: No 309 / October 2020
Reviewer: Jacob Heilbrunn

NORDOST QRT QKORE6

. . . connecting all elements in our system to the artificial ground is equivalent to replacing any of its elements with a superior one. But - and here it starts to be interesting - we get more of everything that we already have in the system, not something completely new . . .

Publication: High Fidelity
Issue / Date: No 196 / September 1, 2020
Reviewer: Wojciech Pacuła

A PAIR OF TWEAKS FROM NORDOST QVIBE AND QKOIL

There's no doubt the QV2s give you a generous mid-and-upper-bass assist, and the QK1s round and flesh out the treble range. From the hefty, well-defined low-end into the clear mids and the soft-edged, non-abrasive highs, frequency response and tone are beautifully rendered. The palpable illusion of instruments present is . . .

Publication: Positive Feedback
Date: June 20, 2020
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QRT POWER PRODUCTS REVIEW. PART 3 OF 3: QVIBE QV2 AC LINE HARMONIZER & QKOIL QK1 AC ENHANCER

We’ve talked about the Qv2 and the QK1 separately but bringing them together was another experience unto itself. With all four (two Qv2’s and two QK1’s) plugged into the QBASE, the best of both was achieved. There was greater warmth, yet also greater focus and pace. There was an increased sense of naturalness but . . .

Publication: NOVO
Date: June 5, 2020
Reviewer: George de Sa

NORDOST QBASE POWER DISTRIBUTOR

So, here we have that happy occasion when the product under review performed beyond expectations and is a genuine bargain to boot…The QBASE is as neutral as the day is long, in the optimal sense of the word. Delightfully free of any sonic signature and so even-handed, you'll be hard pressed to . . .

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: 109 / May 10, 2020
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QKORE GROUND PRODUCTS

In advance of installing the QKORE Ground Units, I had imagined what such a product might accomplish. Those daydreams were prophetic—the only surprise was how significant it turned out to be… it did more to improve my sound than any alternative I can think of at that price . . .

Publication: Positive Feedback
Date: March 12, 2020
Reviewer: Marshall Nack

NORDOST QRT POWER PRODUCTS REVIEW. PART 2 OF 3: QKORE GROUND UNIT AND QKORE WIRES

I didn’t have what I thought to be a compromised power supply connection. Yet even with dedicated circuits, the Nordost QRT QKORE6 and QKORE Wires provided enhanced benefits on a scale I would be hard-pressed to live without; benefits that could not be described as anything-less-than significant . . .

Publication: NOVO
Date: February 25, 2020
Reviewer: George de Sa

NORDOST QRT POWER PRODUCTS REVIEW. PART 1 OF 3: QX POWER PURIFIERS QX4

Sweeter, airier and more resolved high frequencies; richer, smoother, more fluid and holographic midrange; and, fuller, weightier bass with improved imaging and soundstaging. Does that sound like more than a power product should deliver? It may, and yet it is just what my experience was with the QX4 in . . .

Publication: NOVO
Date: November 8, 2019
Reviewer: George de Sa

NORDOST QPOINT HARMONISERS AND QSOURCE POWER SUPPLY

Although several cable brands have branched out into other fields in audio, Nordost was the first to extend its coherent cable ethos out to products that work throughout a good audio system. These have included QRT power purifiers, distribution, cones, feet, and risers, treatments, discs, and more recently . . .

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Issue: 176
Reviewer: Alan Sircom

NORDOST QPOINT – RESONANCE SYNCHRONIZER

These are not “additions”, but as important elements of the audio system as any other ones…I have got used to it and to what it does to the sound of my player so fast and so strongly that I experienced physical pain when I was putting the device back into the box . . .

Publication: High Fidelity
Issue / Date: No 184/September 1, 2019
Reviewer: Wojciech Pacuta

TEST. NORDOST QPOINT

Ich schäme mich manchmal dafür, wie wenig wir über Audio wissen, wie wenig wir davon verstehen. Wir fliegen zum Mond, wir bereiten uns auf den Flug zum Mars vor, wir haben ziemlich gute Kenntnisse darüber, wie sich das Universum verändert und was seine Struktur ist, wir haben Tausende von Planeten gefunden, die der Erde ähnlich sind, und . . .

Publication: HiFi Statement
Date: October 18, 2019
Reviewer: Wojciech Pacuta
Language: Deutsch (German)

NORDOST QBASE UND QKORE – SAUBERE ANGELEGENHEIT

Das könnte die Lösung für alle von verschmutztem Netzstrom Geplagten sein: Kabelspezialist Nordost legt mit seinen QRT-Geräten ein wohldurchdachtes System vor, das die Stromversorgung der Anlage auf eine neue, grundsolide Basis stellt . . .

Fidelity – HiFi und Musik
Issue / Date: No 42 März/April 2019
Reviewer: Hans von Draminski
Language: Deutsch (German)

NORDOST QKORE AND QKORE WIRE — SYSTEM GROUNDING ACCESSORIES

I can’t imagine that anyone who’s invested considerable time and energy and money in a high-end system would want to be without the markedly “blacker” backgrounds, increased transparency and detail, more vivid colors, and greater overall veracity delivered by Nordost’s QKore Ground Units. Connecting just a single . . .

Publication: Stereophile
Date: January 2019
Reviewer: Jason Victor Serinus

NORDOST QKORE1 GROUND UNIT

When you power on your home audio system and turn it up, you don’t just bring the noise, chances are, you’ve got too much of it already in the form of AC-born (-/e) electrical noise. The AC power line is the lifeblood of a home audio system and its quality is critical to a system’s ultimate performance no matter how well designed the power supplies of . . .

Publication: SoundStage! Australia
Date: June 2018
Reviewer: Peter Katsoolis

NORDOST QKORE GROUNDING SYSTEM — SILENCE IS GOLDEN

. . . I thought I’d gone about as far as you could to eliminate noise and hash riding on the power lines. It now turns out that I was quite wrong. Nordost’s Michael Taylor visited this somewhat skeptical reviewer, and the conversion process went rather quickly. Facts, as Thomas Gradgrind likes to say in Dickens’ Hard Times, are what boys and girls need. And in this instance . . .

Publication: the absolute sound
Date: May/June 2018
Reviewer: Jacob Heilbrunn

NORDOST QKORE — BENEFITS OF PARALLEL GROUNDING

Every home has a main electrical safety ground, as required by all electrical building codes. Safety grounding is achieved by connecting the metallic casings of all electrical appliances to a ground conductor that leads to an earth ground. In the case of an audio system, components are connected to the safety ground via the ground pin of their . . .

Publication: The Audio Beat
Date: July 5, 2017
Reviewer: Marc Mickelson

NORDOST QKORE GROUND UNITS

Sometimes we as journalists are privy to way prior to their launch. Such is the case with Nordost’s QKORE trio of ground units. I was told about these at CES this year, but was so sworn to secrecy that they appeared as ‘Nordost stuff’ and later ‘Nordost Q Project’ on our internal planning documents. Even Nordost’s distributors will only . . .

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Issue: 147
Reviewer: Alan Sircom

QRT QUANTUM NORDOST STROMVERTEILER — EIGENTLICH IESST DOCH NUR STROM

Die Netzversorgung von HiFi-Anlagen stellt ein schier unendliches Thema dar und der Möglichkeiten gibt es gar viele im Markt. Dogmatiker begegnen den unter- schiedlichsten Netzkabeln grundsätzlich skeptisch. Pragmatiker (wie der Autor) müssen es ausprobieren und – ja, es ist jedesmal aufs Neue ein Erlebnis! . . .

Publication: HIFI-Stars
Date: August 2016
Reviewer: Alexander Aschenbrunner
Language: Deutsch (German)

NORDOST QLINE

Equipment report from Audiotechnique, Hong Kong. . . .

Publication: Audiotechnique
Issue / Date: No. 412 January 2016
Reviewer: Martin Leung
Language: Chinese

OUTFITTING AN AUDIO SYSTEM WITH NORDOST NORSE 2 TYR 2 CABLES AND QRT QBASE POWER DISTRIBUTION

Your system could be comprised of highly capable components but in order to maximize their performance – and deliver the depth and nuances found in live musical performances – you will need to connect them with good quality cables and provide them with clean power. Nordost has a history dating back to 1991 and . . .

Publication: Canada HiFi
Date: November 9, 2015
Reviewer: Suave Kajko

NORDOST QRT SYSTEM REVIEW

Reviews sometimes assume a life of their own. This review or at least the idea for this review began when a friend (Sherri) brought a number of Nordost QKOIL models (QV2/QK1) to my home one afternoon so that I could hear them in my system. I had previously visited her home for a demonstration of the QK1 and QV2 and really liked what . . .

Publication: Dagogo
Date: August 2015
Reviewer: Fred Crowder

NORDOST - A "SYSTEM" OF PRODUCTS

The online dictionary defines system as: the unity of several elements working together to achieve a goal. Wait, what's that have to do with Nordost? Quite a bit—permit me to explain: over the years, Hi-Fi has seen its share of "systems," Linn, Naim, anyone? Typically, we have associated these system approaches within the context of the entire audio ecosystem, i.e. start to . . .

Publication: Positive Feedback
Issue / Date: Issue 69 September-October 2013
Reviewer: Danny Kaey

QRT QBASE QB8 AND NORDOST SORT KONES

For years it was cables, but these days there is little that rattles the cage of the committed audio puritan like mains conditioners and equipment support cones. Reviews of either is almost bound to elicit a rise in blood pressure and a trip to the keyboard to fire off an indignant mail to some audio forum or other. As for tiny, resonating metal bowls that sit on the wall? Don’t even . . .

Publication: Hi-Fi+
Date: Issue 73
Reviewer: Chris Thomas