Q Acoustics Concept 300 - Standmount Speakers

The brief for Concept 300 is simple, yet staggeringly ambitious. Build on the runaway success of the floorstanding Concept 500 and deliver a standmounting alternative that’s at once more affordable, of utterly uncompromised performance and of stylish, understated elegance.

There follows a brief explanation of just how Q Acoustics has made this happen and, by extension, why Concept 300 represents the state of the loudspeaker art in the 21st century.

Design

The days of performance being the be-all and end-all of a loudspeaker are long gone. Aesthetic considerations are perfectly valid and, to this end, in the Concept 300 Q Acoustics has designed a high-end, high-performance loudspeaker that’s unshowily sophisticated and able to interact discreetly with any interior design vocabulary.

On the outside, numerous lacquer coats produce a high-quality gloss finish which is combined with real-wood veneers. This results in a cabinet that manages to be clean and understated at the same time as being of obviously high perceived value.

The uncluttered look of the cabinets is further enhanced by innovative drive unit mounting. Both the tweeter and mid/bass driver are fixed, from behind, by strong spring-tensioned retaining bolts which negate the need for any exposed bolt-heads on the speaker face.

At the rear of the speaker, Concept 300 features an over-specified terminal panel which is designed to resist vibrations from the cabinet. It’s equipped for bi-wiring (or bi-amping) via its electrically isolated terminals - these can accept bare wire, spade connectors or 4mm banana plugs.

Unboxing and Overview Video on Concept 300 and Tensegrity Stands

Cabinet and Stand

Ideally, the only vibrations a loudspeaker produces are the ones required to generate its sound. Of course, it’s not possible to entirely rid a loudspeaker cabinet of unwanted vibrations that can interfere with its performance - but, as Q Acoustics has demonstrated with Concept 300, it is possible to keep cabinet vibrations to an absolute minimum in order to deliver entirely uncorrupted sound.

Q Acoustics uses MDF rather than one of the more glamorous and/or expensive alternatives to construct the Concept 300 cabinet. There are a couple of reasons for this: a) alternative materials offer no benefits in terms of damping, or even ease and simplicity of construction, over the very high performance MDF delivers, and b) more expensive materials simply drive up the eventual price of the speaker for no audio gain whatsoever.

Driver Units and Crossover

Q Acoustics has taken its proven (and acclaimed) driver technology from the Concept 500 floorstanding speaker and enhanced its performance to perfectly match the requirements of the Concept 300’s smaller cabinet.

The mid/bass driver is a 165mm impregnated/coated paper cone with very low resonance thanks to its high-performance rubber surround. It sits in front of a large (35mm) glass fibre voice coil and equally substantial ferrite magnet. The result is midrange and bass response that’s as punchy and dynamic as it is poised and eloquent.

Above it, the 28mm high-frequency driver, made of super-fine strands of coated microfibre, is decoupled from the speaker cabinet using a rubber gasket. This protects the tweeter from sending or receiving unwanted vibrations and allows it to be mounted close to the mid-bass driver. This improves integration with the larger driver - and the very subtle horn-shaped profile to the tweeter’s front plate allows perfect impedance-matching with its environment without colouring performance.

Results

A combination of rigorous engineering, uncompromised industrial design and aspirational aesthetics makes Concept 300 the most fully realised loudspeaker Q Acoustics has yet delivered. In combination with the equally meticulous Tensegrity stand, Concept 300 represents a step-change in loudspeaker design and a redefinition of what is possible at its price.

Technical Specifications

Performance

• Frequency Response: 55 Hz – 28 kHz
• Average Impedance 6 Ω
• Minimum Impedance 4.7 Ω
• Sensitivity 84 dB/W/m
• Recommended Power 25 – 200 W
• 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:  14.5 kg
• Speakers (minus stands) 220 x 355 x 400mm
• Speakers (inc. including) 492 x 690 x 430mm

Further Information

Q Acoustics Concept 300 - User Manual (PDF)

What HiFi 4-Star Review - 25th April 2020 (Link)