Nelson Brill Reviews Two Bass-Centric Acts in Cambridge

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Nordost

Real music lovers can find the melody in everything. From the park to the concert hall, our friend Nelson Brill is always on the hunt for great sound. In this blog, Brill covers two bass-centric performances at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA, featuring veteran bassist, Ron Carter, and newcomer to the scene, Linda May Han Oh .

TWO BASS-CENTRIC JAZZ BANDS SWING WITH PLAYFUL PURPOSE

By Nelson Brill

MAY 29, 2017

The power of an acoustic or electric bass is limitless. It can, in the hands of an eminent string master, power a walking blues romp or, in the hands of a young bassist taking her first turn as a band leader, it can serve up a stew of gut-thumping colors propelling her original compositions.

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As for an eminent master of the acoustic bass, there is no one like the impeccable Ron Carter, who celebrated his 80th birthday with his artful trio (Donald Vega on piano and Russell Malone on guitar) in a sparkling performance on April 28th at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA. (www.regattabarjazz.com). Sporting a dapper suit (accented with a purple pocket square), the lanky, joyous 80 year-old immediately alighted on his bass with delectable bounce and rhythmic splendor. His nimble fingers tenderly flirted with his strings, creating buoyant and soulful song lines. The intimate setting of the Regattabar (and the superb sound that house engineer W.J. Edward Emerson was able to concoct from Carter’s small amplifier elevated on a stand) allowed for the capacity audience to lean in and hear every soft purr, fleshy pluck and pungent roll from Carter’s bass.

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Carter and his sympathetic band mates swung heartily into music that paid tribute to some of Carter’s departed past colleagues: bassist Oscar Pettiford, guitarist Jim Hall and trumpeter Miles Davis. Their tribute to Hall, entitled “Brazilian Opus No. 5”, was highlighted by Carter’s extended solo in which he ensnared all the warmth of this slow-brewing bossa nova with nimble dexterity. He located notes down low (with gentle plucks and lingering harmonic holds) and then effortlessly slipped up to his highest register (with an elastic “portimento” or huge slide) grabbing a cluster of notes with his outstretched fingers. “Brazilian Opus” concluded with Carter’s trademark touch: a rigorous singular bass note struck on just the right note and pitch to sum up the arc of the band’s creative excursion.

Cushioned within all this alluring bass drama was Vega’s subtly eloquent piano. Throughout the concert, Vega displayed a plush keyboard attack that relied on understatement in his creative feel for the backbone of each melody. He twisted each strand of melody into creative braids of fleeting piano lines that always fell into satisfying patterns of light tension and release.

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The Trio’s version of Pettiford’s “La Verne Walk” was a slippery, sliding delight that had all three musicians crackling with collective energy and virtuoso solo moments. All the sunshine in this tune was captured in Carter’s cavort: he pulled strings to bend them in elastic deep rumbles; he slid and slurped in playful bluesy holds and chased the melody with buoyant touches and spidery licks.

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Carter’s ineffable bounce led the way into Malone’s gleeful solo in which Malone first created the delectable sound of a washboard by rapidly strumming his strings and lightly tapping his hollow body guitar to create a wooden percussive rush. He then found a perch on one note, repeating it for several seconds, only to flow into a rapid, funky descent that ended on the same one note perch. The crowd roared in approval as a smiling Carter took up this same one-note on his bass and threw it into his quiver of colorful declarations to send Pettiford’ swinging piece homeward.

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The Trio ended their set on a version of Benny Goodman’s “Soft Winds” that showcased the Trio’s ability to hit prankish hard, with the lightest of touches. Vega’s piano solo was filled with undulant waves of blues chords rising from his depths to his highest registers; Malone dove in with his sly funk and crisp strumming and Carter added his penetrating undertow of walking bass lines. This thunderous action receded when Carter’s bass veered into the lightest of purrs and touches, sending Vega and Malone into peaceful curls of their own, high and sweet on their instruments. The final note (which Carter held serenely) sung out with regal force punctuating this great musical companionship.

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Carter has been involved in more than 2,000 recording sessions. A few of his most recent recordings are recommended for their audiophile quality and their beautiful ensnaring of Carter’s spirited versatility.

One of my older favorites is Carter’s 2003 Entre Amigos SACD/CD recording on the (always reliable) audiophile quality label, Chesky (www.chesky.com). On this superb recording (suffused with the warmth and air of the recording venue), Carter’s bass softly entwines (from a layered rear position) with the expressive vocals of Rosa Passos and the acoustic glory of several other virtuoso musicians to mine the unfolding grooves of some classic Brazilian tunes. The relaxed feel of this session is fantastic with Passos’ lithe and expressive vocals crisply captured up front, meandering in and out of Carter’s probing bass.

Carter also showcases his versatility on his most recent recordings: he joins in a warm and simmering duet with saxophonist Houston Person on Chemistry [HighNote Records] and then joins forces with a boisterous band led by trombonist/composer Steve Turre on Colors For The Masters [Smoke Sessions Records]. Chemistry is a stellar recording and one of the last produced by the recently departed recording master, Rudy Van Gelder, at his legendary New Jersey studio. Although I would have liked more upbeat numbers from this swashbuckling duet, (slow ballads predominant), the session is a beautiful example of two masters conversing on an intimate scale where every curling breath of Person’s soulful sax is tactilely felt and where every one of Carter’s pungent touches is heard nimble and radiant.

In contrast to Chemistry’s intimate session, Colors For The Masters takes off on the boundless energy of a stellar band in flight. The band is supremely assured with glittering pianist Kenny Barron, master drummer Jimmy Cobb and Carter leading the rhythmic charge in accompanying Turre’s resolute trombone and Javon Jackson’s brawny tenor sax. This vital recording packs a soulful punch as it veers from the raucous to the voluptuousness, delivering animated keyboard grooves, glowing horns and, underlying them all, Carter’s bracing bass lines.

Another bassist, (who may take a thing or two herself from the Carter playbook) is the intrepid young bassist, Linda May Han Oh, who brought her venturesome band (pianist Fabian Almazon; guitarist Matthew Stevens; saxophonist Greg Ward and drummer Rudy Royston) to the Regattabar’s intimate stage on April 15th to celebrate the release of their latest recording, Walk Against Wind [www.lindamayhanoh.com].

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The band’s performance featured many of Oh’s original compositions from Walk Against Wind (her first recording as a band leader) and several of these pieces were commenced with Oh taking an extended solo on her acoustic bass. Her bass playing has this special quality of a wide-open, adventurous feel, where anything is possible. She combines long trailing runs (effortlessly spun up and down her flexible register) with angular, jostling isolated notes. She can stop on a dime; pluck big and resonant and then fall silent for a few seconds, mixing up her tempos with impeccable touch and a natural feel for the groove.

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Her style fully complements the overall feel of her creative compositions: the slow bluesy feel of “Lucid Lullaby” (with her bass plush and swelling with resonant plucks and evolving colors) or the buoyancy of her Brazilian tinged “Fire Dancer” (where she combines dancing light notes and plucks to sashay with Royston’s delicate cymbal and wood rim hits).

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The musical synergy that was exchanged between Oh and her simpatico band mates at this concert was a delight. Royston, a propulsive engine of delectable lightness and passion on his drum kit, always kept his eyes on Oh. He accented her every spontaneous string dip and soar (or surprising pause) with his own interwoven percussive glory – sometimes silvery and sometimes volcanic.

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The Cuban-born Almazon, (who I have written glowing about in these pages before), also kept his eyes glued on Oh, ready to send his restless piano lines into the fray. On “Walk Against The Wind,” Almazon grabbed the heartbeat of the song and took off on a breathless piano solo. His exploration melded funk, blues and Afro-Cuban influences into a swirling crisp dance that was as unpredictable as it was radiant.

Take note that Oh, Almazan and Royston can be heard in all their triple threat glory on a recent recording that they made with alto saxophonist Jim Snidero entitled Main Street [Savant Records]. This recording delivers great presence and up-front vitality to all instrumental timbres and textures. One highlight- “The Streets of Laredo” – delivers a full dose of what Oh, Almazan and Royston can do both individually (on each of their searing and elastic solos) and in collective presence with Snidero’s reedy, sharp explorations.Towards the end of the performance at the Regattabar, Oh took up her electric bass and she and her band hurled out some full throttle funk on Oh’s original “Perpluzzle”. The highlights here were Stevens on his searing guitar solo, (sending out some heady angular and off-kilter note bends and power chords) and saxophonist Ward pile driving the funk with his soaring sax holds. Oh smiled from behind her electric bass, content to pressurize the proceedings with the raw vitality of her playful bass lines.

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If you would like to read more reviews like this one, visit Nelson’s blog at www.bostonconcertreviews.com.

Making Your Marque: The 12 Most Important Products in the History of High End Audio

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Nordost

By Anthony Chiarella

Here, at the dawn of the 21^st Century, High End Audio has reached a remarkable state of refinement: the current crop of top-notch components offer performances which approach theoretical perfection, heirloom build quality, and a level of aesthetic beauty which elevate fine audio to the level of fine art. It wasn’t always this way. Half a century ago, most audio products suffered serious flaws, both sonically and operationally, which relegated the pursuit of performance to a handful of technically talented individuals who also possessed the time and patience to deal with temperamental components.

Among the thousands of products and hundreds of manufacturers and designers who developed HiFi in the second half of the last century, only a few fulfilled the promise of High End Audio. The dozen products selected here aren’t necessarily the best-sounding, nor are they the best built, the most reliable, or the most attractive; rather, these components are, in my opinion, the most directly responsible for the present-day state of the audio art.

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Dynaco Stereo 70: Introduced in 1959, the Stereo 70 combined the now-ubiquitous Williamson Circuit with high quality output transformers and highly efficient production methods to deliver an amplifier that created Dynaco’s legend as “The Poor Man’s McIntosh.” With 35 watts-per-channel—massive power for the time—it also facilitated consumer acceptance of less efficient acoustic suspension loudspeakers, which continues to impact the HiFi industry today. During the ST-70’s production run, the Philadelphia company sold over 350,000 units (both pre-assembled and in kit form), making it the Model T of tube amplifiers…and that’s A Good Thing!

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Linn Sondek LP12: Of all the classic turntables, I have to confess that the LP12 is my least favorite, owing to its combination of blasé build quality, unjustifiably high pricing, the kooky group dynamic of its “Linnie” cult following and of course, its colored (if unfailingly musical) sound. Nor, with the exception of its single-point bearing, was its design innovative: its belt-drive motor system and three-point suspended sub-chassis had been advanced by Edgar Villchur’s Acoustic Research XA turntable in 1961, more than a decade before the LP12 bowed in 1972. What makes the Linn seminal has more to do with its marketing. At a time when loudspeakers were universally considered to be the most important determinant of sound quality, Linn pioneered the notion that turntables had a distinctive “sound” and that the source was the most critical component of a state-of-the-art audio system. Because it forever changed the way we view system-building, the LP12 earns my vote as the most influential turntable of all time.

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Audio Research SP3: When it was introduced in 1970, the SP3 was, arguably, the best-sounding preamplifier available, and at $595 MSRP, something of a bargain too! All of which has nothing to do with its inclusion on this list. More than any designer of his time, William Zane Johnson succeeded in offering a commercially viable—and better-sounding—alternative to the marketing-driven transistor gear which dominated American audio dealerships. Having designed his first product—a three chassis Triode amplifier—in 1949, Johnson almost singlehandedly kept the ideal of high performance alive through the dark ages of HiFi, and is therefore more responsible than any individual for the High End Renaissance which began in the late 1970s.

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Mark Levinson ML-2: In the early days of the transistor, solid state amplification was the sonically-second-class-citizen to vacuum tubes. All of that changed in 1977, when Mark Levinson introduced the ML-2. A 25 watt-per-channel, pure Class A monoblock, the ML-2 was heavy (nearly 70 pounds), ran hot, was ringed by sharp heat sinks, which sliced many an audiophile’s hand, and, at $3,600 per stereo pair, was among the most expensive consumer audio products of its era. It was also the first component to cure what had previously been considered unsolvable sonic shortcomings of transistor amplification, while simultaneously demonstrating the inherent—and previously unrealized—strengths of solid state; namely, transparency and speed.

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Nordost Quattro Fil: The first line of cabling to incorporate all of Nordost’s core technologies, including cutting-edge materials, high purity OFC with silver plating, and, most notably, the use of “Micro-monofilament,” an innovation which, by helically winding a synthetic thread around the conductors, enabled a virtual air space dielectric, while maintaining the flexibility of the cable. The result was a series of cables whose sonics, after a monumentally long break-in period, simply embarrassed everything which came before. Of course, subsequent generations of Nordost Reference products have pushed the performance envelope even further, but as with the other components on this list, those “subsequent generations” might never have existed without the development of Quattro Fil.

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BBC LS3/5A: Chartwell, Kef, Falcon, Goodmans, Harbeth, Rogers, Spendor…over the years, so many companies built—and continue to build—the LS3/5a, under license from the BBC, that audiophiles could spend an evening trying to conjure a comprehensive manufacturers’ list. Originally developed in 1975 for use in broadcast vans, the 3/5’s tiny cabinet panels barely vibrated, its waifish baffle virtually eliminated diffraction, and, with a woofer and tweeter so close they looked as if they were having sex, driver cohesion was, for its time, remarkable. One of the longest-lived—and, with over 60,000 pairs sold, best-selling—designs in audio history, the LS3/5A was a perennial “Best Buy” and served as a gateway drug, simultaneously making the wonders of High End Audio accessible to a larger audience and exposing the audiophile community to the glories of British Box Loudspeakers.

Continue to Part Two >

LA Audio Show 2017 – Recap

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Nordost

Coming off a successful launch at the Munich High End, the LA Audio Show was an amazing venue for Nordost to introduce our new ground unit, the QKORE, to the US market! The demonstrations that product trainer and Nordost sales rep, Mike Marko, performed left show attendees with a new appreciation of how proper grounding can transform a system. However, our room wasn’t the only place to see Nordost products featured! Thank you to our dealers and manufactures throughout the show, who chose to highlight their products with Nordost cables. If you weren’t able to make it to the LA Audio Show this year, here are some of our favorite photos from the show!

The new QKORE Ground Units were front and center in the Nordost room:

The Source AV highlighted Dan D’Agostino, Focal, and Nordost in their room:

Mofi used Valhalla 2 Loudspeaker Cables in their system:

Hegel’s room sounded great using our Heimdall 2 and Blue Heaven cables:

We always love to see Sonner Audio using Nordost cables. This time it was Heimdall 2 and Tyr 2:

Questyle’s room used Heimdall 2 from Speaker Cables to Headphone Cables:

Nola always takes full advantage of their Odin 2 cables:

Upscale Audio was spinning records in their room, which was outfitted with our Heimdall 2 cables:

Nordost Playlist – June 2017

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Nordost

Nordost is lucky to have a wonderful team of representatives and product trainers who travel around the world educating and demonstrating the effects of Nordost’s products. As part of these demonstrations, it is our job to find an interesting and diverse selection of music to showcase our cables, power devices, sort system and accessories. Whether at shows, visiting our dealers and distributors or even in our own listening room in our headquarters in Holliston, we are constantly getting asked what music we are playing (or if our audience is not so bold to ask, we can see their Shazams working overtime). So we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share our favorite songs of the moment. Some may be classics, some may be brand new, some may not even be to your taste, but one thing is for sure …it’s all great music.

Here are some of the songs that we will have on rotation this June.

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Kiko—Dead Can Dance—Anastasis (Sampler)
Man in the Long Black Coat—Bob Dylan—Oh Mercy
Wicked Game-Live at Killkenny Arts Festival, Ireland/2011—James Vincent McMorrow—We Don’t Eat EP
Trouble’s What You’re In-Spotify Exclusive—Fink—Fink Spotify Exclusive
After the Cold Rush—k.d. land—Hymns of the 49^th Parallel
Human—Rag’n’Bone Man—Human (Deluxe)
Slow—Leonard Cohen—Popular Problems
Something To Believe In-Live Acoustic—Young the Giant—Something To Believe In
Drew Barrymore—SZA—Drew Barrymore
Alla Luce Del Giorno—Ennio Morricone–Metti Una Sera A Cena (Gold Tracks)

High End 2017 in Munich – Recap

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Nordost

As always, Nordost had a great time in Munich this year seeing our wonderful friends and distributors! Attendees of The High End Show were among the first to see our exciting new ground unit, the QKORE, and really experience what it can do to a system. Guests certainly left our demonstrations with a new appreciation for how truly effective grounding can transform the music they listen to! If you weren’t able to come to Germany, here are some of our favorite photos from the show!

The Nordost Room

The Audio Physic, Auris, X-Odos Room

The dCS Room

Thanks to all who came out!

– Alex, Johann, Dennis, and Meredith

Upcoming Nordost Events

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Nordost

Audio Exchange May 24th

5:30pm

AUDIO EXCHANGE

6007 W. Broad St.

Richmond, VA 23230

www.audio-exchange.com

June 2nd-4th

LOS ANGELES AUDIO SHOW

Los Angeles, CA, USA

www.laaudioshow.com

audiolab June 29th

12pm-6pm

AUDIO LAB HAWAII

#C-12 851 Pohukaina St.

Honolulu, HI 96814

(808) 595-8066

audiolabtc@aol.com

www.audiolabhawaii.com

Nordost Customer Testimonial

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Nordost

Nordost is always thrilled to receive and share glowing reviews from journalists and experts in the industry. However, when we get testimonials from our devoted and satisfied customers, it means that much more! Thank you to Paul from North Carolina, who shared his journey with Nordost products, and what they have done for his stellar system!

Unknown-2 “I have always considered an audio system as a collection of components – and that consideration includes cables. I see them as such an important part of an audio system that their use can either elevate, or denigrate a system’s sonic performance.

When I tried my first Nordost cable, a Tyr 2 speaker cable, I was astonished at how the sonic presentation was improved. Better definition and clarity, better dynamics and impact, lower more powerful bass— these improvements were most noticeable.

Eventually, I decided to populate the entire cable loom exclusively with Nordost products. Looking beyond cabling, I make extensive use of the QRT product line. I even replaced a $5,000.00 power conditioner with a QX4 power purifier and a QB8 power distribution block.

Today, my system is comprised of Nordost cables and power management products exclusively. On the digital side, all of the interconnects are Odin, from the music server to the amp. On analog, Valhalla 2 from the tonearm cable to the preamp and Odin to the amp. Power cords are about half Valhalla 2 and Odin. I recently upgraded the speaker cables to Odin 2 and the improvements they yielded were startling.

What I see in Nordost cables is an exceptionally fast product that remains true to the musical signal. By the same token, they are incredibly revealing of transient detail. I think their best attribute is that they in no way hinder other upgrades, such as new speakers or a component. If one such upgrade is undertaken, the user can rest assured that the cable will not stand in the way.

I think that Nordost products come as close as any cable product I have tried in accomplishing what every cable should be trying to do – not change the signal in any way. Put differently, they do a great job of doing absolutely nothing.”

Paul is a happy customer of Liquid HiFi in Charlotte, North Carolina.

What’s your Nordost story?

Dealer Spotlight: Pure Wave Audio

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Nordost

By Jon Baker

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Jim Pavett, producer/engineer and owner of Pure Wave Audio, is one of the most respected pro audio retailers in the country. However, that isn’t Jim’s whole story. For over 30 years, Jim has run Southern Arizona’s premier commercial recording studio: Allusion Studios. Since an early age, Jim has had a passion for the very best in electronics. This passion keeps him searching for the latest technologies, which in turn has helped Allusion Studios to maintain its edge and continue its long-standing reputation. From this passion, Jim decided to take his vast product knowledge and use it to grow a boutique, pro audio, consulting/sales business, by the named of Pure Wave Audio. By building trust in the marketplace, fostering client loyalty, and carefully selecting vendor partners, Jim has grown Pure Wave into a leading specialty pro audio hub in the Southwest.

Screen Shot 2017-05-09 at 1.12.42 PM About Jim:

Jim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and is an experienced educator and clinician. He is also the creator of the video tutorial series, The Studio Edge: Pro Audio Recording Series. Throughout his career, he has served as a panelist for the PotLuck / TapeOp Recording Conventions, and has written for national audio magazines. Additionally, one of his many recording projects, Beyond Words by Gentle Thunder, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007. In 2010 Jim recorded and mixed Jack Gladstone’s Native Anthropology, which won Gladstone the award for Native American Historic Recording Artist of the Year. Most recently, Jim has produced and recorded Muscle & Blood with Marc Storace (Krokus), Barry Sparks (MSG, Yngwie), Pat Travers, Les Dudek (Steve Miller), and Frank Mario. He is currently performing this album live with vocalist Marc Storace / Bret Kaiser (Madam X), Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Whitesnake, Quiet Riot) on bass and guitarist Robby Lockner (Jack Russel’s Great White).

In 2015 we were happy to welcome Pure Wave Audio to the Nordost family, giving them the distinction of being our very first Ax Angel dealer.

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Nordost Playlist – May 2017

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Nordost

Here are some of the songs that we will have on rotation this May.

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Forever (feat. Joseph Chilliams & Ravyn Lenae)—Noname, Joseph Chilliams, Ravyn Lenae—Telefone
Gassed-Stripped—WESLEE—Gassed (Stripped)
A Devastation—Nick Pope—Howl and Flood
River—Leon Bridges—Coming Home
The Glow—Sylvan Esso—What Now
A Case Of You—James Blake—Enough Thunder
Hoochie Woman—Tori Amos—The Beekeeper
Mother Of A Dog—Eno●Hyde—Someday World
Boxes and Squares—Tanks and The Bangas—Think Tank
Biggy—Warpaint—Warpaint

Nordost introduces the QKORE: Ground Unit

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Nordost

QKORE front and back_style

A great deal of the electrical noise in hifi systems is caused by imperfections in the power domain. These imperfections may be generated by airborne pollution on the AC line that are induced, in part, by increasing amounts of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular signals. Airborne pollution can take the form of high frequency interference, noise, and stray magnetic fields, which lead to AC line contamination. A poor, or “unclean”, ground causes more performance imperfections than most people realize. Without an effective ground point, the entire foundation of your sound system becomes jeopardized—and unfortunately, most listening rooms simply do not have access to a designated line, attached to a ground rod. In these instances, a simple, effective, and internal option is needed: Nordost’s QKORE Ground Unit.

The QKORE is a parallel grounding device, which provides an artificial, “clean” earth for hifi audio systems using both an electrical and mechanical approach. This unique product combines Nordost’s patented Mono-Filament technology with purpose-built, Low-Voltage Attractor Plates (LVAPs), constructed with a proprietary metal alloy and a passive electronic circuit, in order to draw stray high frequency noise and voltage-generated magnetic fields to a manufactured earth point, leaving a clean reference behind. This passive system is contained in a mechanically tuned housing, and outfitted with gold-plated, WBT binding posts, which easily connect each component to an artificial ground. By providing for a balanced and very “clean” ground point, by-products of electrical balance imperfections between voltage and ground are no longer added to other pollutants, dramatically increasing high quality audio circuit performances.

Nordost’s QKORE is available in three distinct models. The QKORE1 is specifically designed to serve as a parallel ground for use with Nordost’s distribution block, the QBASE. By connecting the QBASE to

the QKORE1’s singular binding post, it provides an effective, alternative ground on the primary side of the power supply. The QKORE3 is named for its three available binding posts, which can be used to ground any component in your system on the secondary side of a power supply, where the audio circuit is. For audiophiles who have monoblocks in their system, or are searching for an all-in-one unit solution, Nordost offers The QKORE6, making it possible to ground all elements of your sound system on its 6 binding posts, including one ground for your distribution block, two grounds for the left and right channels of your monoblocks, and three grounds for additional audio components.

In order to complete this comprehensive grounding system, Nordost has also designed a designated QKORE Wire, which is constructed to provide the path of least resistance to ground, for the stray, high-frequency, low-voltage potentials that can affect the performance of your sound system. The QKORE Wire is a mechanically tuned cable that utilizes Nordost’s patented Micro Mono-Filament technology, combined with extruded FEP insulation, and constructed with a 16 AWG, silver-plated OFC, solid core conductor. The QKORE Wire can be terminated with the following connectors: spade, banana, male-XLR, female-XLR, BNC and RCA (further termination options available).

The QKORE grounding system is the most effective, comprehensive grounding solution in the consumer electronics market. When introduced to a hifi audio system, the results are immediate and dramatic— the noise floor drops, the increase in harmonic accuracy and clarity is unmistakable, and the overall musicality in system performance is elevated. Every aspect of Nordost’s QKORE grounding system is thoughtfully designed and manufactured in the USA to the highest standards in the industry, in order to ensure product quality and customer satisfaction.