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Q Acoustics 3030i Quasi-anechoic Spinorama and other measurements

napilopez

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Hello! I recently published my review of the new Q Acoustics 3030i. You can look that up if you want more text, but I'm here for measurements!

The 3030i were recently announced, and retail for $400.

So we have the quasi-anechoic spin, with nearfield bass spliced to the listening window at 385 Hz:

3030i Spinorama.png


Remember my measurements use a taller aspect ratio than amirs. Here's the squishified version to match the HDI-1600:
3030i squishified.jpg


I think this is quite good for a $400 speaker at launch. While nearfield bass is always a bit of a gamble, these seem to have done a quite a good job with bass extension too

There appears to be a resonance at 1.2kHz, with some jaggies here and there, but neutral overall tonality on axis and in the listening window. There's some bunching around the presence region off axis, so they might sound a bit bight here, but I didn't notice that during my listening.

Breaking down the horizontal response, here is the off-axis response out to 90 degrees, as well as the front, side, rear, and total horizontal curves.

3030i Horizontal Extra.png


You can see the wide directivity up to about 6kHz, after which it narrows a fair bit. The flattest angle seems to be about 15 degrees off axis. Overall horizontal reflections seem to be balanced quite nicely, which likely contributes to the very enjoyable sound

Taking another view, here's the horizontal polar plot. Note it is normalized to the on-axis to focus solely on directivity:
3030i Horizontal Polar Map.png


Vertical, you want to be on axis:, or at least not far above the tweeter axis.

3030i vertical.png


Polar:
3030i Vertical Polar Map.png


Treat yo' ceiling, if you can.

Bonus, here are the nearfield responses for the drivers and port:
3030i Drivers.png


Imo a lot to like. Better than the 3020i, and more bass.
 

ROOSKIE

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Great review over at Next Web, I read it before you mentioned it here. Your reviews are some of the most honest and complete out there. Always looking forward to them now.
Thanks!
 

MediumRare

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Looks very good. They’re a bit too big for me. Any suggestions suitable for wall mounting, say, under 12" tall?
 

tuga

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Hello! I recently published my review of the new Q Acoustics 3030i. You can look that up if you want more text, but I'm here for measurements!

The 3030i were recently announced, and retail for $400.

So we have the quasi-anechoic spin, with nearfield bass spliced to the listening window at 385 Hz:

View attachment 57999

Remember my measurements use a taller aspect ratio than amirs. Here's the squishified version to match the HDI-1600:
View attachment 58001

I think this is quite good for a $400 speaker at launch. While nearfield bass is always a bit of a gamble, these seem to have done a quite a good job with bass extension too

There appears to be a resonance at 1.2kHz, with some jaggies here and there, but neutral overall tonality on axis and in the listening window. There's some bunching around the presence region off axis, so they might sound a bit bight here, but I didn't notice that during my listening.

Breaking down the horizontal response, here is the off-axis response out to 90 degrees, as well as the front, side, rear, and total horizontal curves.

View attachment 58008

You can see the wide directivity up to about 6kHz, after which it narrows a fair bit. The flattest angle seems to be about 15 degrees off axis. Overall horizontal reflections seem to be balanced quite nicely, which likely contributes to the very enjoyable sound

Taking another view, here's the horizontal polar plot. Note it is normalized to the on-axis to focus solely on directivity:
View attachment 58010

Vertical, you want to be on axis:, or at least not far above the tweeter axis.

View attachment 58011

Polar:
View attachment 58012

Treat yo' ceiling, if you can.

Bonus, here are the nearfield responses for the drivers and port:
View attachment 58013

Imo a lot to like. Better than the 3020i, and more bass.

Why did you measure at 110dB?

Why is the tweeter producing (a flat) sound (response) between 100 and 1,000Hz 15dB below the signal?
 

thewas

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Why did you measure at 110dB?

Why is the tweeter producing (a flat) sound (response) between 100 and 1,000Hz 15dB below the signal?
These are measurements very close to the drivers to reduce the relative influence of other drivers, which explains the very high levels and why still the influence of the other drivers can be seen.
 

tuga

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These are measurements very close to the drivers to reduce the relative influence of other drivers, which explains the very high levels and why still the influence of the other drivers can be seen.

Would this mean something like 98dB at 2 metres?
 

Soniclife

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Would this mean something like 98dB at 2 metres?
If you haven't done it start playing some music sort of loud, then walk towards the drivers holding a SPL meter, it's impressive how loud things get close to the drivers.
 

koro

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Many thanks for the measurements, Napilopez, I didn’t know these were out until a couple weeks ago and have been since then curious about how these would compare to my 3020i’s.

The dip in the presence zone seems to be less severe, even compared to the 3050i’s (at the expense of that peak/resonance at 1200khz being lifted?) and the extra bass makes for a very nice flatter response than both too.

Shame I have to stick to my 3020i’s now more than ever, damn virus.
 
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maxxevv

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The low frequency drop off seems pretty quick. -6dB is like 55Hz ?
 

gr-e

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I'm wondering if the dips in woofer measurement is bad driver behavior or just interference from the tweeter

Looks like they went for a flat on-axis response not caring about the power response...
 
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napilopez

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Why did you measure at 110dB?

Why is the tweeter producing (a flat) sound (response) between 100 and 1,000Hz 15dB below the signal?

Yep, as @thewas_ explained, just an effect of the nearfield measurement; the woofer measurement was at about 0.25 inches, for instance. I can't go too much louder before the Umik-1 risks clipping. The actual SPL level was in fact the same as on the on-axis -- just 74dB @1m. Just meant to show some trends - can't turn off the individual drivers, unfortunately.

Is there a reason you don't link to your own review?

Don't want to come off as self-promoting, especially as reviews usually contain affiliate links.

Many thanks for the measurements, Napilopez, I didn’t know these were out until a couple weeks ago and have been since then curious about how these would compare to my 3020i’s.

The dip in the presence zone seems to be less severe, even compared to the 3050i’s (at the expense of that peak/resonance at 1200khz being lifted?) and the extra bass makes for a very nice flatter response than both too.

Shame I have to stick to my 3020i’s now more than ever, damn virus.

Yep, they seem to be most timbrally neutral of the 3000i family, with less severe of a crossover dip, at least in the horizontal. Here's the 3020i for comparison.

3020i Horizontal.png


The $530ish Concept 20, by comparison, is significantly smoother, but still seems less timbrally balanced than the 3030i. I believe it uses the same drivers as the 3020i, so it seems that the extra cabinet work with the dampening gel is having an effect.

Concept 20 Horizontal.png


But it still has that dip in the upper mids.

I'd actually tried to simulate a spin for those based on the incomplete measurements. I would take the sound power response with a grain of salt as I had no actual rear hemisphere measurements for this one (I basically copied the rear response from another speaker), but I think the early reflections curve should be on the money.

Spin.png


Without listening to these side by side, I think the Concept 20 would still be the best of Q Acoustics' cheapish bookshelves if you plan on crossing with a sub.

The low frequency drop off seems pretty quick. -6dB is like 55Hz ?
I think it actually performs pretty well. The -6dB point depends on where you take it from. As far as I know, there isn't a standard way to do it, which is why some manufacturers get away with exaggerations. Sometimes people seem to do it relative to 200Hz. Othertimes it seems relative to the lowest point of the on-axis curve. Othertimes its relative to the average SPL. If you take 1KHz as your reference point for the 3030i, you get -6dB at roughly 47Hz.

Moreover, keep in mind nearfield summations are always a bit of a gamble and that very small adjustments in the splice point and how you match the port and woofer levels can shift the -6dB point by several Hz. It's more useful for looking at the bass trends than for determining a precise -6dB point.
 
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napilopez

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OK, I know how this works, we pick the curves apart and say we are going to pass on the speaker before we hear it? Don't like the 1k port resonance so going to wait for the perfect speaker measurement.....

I'm confused... this is an old thread and the speaker performs pretty darn good for the price. I listened to this speaker, just didn't get into that in this thread when I posted it.
 

Shazb0t

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OK, I know how this works, we pick the curves apart and say we are going to pass on the speaker before we hear it? Don't like the 1k port resonance so going to wait for the perfect speaker measurement.....
I'm glad that your registered just to necro and take this whole thread completely out of context. Let me guess, you own these speakers? White knight? They look competent for the price.
 

jcb

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@napilopez Thank you for the measurements, I have ordered these speakers because I need to downsize and they were heavily discounted. I don't understand why the crossover dip around 2k is less pronounced in this speaker vs. the smaller models, but I don't generally mind this tonality.

Anyway, have you made an EQ for this, or could you share data so I can roll my own easier? Thanks.
 

jcb

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Received the speakers today, here are my impressions.

With room gain they play quite low bass, but there is woofer distortion at moderate volume. About 95-98 dB SPL @1 meter they start to distort badly. This is probably okay for desktop / small room setup without sub unless you need night club level output.

Crossing over to sub at 80Hz gives you an additional 6 - 9dB SPL depending on source material. But I think they might play higher with better amp, because it sounds like amp clipping and not speaker distortion once the low frequencies are passed to the sub. My amp is 2x125W @8 ohm but that is at 1% thd, I think it's around 80wpc at 0.1% thd.

I was worried about ~1.2kHz peak but I think in reality it's not a problem. The suckout near the crossover frequency, which does not seem like a problem on-axis is very audible even on axis. Weird. Overall for approx $316 I'm keeping these.
 
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napilopez

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Received the speakers today, here are my impressions.

With room gain they play quite low bass, but there is woofer distortion at moderate volume. About 95-98 dB SPL @1 meter they start to distort badly. This is probably okay for desktop / small room setup without sub unless you need night club level output.

Crossing over to sub at 80Hz gives you an additional 6 - 9dB SPL depending on source material. But I think they might play higher with better amp, because it sounds like amp clipping and not speaker distortion once the low frequencies are passed to the sub. My amp is 2x125W @8 ohm but that is at 1% thd, I think it's around 80wpc at 0.1% thd.

I was worried about ~1.2kHz peak but I think in reality it's not a problem. The suckout near the crossover frequency, which does not seem like a problem on-axis is very audible even on axis. Weird. Overall for approx $316 I'm keeping these.

Thanks for sharing your impressions, and they actually make much sense, or at least don't seem counter to how I interpret measurements based on Dr. Toilet's book .

When there is a dip and peak of the same size, usually the peak is more audible, but in general a wide (low Q) deviation from flat is more audible than a narrow one, even if the narrow one is taller and might look worse in a graph. The gist of it is that as the scoop covers a greater range of frequencies, it's more likely music will actually fall within that range. So even if the dB deviation is smaller you will hear the scoop more often than the peak which covers a relatively narrow portion of frequencies, and FR deviations seem to be reinforced by repetition (this is the case with resonances, at least, so I figure it likely applies at least partially to deviations in general).

Even if the scoop is largely off axis, by those frequencies you're hearing a substantial combination of on axis and room sound.
 
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jcb

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Thank you for the reply. I obviously don’t fully understand how the spinorama transfers to in-room sound, but as you suggest I suspect that reflections might make the crossover dip more serious even on axis. I have a non reflective ceiling but reflective floor and walls, other than curtains.

Both me and the wife were pleasantly surprised at how much depth and power these put out. We like big speakers, but she messed up in a remodeling project so now it is no longer possible to have floor standers in our living room with reasonable placement. This was a good compromise for not too much money.

Did you see my other post about EQ/sharing spin data? I understand if you can’t do it, just poking around. I used a program to convert your graph to csv so I think I’m already pretty close.
 
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