We owe much to the Mods here who put in a lot of work to keep it civil and helpful
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I agree. But to my defense, I just copied literally how it is written in the official Neural DSP announcement - I did not change a word in this and I even listed all those things next to each other, to keep everything in the âaudioâ context. If you look at the original at Quad Cortex Development Update #56 - Neural DSP, you may conclude that it is even less clear as they keep the I/O changes separated from the power consumption. It indeed may give impression that the overall power consumption may be 50%, while it feels more logical that it only applies to audio.
I think to answer that, you would have to define in which configuration you want to test the power consumption (like which inputs are connected, what is the signal path, what is at the outputs, etc). Unless you have something different in mind. It may be quite elaborate, but it can be done. Then it is probably best to measure the DC consumption for the most accurate results. And then you need to have access to different hardware versions or different users needs to sync to use the same config setup. I am not sure though how much useful would it be. Neural DSP is in the best position to give this sort of comparison - but I suspect that in normal operating modes the differences should not be dramatic? Why is it important to you? Do you want to power it from a battery and estimate how much will it last?
Itâs not meant to be an improved version of the quad cortex, itâs only a change they had to make because of obsolescence of the old codec chip, if I understood correctly.
And yes, as a side effect the codec has a lower power consumption (afaik the 50% does not apply to the whole QC consumption, only to the consumption of the codec itself) and you do not have to manually switch between mic and instrument inputs anymore. But again, these are side effects, no improved V2 or anything.
Itâs totally ok if these side effects are highly important to you and you hunt for a QC with the new codec. But for me, I couldnât care less which batch of QC I have.
Iâm 100% sure there were many changes from the beginning due to component availability, costs, ease of manufacturing, etc. that are not visible or hearable and us users donât know about.
This one change of the codec has a visible effect and therefore it was communicated by NDSP.
But still, itâs NOT a ânew versionâ.
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For the phantom power: in the version with the old codec, you can only activate phantom power when you switch to the mic input. So there is no way to have it on with a T(R)S cable.
So here I also donât see a big advantage.
But still, donât get me wrong, itâs totally ok if the new codec is important to you for whatever reason. I just would not like everybody to panic now or think that the older units are worse or less valuable. They arenât.
Probably, it would have been better if NDSP had kept the mic/instrument switches even for the new codec, even if they are not necessary. Then they would not have had to communicate the change and nobody would have noticed or discussed this point. Sometimes transparency is not helpful⌠
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Iâm so confused why OP thinks it would sent phantom power via TRS. Nothing with TRS uses phantom power. OP also had a thread on Reddit claiming this, which isnât something the QC did anyways. XLR and TS/TRS are different connectors with the combination input anyways.
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For me it is purely curiosity. There is no way I am going to go out and buy a new version to get a different audio codec. I love what I have regardless of what version it is and happily use the power supply that came with the unit. Of course I carry a spare on tour, as they can be a bit vulnerable.
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Concerning bias. In this state of some parts of the world it could very well be that in case we knew which unit was which, âbetterâ or âinferiorâ, that Monaco and Dubai would get the new one and some not so âwealthyâ countries the old. Even at a level of a city, uptown zip codes would get the new, outskirts zip codes the old. Simply because returning satisfied âwealthyâ costumers would most likely in the long run be better for business. The Neural policy is, as Iâve stated before, equal to us all, no matter our (illusory) social âstatusâ.
A little side note here, as a social anthropologic viewpoint, is that a âhigherâ social âstatusâ donât make you a better musician. Quite the contrary looking at the roots of modern music. Systemically subdued peoples created an inner state of freedom within suppression. Hell, even at a teenage level in my case. Long live RockânâRollâ
. But thatâs another topic.
Neural did the right thing in the big picture, not blowing this up as a new unit, only a minor change due to (component) availability, fair for all.
Peace
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XLR is just a connector used in this case for carrying balanced signal. A TRS can also be used for balanced signals. And for (condenser) mics, the same signals are used to provide phantom voltage. If you design the circuit in such a way that TRS and XLR pins are bridged then when you enable phantom power, it will also be applied to TRS pins (pins 2 and 3 on XLR, tip and ring on TRS). I do not know how the first generation has been designed, I am just interpreting what NDSP is saying about the changes they introduced, and they say exactly this: âThe XLR signal is completely isolated when a TS cable is connected. PHANTOM 48V only applies to the XLR input. Itâs safe to enable even if a TS cable is connected.â Especially the very last sentence: âItâs safe to enable even if a TS cable is connected.â To me this whole paragraph very much indicate that Phantom could occur on T(R)S when enabled on the pre-ESS version of the hardware.
I just wanted to emphasize one thing. I do not intend to make anyone panic. Everyone has his/her own reason. If you are a conscious, aware user, there is nothing to worry about getting anything damaged by phantom voltage accidentally applied. I would be fine with the âoldâ version of the audio circuit, but when it is available, then simply âwhy notâ. It is just handy. Recently I was connected to my Motu M6 and testing mics. And I did not realized that I have a guitar plugged in in one of the inputs, and there I accidentally pressed the â48Vâ button for that input (Motu allows you to apply phantom selectively to each input). And Motu has embedded protection, which ignores the user actions enabling Phantom power when a T(R)S is plugged in - the â+48Vâ button becomes muted. This is not the case for every device. For example my Pre-Sonus Studio 26C allows me to enable phantom power when TRS cable is plugged. It still highlights the â+48Vâ button even when TS connector is plugged in. But it actually does not supply phantom so it is safe (I measured it), thus only the UI is a bit confusing in this case. So, on your QC you can easily test it: just enable Phantom voltage on the given input and then plug TS cable and measure if there is +48V DC between sleeve and the tip on the other side. If it is not the case, then the concern about Phantom accidentally occurring on TS is not real - but please notice that it is not me in the end who writes NDSP docs - I do not have a legacy device to verify - I only have docs THEY published.
And btw: the automatic detection of the input type (XLR mic/TS instrument) is also kind of nice. And this is confirmed real as the new devices do not have âTYPEâ switch any more.
All those features are just convenience improvements, but I like to have them ;).
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The QC doesnât send phantom power through the TS cable.
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No, their statement is for the new codec version, because you donât have the mic/instrument switches anymore.
With the older codec, you have to switch between mic and instrument manually. And phantom power can only be activated when you switch to mic.
So no way to have 48v on the instrument input, no matter if itâs the old or the new codec.
Btw, there was a discussion about that a while ago. On the original codec, the mic/instrument switch is actually switching XLR and 14ââ inputs. And only if you switch to XLR you can activate phantom power.
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Sure, itâs totally ok if you want a QC with the new codec, Iâm only saying please donât claim that the new version is saver on the inputs. And yes, the manual is not completely clear, but at least you see in the pic in the manual that the 48V switch is totally greyed out when the Type switch is set to instrument (1/4 â).
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On the Reddit thread OP made, they claimed the QC could send phantom power to your guitar pickups and destroy them lol. Just making up an issue that never has happened with the unit because it doesnât send phantom power through the TS connector. Same thing for any audio interface with combo jacks.
OP- either unit is fine and not an upgrade either way. Theyâre both great. Itâs some subtle component changes because of availability
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We had so many questions and discussions about this here on this forum (and you said also elsewhere). I really think NDSP should have kept the switch even with the new codec even if itâs autodetecting the input. And just told nobody about the change. Like they and every other company do with all kinds of component changes.
So many questions and so much confusion for nothing.
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I think eliminating the type switch is a good move. Maybe their documentation should be just more explicit on this specific matter.
Thank you for putting this in context. My interpretation was clearly wrong and I wish someone have put it this way for me. So in the document where they announce the new codec, etc, because they removed the TYPE switch, the PHATOM switch is always active (never greyed out), which may give impression that in this updated version of the audio component the phantom power could occur on the TS input. Only in this context they say about âphantom isolationâ and âItâs safe to enable even if a TS cable is connectedâ, so that the new users are reassured it is STILL safe. Not having experience with QC before, I read that as the incremental change, which is wrong.
So I think it is correct to say, that the only functional change is removing the INPUT TYPE switch and a non-functional change of potential power savings in the new audio component.
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Yes, thatâs my understanding as well. Anyway, you get the new codec version and I hope you have lots of fun with it. The QC may not be perfect in some aspects, but for me and lots of others itâs the best modeler for our needs 
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Sure thing. I am sure it is great if not the best product of this kind.
BTW: wanted to add some clarifications to the original post so that the new readers are properly informed, but unfortunately the system does not let me edit it anymore.
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In a way thatâs good tho, no? Think we learned some things through the thread thatâs important. At least I did.
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