Wow, I had a hard time finding this thread. I really wish that they would improve the search function of this site. Anyway, I picked my QSD-1000 from the post office yesterday, New Year's Eve. So Happy New Year to Me!
The shipment was delayed over a month by that ridiculous Canadian Postal Strike. Total import charges were just a bit over $60 Canadian.
Just to let people know if they are considering purchasing from this site the packaging was superb! The unit itself was bubble wrapped and (vacuum?) sealed in plastic wrap. It was placed in an oversized cardboard box lined with styrofoam. So it arrived in perfect shape.
Before I get to how it sounds, I was surprised that it had two selectable inputs as well as the tape monitor input. I wonder about the thinking there, although it could permit you to function without using a stereo preamp. There is also provision to add a surround channel adapter (what?). I find that the most puzzling. There are outputs and inputs on the back to connect the processor. When selected on the front panel there is sound only from the front, so the processor is meant to drive only the rear channels.
The unused inputs on my unit were equipped with shorting plugs, I guess that is an "Audiophile" tweak to prevent any possibility of noise pickup from the unused inputs. It does make it easier to find the proper inputs and outputs, that you are actually using.
I have in my audio rack a 100V transformer wired to a standard duplex receptacle. I power the unit from there. My one fear is that someone will plug it into a regular 120V outlet and cook the power supply. The peril of purchasing Japan only equipement!
I haven't "opened the hood" yet, I'll save that for another day. I'm just contemplating how to fit it into my decoder rack. The Photolum will likely have to go elsewhere, it is now redundant anyway.
I started off playing some plain stereo through it in Surround mode. Soundwise it is as clean as the S&IC with the same full firm bass; what goes in comes out. Flipping between the S&IC and the QSD-1000 at times the effect was almost identical, other times you could notice the slight reduction of vocal level with the QSD-1000. The QSD-1000 does a better job of filling those front corner speaker locations than the S&IC. Overall no clear winner although I might be biased toward the Composer as I'm so accustomed to it.
I listened to Carole King "Music", and wow it sounds discrete. You can hear everything exactly as shown on the inner sleeve! Next was "Rufusized" and then "Tommy". I can say that the QDS-1000 does the best job of any QS decoder I have ever listened to. It's not tri-band but I have never been a big fan of multi-band decoding anyway.
