Thinking of upgrading Tannoy Mercury v4 5.0 to Q Acoustics 3050i 5.1 - is it worth it?

darrenhaken

Established Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2016
Messages
519
Reaction score
84
Points
116
Age
37
Location
UK
I currently own the Tannoy Mercury v4 5.0 sound system which I use mainly for home cinema. I was looking to add a subwoofer to the system and I have seen the Q Acoustic QB12 recommended in a lot of places. This led me to consider upgrading my entire setup to the 3500i with the QB12 subwoofer.

Can anyone comment on whether this would be a step forward in sound or are the Tannoy speakers of similar quality?
One thing that is appealing to the Q Acoustics is that I think the design looks a lot more modern than the Tannoy.

I would also be keen to hear if the QB12 is a decent subwoofer either way.
 
I would look at subs from BK rather than the QA unit. You don't have to match subs to speakers and more often than not it's the subwoofer specialist manufacturers that produce the best.

 
@gibbsy what do you think of the Tannoy system vs the Q Acoustics in general?
Can you recommend a particular BK sub?
 
@MI55ION so probably not worth upgrading the actual speakers then?

I've been looking at the BK brand as recommended by both of you. I have to say they don't look particularly fancy in the photos, how do they look in real life?
 
They look like your standard wood finished products if you're into that kind of stuff. Personally I prefer the matte or gloss finish.

BTW, the website doesn't do their products much justice.
 
As mentioned there's not much to choose between the Tannoy and the QAs, little point in taking baby steps for improvement. You've yet to mention what you will be driving them with.

As for the sub it will depend on how big your room is and how deep are your pockets. BK are well constructed, well respected and again good value when you look at the opposition. I can also recommend REL and their new HT range is good value, slightly more expensive than the BKs but again very well respected. I've had a REL T5 for over eight years now. BK will certainly be on my radar when the REL finally gives up the ghost.
 
@gibbsy answers are as follows...

Receiver - Sony str-dn1080
Room size is 21m2

Does that help offer advice?

Having read the reviews on the BK it does seem to get praised! Will that be a better choice than the Q Acoustic QB12 then?
 
My REL is gloss black because they match my KEF speakers. It's also small to keep the wife onboard. She doesn't like deep bass and I like the musicality of the RELs which is probably the biggest difference between BK and REL. The REL T Serie are not that good for film as the bigger BKs.
 
@gibbsy I've just found the REL T5i which I assume is the newer model. Price wise its very similar to the BK. I must admit I do need to be careful how big of a subwoofer I choose as to now anger my wife with a giant black box...

But I am of course trying to trade this off with something too small that it doesn't make a difference.

@MI55ION do you have the BK sub yourself? It would be great to see photos
 
Receiver - Sony str-dn1080
The receiver could probably take an upgrade in speakers but there is a limit to what as there is with any receiver at any given price point. If you wish to upgrade then take it in stages. Get a sub first then when funds allow upgrade the front three, it should be a fairly substantial upgrade, something like the KEF Q350 and Q250C. Lastly look at the surrounds but that could be way down the road.

I would say the Monolith may be a tad too big for your room. The S400 should be more than adequate.
 
@gibbsy thanks for letting me know the Monolith would be too big for my room, what about the P12-300SB-PR?

Thanks for the advice on speaker upgrades, I thought your rears should always match the front 3; is that not necessarily true? Thought I'd ask for your advice on upgrading the speakers in stages.
 
What's the difference between BK P12-300SB-PR and BK P12-300SB-FF?
 
It's another good choice and would suit your room size, there is a review on here about that particular unit.

It's the front speakers that are the most important and they should always match. It's not written in stone for the surrounds although from the same range would be preferable but it's not something you need rush into and better to spend any available budget on those important front three. I've mentioned the KEF Q Serie and the surrounds for that set up would be the Q150s.

I have run KEF R300s, R250C with R100s are surrounds for a long time now. I've no desire to change them as they suit my room and amps perfectly. I pursued the upgrade path that I mention above.
 
I've recently bought one of these rel's I've also got a Sony 1080 its a nice looking sub
 
@dion 6 thoughts on the REL Vs BK recommended by the others?
I haven't had a bk but they come highly recommended and have a 12 inch driver with more power than the rel ht1003 which has a 10 driver. I got the rel because it was smaller and fitted in to a limited space at the side of my av unit and it's powerful enough for me
 
What's the difference between BK P12-300SB-PR and BK P12-300SB-FF?

The first one has passive radiator on bottom which acts kinda as a port. It has more output in the deep bass region if not all over. BK says it can fill larger spaces and is 2nd best model for purely movie use after Monolith! Both models has been reviewed by AVForums, the PR model not too long ago if you haven´t read yet. You won´t find better sub under 500£ that has such compact box, furniture like looks (wood veneer finish) with a solid performance down to ~20hz! The HT1003 isn´t direct competitor, HT1205 (699£) is!

Don´t think about changing the speakers before you buy the best sub you can afford! It will alone transform your system quite big time if you use some time to find best spot for it in your room and setup it correctly. Just remember to manually change speaker size to small and crossovers to ~80hz after running receiver setup with sub in place!
 
@Gasp3621 thanks for helping break down the difference. I have seen the older BK on eBay for £400, is it worth paying for the newer one?

Thoughts on the HT1003 in general? I imagine it's a smaller unit which has some appeal but if the bigger subwoofers make sense then so be it.

I think I'd go for the gloss black of the BK if I got it, or black if not. It's hard to say if the gloss is worth the extra money. I haven't seen any photos of it.
 
@Gasp3621 thanks for helping break down the difference. I have seen the older BK on eBay for £400, is it worth paying for the newer one?

Thoughts on the HT1003 in general? I imagine it's a smaller unit which has some appeal but if the bigger subwoofers make sense then so be it.

I think I'd go for the gloss black of the BK if I got it, or black if not. It's hard to say if the gloss is worth the extra money. I haven't seen any photos of it.

You won´t regret picking the better (PR) model that´s for sure, but you might get buyers remorse later if saving some at this point depending if you are the type of person... But if you haven´t owned similar quality sub before you will be happy with any of these BKs. There is also third model called XXLS400 which has better driver and slightly beefier amp in sealed cabinet for 397-460£. Gloss black finish costs extra, sure it will look nice but it´s a dust/fingerprint magnet too. The satin black looks nice, black ash bit boring. HT1003 is more comparable to BK XLS200 model.

There is indeed few new grade-b items on BKs 2nd site. These are usually in mint condition!
FF = Forward firing driver, DF = Down firing driver. Same performance, different cabinet dimensions so make sure you compare which suits better!


Here is better pictures of the gloss black P12, the PR version looks similar as FF with taller cabinet!

Satin black P12-PR:
 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
@Gasp3621 thanks that's really helpful!

Do you think the gloss black is worth the extra cost? The matt black looks better than I thought it would do, I only saw the Blash Ash before which I didn't like at all.

For a room of ~ 21m2 would the P12 or XXLS400 make more sense?
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom