For me a QC is way overkill to just use as a headphone amp.
For just a headphone amp I would think that there is many other products out there that would do what you are looking to do. Such as the Waza craft air headphones. Sure the Waza headphones are not cheap and neither is the QC. But as a standalone headphone amp for practice I don’t believe that is the best use for the QC. As well in my opinion not desiged for that task.
The QC is way way more than that. I use it all the time now for anything and everything. Jams, writing, rehearsal, gigs, recording, practice and practice with headphones.
To get around the grounding issue with head phone use, it’s a pretty easy work around. I just plug an XLR out to my mixer and use the headphone out on my mixer.
There is always a work around.
The QC is not a simple peice of gear it is very deep, owning one is like opening Pandora’s box. If you buy it just to be a headphone amp you’ll be disappointed. But if you buy it for it’s potential and learn to play with it, you will be pleased.
one more question on the topic, as i find myself in the same situation, wondering whether to buy this or not.
First and foremost, i don’t do gigs. I sit here in the studio, and with the coming CorOS3 my Gojira and Plini plugins would be usable. That’s a big argument pro purchase.
However, I’m uncertain with the signal chain. I do not like the idea of recording the QC-modified signal, but rather the raw guitar audio.
Would it be possible to run the QC as an insert effect with the DAW? I imagine the
Does the QC support a setup like that? By the looks of the connections on the back I’d guess it does ( DAW >> QC Input 1/2 >> QC Out 1/2 >> Audio Interface), but I’d like to make sure.
You might find you need a reamp box between your DAW and the QC in order to present the QC with an instrument level signal - most mixers/interfaces output at line level whereas most guitar equipment expects instrument level. In that regard it’s no different to using any guitar pedal with your studio equipment.
An alternative approach would be to connect the QC via USB and set outs 1+2 to “dry” (i.e. a DI signal) and outs 3+4 to “wet” (i.e. with the QC amps etc). Then record both at the same time. However, I don’t know how well the QC would play with other audio interfaces connected to the PC at the same time - this might cause conflicts.
You could do something similar with analogue outputs by either using a DI box first in your chain and sending the thru output to the DAW for a clean DI signal alongside the QC, or with just the QC alone setting up a completely bare signal path and output alongside or split from your main one with the amps etc.
Using a DI box would be the simplest option IMO. It’s an extra thing to buy, yes, but they’re dead useful bits of kit, especially in a studio environment.
I tried this with mine, unplugged the 1/4" out to interface and just have power, guitar input and headphones plugged in. I have Beyerdynamics DT770 80 ohm. It is dead silent. No noise and nothing like in your video.
My QCs power supply is plugged into a power strip. Nothing special.
Are you sure you have clean power at your location? Or maybe some other source of noise? Fluorescent lights, wifi router, cell phone, etc… ? Just thinking out loud. Seems like you either have a faulty QC or a noise source, if it’s not your power (wall outlet, house power) causing the issue.
Why are people still talking about new power supplies, or alternative power supplies? The QC is not designed to be grounded via the power supply, and can not be grounded via the power supply. This has been talked to death. How can anyone believe that a ground connection is possible via a barrel connector, even if the QC was designed to be grounded this way.
Circuits connected to a grounded power source, like an electric wall outlet, will be electrically tied down and referenced to the Earth, which is abbreviated GND. Power sources that are not electrically connected to the Earth, like a battery, are referred to as floating sources.
The QC has always had a floating power supply, not a grounded power supply.
There is no VST for the QC but you can run it through your DAW. When you record you can record the dry input signal and wet at the same time via USB onto separate tracks. You can also reamp any DI through the QC after the fact i.e. you can send any recorded DI you have into the QC and back into the DAW via USB. Always use USB when recording, otherwise you’re adding a layer of ADA conversion.
So if understand correctly, the way to go about this is to use the QC USB for actually recording the dry signal and later getting it back into the effects chain if needed?
That sure is going to make things more… interesting, having an 18i20 set up for everything else here already.
My main concern really is being able to record the dry signal while hearing the processed one, and being able to change the processing later on. But it looks like it’s doable, just not as comfortable as i thought.
You can still record with your 18i20 and reamp that DI through the QC later. If you want to hear some kind of “Wet” signal through the QC while recording the DI through the 18i20, then all you need is a splitter from your guitar, one end going to your 18i20 and the other going to the QC. I do this mostly using a DI box.
Guitar > Di Box > Line level path 1 > Recording Interface
(Thru Path 2) > QC > FRFR Speaker or whatever you want
I also have both the QC and my interface plugged in via USB all the time and they both feeder a Headphone amp/monitor controller which means I can select between the interfaces when needed. So it’s all setup and ready to use whenever I need.
Yeah, as I said before and @Teatime48 has reiterated, the simplest approach is to use a DI box and send the thru signal from that to your interface. That will give you a dry DI signal for recording. Connect the QC to a different input on your interface - the 18i20 has plenty to choose from - then either just use that for monitoring or record that input at the same time.
There are alternative ways to achieve the same result but a good DI box is always going to be your friend.
This is the last correspondence I had from Neural support on the power adapter.
August 2023
“ We can happily say that the we are working with a company who have delivered us a suitable prototype of the alternative power supply you mention. There are still a few things they are adjusting for us, like the physical design, but I can confirm this project is still relevant and progressing.”
They told me this when I first complained in April 2022. So forgive me for not believing they are really going to do anything about it. 2 years ago they said they had a solution.
“ For this, the solution we are exploring involves using a floating power supply , specially engineered to reduce the pickup/ground interference issue when using QC just with headphones, while minimizing the likelihood of ground loops when using the unit in conjunction with external devices.
Our preliminary tests are very promising and we are waiting for sample approval to proceed with sourcing.”
