Q Acoustics 3020i Bookshelf Speaker Review

[infinitesymphony]

Yeah, look at this graph for this speaker:
View attachment 72217
It almost looks like it could be showing the furthest off-axis actually becoming the loudest >1300Hz and the least off-axis goes from the loudest to the quietest after the same point.
I drew it of my explanation doesn’t make sense:
View attachment 72218

1319 Hz is actually the "Q tone," which Q Acoustics designed to be heard at the same volume anywhere in the room.

Yes, I just made that up.

 

[xthechar]

I'm still very curious about the NHT SuperZero 2.1, which is less than half the price of this speaker and has great reviews as well...

 

[walkeng]

Thanks for this @amirm!

It occurs to me again how we can hear deviations differently. Bright isn't a word I think ever came to mind with the 3020i for me. I personally liked this little speaker a lot, but the one flaw I that stood out to me was actually that it sounded laid back. I think sometimes a dip in the upper mids ends up making the presence region sound bright for some people, and the mids recessed for others. I believe at the time I was also listening to it against a B&W speaker, so that may be why the 3020i sounded dull by comparison too.

Anyway, the klippel's measurements match my measurements very closely (Klippels PIR curve corrected here) other than some deviation in the bass (which I believe is my error). This suggests good manufacturing consistency for the low price point, at least.

View attachment 72214For those wondering, I'm guessing the bass is probably measurement or summation error on my part, . The 3020i was maybe the first speaker I measured quasi-anechoically and I wasn't nearly as methodical back then =] increasing the port output in my measurements and redoing baffle step by 3dB gives a much closer result:

View attachment 72215

I bought this speaker for a second room setup , compared with some other bookshelfs (if i remember correctly the others was a kliplish , and a dali ikon in the shop ; and also with a 'magnat shadow 203' at home). It was the one with less treble , in other words "the less bright" one , so i'm very suprised with this review . If I have to criticize this speaker , maybe i can call it a little "soft" but not "bright" at all ... Anyway , i'm happy to see it reviewed here .

 

[zeppzeppzepp]

I bought this speaker for a second room setup , compared with some other bookshelfs (if i remember correctly the others was a kliplish , and a dali ikon in the shop ; and also with a 'magnat shadow 203' at home). It was the one with less treble , in other words "the less bright" one , so i'm very suprised with this review . If I have to criticize this speaker , maybe i can call it a little "soft" but not "bright" at all ... Anyway , i'm happy to see it reviewed here .

I have 3020i, too. Bright could be the frequency-dependent. My Acoustic Energy AE1 sounds way brighter comparing to 3020i.
The AE1 has a glitch around 4Khz, not like 3020i around 5khz.

3020i's tonal balance is actually quite good.
The real problem is the low frequency handling as the measurement shown.

 

[daftcombo]

Disturbed by the high distortion in low frequencies, I tried a technique with the last speaker I tested: put in a sharp filter below 40 Hz. To my pleasant surprise, this had big effect on fidelity, increasing detail in frequencies well above its effective range. Clarity improved good deal. I am going to keep experimenting with this but seems like it is best to not let these small speakers to try to reproduce very low frequencies.

Do you know which kind of slope it was? Not Linkwitz-Riley I think.

 

[amirm]

Do you know which kind of slope it was? Not Linkwitz-Riley I think.

I think 18 db per octave.

 

[daftcombo]

I think 18 db per octave.

It's written 12 dB/oct on your picture actually, but the formula applied to get that may vary.

 

[daftcombo]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Q Acoustics 3020i bookshelf speaker. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. It costs US $315 from Amazon including free shipping.

It is so hard for companies to differentiate themselves with budget speakers but Q Acoustics has done it:

View attachment 72184

It is modern but not too European looking for American taste. It also manages to look cute in the process! There is definitely attention to visual design all around.

The binding posts are custom and recessed which is nice. The plastic handles though are a bit hard to tighten but not a big deal. Overall it is very hard to not like the look and feel of the 3020i.

Yes, this is continuing our theme of testing UK designed speakers although this one naturally is made in China.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

I used over 800 measurement point which was sufficient to compute the sound field of the speaker.

Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

View attachment 72186

If you step far enough back, the on-axis response which is most important seems mostly flat. Closer attention though shows fair bit of variations with a rise in the upper frequencies to the right. We also have an unfortunate dip 2 to 4 kHz range of the crossover (2.4 kHz). It also suffers from two dips which seem to be resonances (enclosure or the woofer).

The woofer and tweeter beam widths are mismatched at crossover point resulting in different response off-axis than on-axis:

View attachment 72189

Try to avoid/absorb floor and ceiling reflections if you can (my room has a thick rug).

Putting it all together we get the predicted in-room response:

View attachment 72213

Distortion is well controlled in the tweeter but not so in the woofer:

View attachment 72190

View attachment 72191

Best not let this speaker play too low (see listening sections) as it is merely a distortion generator.

Impedance is low as is typical of these bookshelf speakers so best have a good amplifier to drive it:
View attachment 72193

We see the same problem area at 366 Hz that we saw in the "spinorama" frequency response measurement. The waterfall shows the rest of the resonances:
View attachment 72195

Here are the contributions from each component of the speaker in near-field measurement:

View attachment 72194

I wonder if the crossover point should have been a bit lower. It would have filled that dip more and avoided some of the distortion from the woofer.

Beamwidth horizontally is on the narrow side:
View attachment 72196

But it is also rather uneven so hard to make general statements about it. In listening tests I preferred the speaker fully toed-in toward my ears (post EQ).

Here are our full directivity plots:

View attachment 72197

View attachment 72198

Good to see rather even vertical response so you don't to have the tweeter precisely at ear level.

Speaker Subjective Listening Tests
I listened to the 3020i while the data was being computed so didn't have the benefit of knowing its response in advance. My first "5 second" impression was: "oh, this sounds good.... but wait, it is bright." Not bright in distorted grungy way but just some high frequency energy that almost set off my tinnitus. Further listening to female vocals demonstrated this clearly. I could play really loud with no sign of the woofer bottoming out which is great for a budget speaker.

Continuing to listen provided a mixed message of what the tonality of the speaker was. At this point the measurements finished and I realized the reason was the uneven response which makes the experience content dependent. So I went to work to correct it and this is what I ended with:

View attachment 72199

As usual, please ignore filter band 1 as that is for a room mode and is specific to my situation. You would need to find such a peak in your room using measurements and correct.

Band 2 was a simple fix to high frequency shelving. It nicely got rid of the zing way up which also helped with female vocals. I should say however that I can see how in quick listening such extra brightness may convince one that there is more detail there. You may want to tune this more to taste (and your high frequency hearing ability).

I took a shot at filling the dips in low frequencies (two resonances) but this was not effective. High Q filters were not audible. Low Q ones took away the bass. So I gave up on correcting those, trusting the research conclusion that such narrow dips are likely not audible.

Disturbed by the high distortion in low frequencies, I tried a technique with the last speaker I tested: put in a sharp filter below 40 Hz. To my pleasant surprise, this had big effect on fidelity, increasing detail in frequencies well above its effective range. Clarity improved good deal. I am going to keep experimenting with this but seems like it is best to not let these small speakers to try to reproduce very low frequencies.

Once there, the response was quite pleasant. I toggled back and forth turning off all the filters and the EQ definitely helped. But even without the EQ, I thought the response was fine.

Conclusions
I struggled with how to rate the 3020i. I vacillated between giving it the lower postman panther or the "not bad" one that it finally got. You could have pushed me either way. I find the non-EQ response to barely be offensive (mostly the high frequency exaggeration). So if you are going to build a less than perfect speaker, you might as well do it this way.

Overall, without EQ I can't recommend the Q Acoustics 3020i even though I love the design and some aspects of its sound (e.g. power handling).

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Typing this on hungry stomach yet again (2:45 pm and no lunch). But I think I have to go out and get a sandwich and need some way of replenishing my funds. So please donate what you can using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Two more questions about EQ:

1) Do you use Constant Q or Proportionnal Q in those Roon corrections? Constant Q makes a broader dip (at least at some frequencies) according to my simulations in Rephase.

2) Why a gentle 12 dB or 18 dB slope at 40 Hz and not a steep 96 dB to remove everything below and keep all above? That would probably be more benign for the sound for musical content and more efficient to get rid of distortion coming from the 30 Hz-40 Hz zone.

 

[Sheriff1972]

I have 3020i, too. Bright could be the frequency-dependent. My Acoustic Energy AE1 sounds way brighter comparing to 3020i.
The AE1 has a glitch around 4Khz, not like 3020i around 5khz.

3020i's tonal balance is actually quite good.
The real problem is the low frequency handling as the measurement shown.

I had them too. Not bright to me either. I enjoyed them a lot

 

[Hiilari]

Nice review again! I was intrigued by this statement

"It is modern but not too European looking for American taste. "

As a Finnish / European audio buff I'm not sure what 'European looking' means...

 

[Willem]

I bought a pair of 3010s for the bedroom at only 165 euro the pair and have been quite happy. The frequency response, however, was not quite to my liking with somewhat boomy bass (they are quite close to the side wall) and a harsh top end. So I plugged the port and used the tone control on the CCA to reduce the higher frequencies. The result is quite satisfactory though obviously nowhere near the Harbeth P3 ESR in my study or the Quad 2805 in the main system. They are clearly better than the old Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 that had packed up. And they look stylishly European. I would not have liked paying real money for them, however.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Nice review again! I was intrigued by this statement

"It is modern but not too European looking for American taste. "

As a Finnish / European audio buff I'm not sure what 'European looking' means...

 

[MediumRare]

Nice review again! I was intrigued by this statement

"It is modern but not too European looking for American taste. "

As a Finnish / European audio buff I'm not sure what 'European looking' means...

You know, like this:

 

[Hiilari]

These look very British - since they are. Very different from Scandinavian. French and Italians have their very own thing going. Europe is kinda big and diverse and there simply is no 'European style'. We are one big beautiful mess of styles and cultures.

 

[Hiilari]

You know, like this:
View attachment 74566

Ah, the arhcetypal European indeed.

 

[pogballistics]

Waiting for the 3050i measurements. Hope to see it soon

 

[SynthesisCinema]

Waiting for the 3050i measurements. Hope to see it soon

Not sure if you seen these yet..

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...&catid=77:loudspeaker-measurements&Itemid=153

 

[geoemm]

Waiting for the 3050i measurements. Hope to see it soon

https://audio.com.pl/testy/stereo/kolumny-glosnikowe/3043-q-acoustics-3050i

 

[pogballistics]

https://audio.com.pl/testy/stereo/kolumny-glosnikowe/3043-q-acoustics-3050i

Hmmm. What are your inferences based on these graphs? (+ @JR449 )

I am also waiting for Amir to review them so we can have a broader idea.

Also, can you suggest the Parametric EQ settings on Roon Labs based on these graphs?

For the time being I'm using:
No EQ,
Peak/Dip EQ at 2200Hz with +3db at 3Q (shared by @Eetu) and
also recently was trying out the EQ Amir has shared for 3020i on this review.

Let me know your thoughts on this.
Also it would be great if @amirm can chime in

 

[pogballistics]

So based on the Listening Window of 3020i and 3050i available on soundstagenetwork, I made a PEQ for 3050i.

This PEQ is based on how @amirm had designed it for 3020i.

Let me know what you guys think of this and if there is any scope for changes, I am open for it.


Below is the LW for 3050i:

Below is the LW for 3020i:

Below is the PEQ that @amirm had made for 3020i:

Below are the PEQ I made based on the LW comparisons and @amirm 's PEQ of 3020i:

1st PEQ:

2nd PEQ (some changes):

Awaiting your valuable feedbacks as I'm very new to the world of PEQ.

Special mention @Eetu who had helped me with the first PEQ chart.

PS: Need special help and attention with Band 3 (High Pass Filter).

Thanks