Q Acoustics Concept 500 - Floorstanding HiFi Speakers

Q Acoustics have until now concentrated on designing and marketing loudspeakers that, most would agree, are focussed on the budget end of the market. The objective with the Concept 500 was to concentrate on a perfect balance between art and science to produce a loudspeaker that would be stylish, contemporary, fine-sounding and accurate with less priority on price.

Taking away the constraints of designing for lower price points certainly removed some pressure, but the Concept 500 still needed to be considered good value for money within its, significantly higher-end, target market.

The Concept 500 has been developed by Q Acoustics in collaboration with Fink Audio-Consulting and IDA with whom they have built a long-term partnership since working together on their very first loudspeaker project over 10 years ago. In the new Concept 500, this truly talented team of people has produced a beautiful loudspeaker that can be manufactured so consistently that the sound and performance of every unit will be identical.

Features

• High Frequency Driver - Mechanically decoupled mounting which effectively isolates the HF driver and speaker cabinet from reciprocal vibrations that would otherwise be transmitted between them.
• Mid/Bass Drivers - The Mid/Bass voice coil has an uncommonly large diameter of 35mm which allows increased ‘shove’ and higher power handling - as well as reducing compression.
• Crossover - Great care has been taken in both the design of the crossover and the selection of high grade components, to introduce virtually zero noise and distortion. The 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley topology which gives an excellent response both on and off-axis.
• Cabinet Bracing - A method, known as P2P™ (Point to Point) bracing, supports the parts of the cabinet that need to be stiffened to deal with low frequency panel vibrations.
• Cabinet Walls - Constructed in three separate layers and filled under pressure with a non-setting gel, this damps the cabinet walls and converts higher frequency vibrations into heat.
• Pressure Equalisers - Tall loudspeakers tend to suffer from resonances caused by unwanted pressure gradients. Specially designed Helmholtz Pressure Equalisers (HPE™) balance out these pressure irregularities.

Technical Specifications

Performance

• Frequency Response (-6dB, +3dB) 41 Hz – 30 kHz
• Average Impedance 6 Ω
• Minimum Impedance 3.7 Ω
• Sensitivity 90 dB/W/m
• Recommended Power 25 – 200 W
• Distortion (120Hz – 20kHz) 0.2 %
• Crossover Frequency 2.5 kHz

Driver Dimensions

• Mid / Bass Driver 2 x 165 mm (6.50 inches)
• High Frequency Unit 28 mm (1.10 inches)

Weight and Dimensions

• Weight (per cabinet) 42 kg
• Cabinet (inc. plinth) 400 x 1150 x 350 mm
• Cabinet (inc. spikes and terminals) 400 x 1175 x 375 mm

Further Information

Q Acoustics Concept 500 - User Manual (PDF)