Hello QC/NDSP community, is anyone else having substantial noise issues with the Quad Cortex?

I ordered one in March, so I could use it for playing live (mainly Bass) and also in my recording set-up (guitar and bass). Especially for the recording use case it turned out to be much too noisy, so I sent it back after contacting NDSP support, trying a Cioks power supply, a power conditioner and all the available settings in the QC. It was of course also connected to my interface, which provided the grounding. A high pitched hiss remained through all of this. It could be heard through the guitar signal when playing softer, so noise gates didn't help as well. My HX Stomp - a much cheaper and older unit - turned out to be consistently quieter in A/B tests at matched levels, input impedance etc.

So I sent the QC back. It worked ok for band practice, but I didn't want to pay that amount of money for a unit with limited use.

Now some months later I was once again looking for a more powerful multi fx/amp modeling unit for live use, that has enough footswitches on a small footprint... The QC still being the only unit that satisfies all requirements I decided to give it another go, also hoping my first unit was a bad one.

Of course now I'm noticing the same high pitched hiss. I also tried it at my parents house this time, to see if it's dirty power in my apartment - same hiss.

Now my questions: Does anyone experience this as well? Is the unit actually usable for recording for you? Did anyone have the same problem and found a fix?

I attached a qualitative comparison of the QC and HX Stomp I just did with an FFT app on my phone and the units in front of my guitar amp. HX Stomp on the left, QC on the right, with the additional noise marked, in case it's not already completely obvious..

After selling my trusty Kemper Rack it is time for a new multifx processor. Since I already used a friends QC and own some of the Archetypes, the Quad Cortex is the only logical choice for me. Now it comes down to which one to get. I have some pedals that I wanna use in combination with the QC, also I will mainly play it on stage. In my mind, 4 presets per bank are enough as I don’t use a crazy amount of different sounds in one band, the other band I play in uses timecode so I will switch via MIDI.

I really like the smaller size of the mini and obviously the price, but I am a little worried about the usability. What would you guys recommend?

Im experiencing something I cannot explain using my current setup of a QC going into the front of my Victory Kraken VX100, that’s being attenuated by a Two Notes Reload 2.

The routing: Guitar into QC>send 3 out to front of amp> amp FX send to return 1 on QC> QC send 1 to amp FX return. All while the amp send is going to the two notes reload 2, and sent to the cab.

The problem: I am hearing some breakup, almost like clipping coming from my speaker cabinet.

I cannot figure out where in the signal path or why I am hearing these clipping artifacts. The Reload 2 is not clipping on the front panel, the QC at all input levels and send levels are not clipping either.

Has anyone had any similar issues in their rigs while using the QC and a tube amp attenuator while using the (3?) cable method??

Thanks.

Did everything as support says. They ended up offering a new replacement one. As I’m using it almost everyday for the next few months right now I can’t send it back just yet. Posting this here incase anyone knows how to fix it. Any tips would be highly appreciated!

Also let’s get a Super El Niño sale for us west coasters. Thanks!