Q Acoustics Q3030i Standmount Speaker Review & Comments

[password1]

I think one of the main reasons manufacturers make a dedicated centre is to accommodate the space restrictions as most people have space restrictions and need a speaker to fit under or above a TV/ screen.

Some centre speakers are just a stereo speaker turned on its side and the logo rotated.

eg CA Minx 22 centre is the same as the left and right but with the logo rotated 90 degrees. There are other manufacturers who do the same.

 

[CHFels]

Very nice review, thanks Ed.
I did find this passage near the end very puzzling:
"Strip the Q Acoustics of the £5,500 comfort blanket of the Edge A… and to be honest not a great deal changes. With the Rega io and Mojo running as source and amp, some of the effortlessness is chipped away and it doesn’t image as well but the 3030i still largely delivers what it did on the end of the big amp. That it can reflect these improvements is hugely impressive and it is something beyond that which I usually see from products at this price point."

Now, what I would expect a very good and transparent speaker to do is reveal clearly the difference between a £5,500 amp and £400 amp. I would expect it to sound like an entirely different animal, on the end of £5,500 of electronics instead of £400. If not a lot changed when the Edge A was swapped for the Io & Mojo, then either the 3030i is imposing its own signature on the sound of the system and not revealing the upstream differences very well, or the Edge A is a mediocre piece of kit for its price.

I'm not interested in ragging on either the speakers or the Edge A, mind you, I just couldn't understand this part of the review!

CHFels

 

[Ed Selley]

That's a fair question and it hinges a little on the subjective take on what you might expect from a speaker. The 3030i has ultimately been designed to work as well as possible with whatever feed you give it. It is inherently forgiving and- as such- given that both the io and the Edge A can easily deliver the 12 or so watts required for a fairly healthy listening level from a speaker like this in my room, the differences aren't huge. The 3030i can't really reflect the additional weight that the Edge A can deliver because it falls outside its frequency response. It doesn't need the extra power that the Cambridge can deliver and it is sufficiently benign at the top end that the refinement that the Edge has used as both decoder and amp isn't a huge deal breaker either.

Within that though, there's very little perceived colouration when you listen to them so they warrant being seen as fairly transparent. You can take this to be an elitist comment, but I don't know of many sub £1k speakers that genuinely reflect everything that goes into them. It's one of the reasons why the Spendor A1 and Focal Kanta No1 live here; they combine this ability with a fairly benign electrical load that allows them to be used with many different devices.

 

[CHFels]

Thanks for the clarification, Ed!

 

[richiestudman]

If they made a better centre speaker I'd be all over these, love the look of them.

Never had an issue with their centre speakers, in fact, more than that, I think their centre speakers are absolutely brilliant. I "upgraded" from an existing 3090C to a Dali Oberon Vokal - the Q Acoustics blew it out of the water for precision, clarity and depth. Back the Dali went, and I instead went for the 3090Ci - a modest improvement on the C and so much better than the Dali. And at less half the price.

 

[muljao]

Just ordered in white