Oh, my… a review of “feet.” Or Supports as Quadraspire calls them. Now, we’ve recently been in the factory of these Brits. And we’ve seen how serious they are. Impressive. We also received a set of QPlus Advanced. Try it yourself, they said. And of course we did..
Now we’re not going to fill thousands of words about a few feet of bamboo with some metal in it. Because honestly: it’s four supports, made out of bamboo with a ring and some stuff in it… some more rings. Hmm… All in all, an advanced puck. And very nicely made, of course.
If you would like to know what Quadraspire says about various types of metal, we refer you to our factory visit. All in all, bronze and bamboo is an ideal combination, sonically speaking. And that is also included in this QPlus Advanced. The outer ring is aluminium. That’s bronze in the Reference as well.
With the Adagio
We have placed the Quadraspire QPlus Advanced under our Metrum Acoustics Adagio (at home with your editor). This is because it makes it easier for us to test long-term. We placed the pucks both under the feet and directly under the casing. This to determine whether it has an impact. Directly under the casing is better we noticed, although that difference is very small.
The rest of the system consists of a Metrum Acoustics Ambre, two AVM M30 monoblocks and a set of DALI Epicon 2. The cabling consists of a set Grimm SQM, Audioquest Rocket 88 (bi-wire) and Audioquest Cinnamon utp. The I2S connection between the Ambre and Adagio is a homemade Audioquest CAT7 with Telegärtner plugs. A fiber decoupling to the Ambre has also been applied here. It’s a lovely system.
Skeptical
We have to be honest here: we didn’t expect any effect. After all, how can the sound and image of a complete digital dac/pre-amp be influenced by four pucks? Does this fall under the category Akiko Minelli or is there an audible effect?
According to the manufacturer, the QPlus Advanced should stop resonances so that they can no longer enter the device. This while the energy can flow away. The latter is particularly important, because otherwise, for example, resonances from the power supply may affect the reproduction. After all: resonances are energy. Let’s get on with it.
Ow… okay.
Your editor has a system at home in a tailor-made piece of furniture made of thick MDF. A rock silid thing. We’ll grab a couple of songs to set a baseline. Adele, Radiohead, TOOL, Massive Attack… …of everything. Now we already know the system, so we don’t need long to get in.
We put the Quadraspire QPlus Advanced underneath and… uh… yeah. I can hear a difference. Is it shocking? No. It’s not like we’re gonna fall right off the couch or listen with our tongues on the floor… But we hear quite clearly more air and a deeper, nicer low-end. Bass with more detail. Better to follow… And that’s a good thing within the genres your editor listens to.
And that goes for almost all tracks. At Massive Attack it’s the bass, at Adele (Lovesong) the space. Just a little more acoustics, just a little more air. A tweak that works.
Back
We take the pucks away after a few weeks… just checking. After all, we are now used to the air and the tighter, more detailed bass. And, uh… yeah. We hear the step (or: the small step) back. A little less tightness, a little less looseness and air… slightly less acoustics audible in the recordings… oh, my gosh.
Now it is very difficult to say that these Quadraspire QPlus pucks – supports – have this effect in every set. There will be systems where they do nothing. And there will be systems where they do a lot more. We’ve been finding it interesting to hear a difference at all.
In short, those Brits don’t bullshit. Yes: it is a tweak with a hefty price tag. 350 euros. We will be able to come up with tweaks in many systems that do more. However: for those who have all the cabling, positioning and acoustics in order: certainly interesting! And in our home system, yes… we’ll leave in.
