Russ Andrews QRT

[Neiro]

Well I have had the thing for a couple of weeks now so I thought I would post my thoughts.

First a bit of background, in my current house I have plagued with a pretty poor sound from my system. Despite using vinyl, valves and efficient speakers I get a quite flat sound. Flat in terms of dynamics, tone and 3D image. This has been confirmed by some fellow WAD ers who have been round and pretty much everyone else who hears the system!! However, frustratingly, on a couple of days in the past few years my system has suddenly kicked in and been everthing I could possibly want. This is followed by a return to the previous flat sound. This has lead me to beleive that my issue is either electrical quality or RF (phone masts nearby and next to local sub station). I have tried all manner of mains filters,correctors,synthesizers and balanced transformers but in the main they do not seem to work that well and never even approach the sound I know my system will do. Needless to say I have tried other equipment but no matter what I still get this flat sound.

My last effort is that I am having a RF industry expert visit shortly with a load of test gear.

Being convinced my issue is RF/Electrical based my curiosity was raised when the RA brochure came through the door. Whilst the marketing blurb and science (or lack of!) seem to be liberal I was mainly interested in the fact that the unit used an RF 'field' to produce it's effect. So I ordered one knowing that I could return it if not happy.

When the unit arrived I installed it as advised and just did some quick A/Bs, my initial thoughts were that it definitely was doing something, the tone of instruments had fleshed out a bit and the sound overall became quite soft. I then noticed that despite being soft overall there was in fact an edge to the sound - I know that sounds contradictory but thats the best I can do!

I recognised this edge from when I plug other items into my system ring main, I suspected the power supply that the unit comes with, I connected it to a bulb for load and found that plugging it in and out of the system ring main introduced the edge to the sound. So sounds like a one step forward and one step back!

I then removed the unit as it was just a quick A/B. I plugged the unit in at the other end of the house (the unit has a range of 15m) and left it to burn in for a week.

I then returned the unit to the room where my system is but plugged it in via an extension lead from another ring i.e. not the system one.

Well I have to say that it does what it says on the tin!! My system has become a lot less flat. Instrument tone is fleshed out, instuments now have more body and solidity to them. Musically there is more flow which gives involvement and interest that was previously lacking. For instance when a double drum hit comes along (not sure of the musical term) it now seems to be a definite 'bam' 'bam' as opposed to a bit of a blur. I can also hear a more definite decay on piano and drum notes. Voices have more presence and detail in them. My system is now also doing counterpoint to an extent it did not before, this defintely makes music more entertaining!

Now for the even my wife can hear it bit!! My long suffering wife has long given up interest in my frustrations and constant search for a solution so I do not bother her with it these days. So apart from seeing the extension cable coming into the room she has no idea what is going on (well she is blonde!). Well we have just spent the last three evenings listening to music all at her request, she keeps asking me what I have done but I can't bring myself to tell her that its down to a little black box.

Today before leaving for work I unplugged the unit and upon turning on my system tonight was greeted by a flat sound! The unit does not solve all my issues but I am very impressed and am going to keep it. If my current flat sounding system was rated at 80% and it has been 100% on the odd few days I would say this device has moved it to 90+%.

I will turn the unit on again tomorrow and see if the improvement returns!