Q Acoustics Concept 300 without the stands?

[JustAnAudioLover]

Hi there!

I was given a demo of a pair of Q Acoustic Concept 300 a few days ago in an audio shop. These were really nice, but they came on super big stands that are bundled together with the speakers. The problem is that they are too big for my room (the stands, not the speakers).

The seller insisted that the stands were extremely important for the sound, and that if I didn't have enough room for them, I'd better not buy these speakers. But he also told me that Ethernet cables made a difference in audio quality, so go figure...

So, I was wondering if the speaker's stands were that important? Sure, they seem to be a pretty nice piece of engineering, but are they that important? If I put the speakers and basic stands, would the sound change that much?

Thanks for your help

Product link: https://www.qacoustics.co.uk/products/q-acoustics-concept-300

 

[staticV3]

The stands are a gimmick.

Any other well designed stand will do just as good a job.

 

[staticV3]

That being said, I have not seen a single well designed Q Acoustics loudspeaker, so would personally ignore the brand as a whole: https://www.spinorama.org/?brand=Q+Acoustics

Also keep in mind that room acoustics dominate the final result, so there's limited value in showroom demos.

 

[JeremyFife]

I'm not great at reading Stereophile measurements, but JA rated them. Whether they offer value, I can't say. You might find this interesting https://www.stereophile.com/content/q-acoustics-concept-300-loudspeaker-measurements

 

[ZolaIII]

For 6K thanks but no thanks. Stereophile measurements clearly show what stands do. I have Q3030i's and they are really fine. But those are cheap bookshelf's with some aesthetics (which is lacking in that segment) and still with EQ and sub's. For the money you can do whole setup and lot better.

 

[ZolaIII]

Take this with lot of grains of salt (same goes for Stereophile measurements).

Q Acoustics Concept 300/500

The Q acoustics Concept 300 is a heavy stand mount, 2 way, 2 driver speaker which ships with trick dedicated stands for $4500. Its big sister the Concept 500 is a similar floor standing speaker with 3 drivers in a D'Appolito configuration for $6000. What strikes me about these two speakers is...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Two things they do proper is cabinet depth and not putting port tuning too low. The design effort to lower cabinet resonances is just it with more or less effort and they are far from success there. For that check the Elac DBR62's in regard what's achievable on very tight budget from design stan point. Still definitely not worth the money (QA C300). I don't know how much space you have (especially for stands) but check Wharfedale Linton's/Super Linton's.

 

[diablo]

In the UK the prices of these are from £1499 to £2749 (without stands), so worth shopping around wherever you are.

I have some old Concept 20 speakers in use in my bedroom and they do a good enough job. Though if spending £1500 I'd probably look at other speakers - maybe the new KEFs?

 

[komhst]

The seller insisted that the stands were extremely important for the sound, and that if I didn't have enough room for them, I'd better not buy these speakers. But he also told me that Ethernet cables made a difference in audio quality, so go figure...

So, I was wondering if the speaker's stands were that important? Sure, they seem to be a pretty nice piece of engineering, but are they that important? If I put the speakers and basic stands, would the sound change that much?

Of course the sound won't change at all if you buy a different set of stands! Considering that you keep the tweeter at your ear level.
The problem is (his problem) that if you buy the speakers without the stands it will be too difficult for him to sell only the stands to someone else. So, he prefers to sell them as a bundle.

 

[BeeKay]

The thing about the original tensegrity stands and the Concept 300 is perhaps the coil-supported suspension system that's built in. Both the bottom of the speakers and top plate of the stands were designed as one system. To what extent this contributes to better sound, I don't know.

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

Still definitely not worth the money (QA C300). I don't know how much space you have (especially for stands) but check Wharfedale Linton's/Super Linton's.

The Concept 300 are already very big (visually) for my room. The Linton's are a no go. If I had enough space, I would have gone with MoFi's Sourcepoint 8.
Also they really amazed me when I tried them. I also listened to the Focal Sopra n°2 back-to-back, and had tried Monitor Audio's Platinum 200 (3G) a few days before. So I already had a glimpse of what 10k~15k speakers could offer, but the Concept 300 were far better overall for me. Less technicalities but an incredibly precise and immersive soundstage, and an incredible tonal realism.

 

[ZolaIII]

This is becoming worse than blind man whispering on deaf ones ear about what he saw.
Different stands will have different effect. Single pillar one's won't help at all, 3~4 pillar will but those won't be small. Acoustic pack's or silicone will have even bigger improvement effects. QA used property mont on those and spring loaded base on them so it's questionable to use regular stands with them. I don't like either, before they used to go with standard butterfly bricket which whose a lot better. Stereophile didn't do measurements with they tripod stands which by the way are wired (but do the job). And don't compare them with speakers of similar size with shelow cabinets and too low port extensions claiming how that's a better thing as those tend to fall apart miserably regarding compression on higher SPL.

 

[ZolaIII]

The Concept 300 are already very big (visually) for my room. The Linton's are a no go. If I had enough space, I would have gone with MoFi's Sourcepoint 8.
Also they really amazed me when I tried them. I also listened to the Focal Sopra n°2 back-to-back, and had tried Monitor Audio's Platinum 200 (3G) a few days before. So I already had a glimpse of what 10k~15k speakers could offer, but the Concept 300 were far better overall for me. Less technicalities but an incredibly precise and immersive soundstage, and an incredible tonal realism.

There is no substitute for the size. They are same size as QA Q3030i so I know what you are talking about. Did you consider 8" active monitors?

 

[BeeKay]

From the Q-Acoustics website:​

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Tensegrity Stand & Isolation Base System​

With a standmounting speaker design like this, of course, the speaker’s relationship with its stand is of fundamental importance. It’s the design of the new Tensegrity stand, and the new isolation base suspension system that joins Concept 300 to it, that allows Q Acoustics to redefine the level of performance that’s possible from a smaller loudspeaker.
Tensegrity is a tripod - by definition, an extremely stable structure. It’s built from lightweight aluminium tubes (which are the load-bearing element) and thin stainless steel cables (which maintain the position of the load-bearing tubes). The result is a light, exceptionally rigid and self-supporting structure with a remarkably low surface area and - let’s not pretend otherwise - beautifully elegant appearance. It’s not so much a speaker stand, it’s more an entirely new loudspeaker support concept.
But, of course, it’s of little consequence how efficient your speaker cabinet is, or how ingenious the design of the stand it works from, if the union between the two is unsympathetic or inefficient. Q Acoustics joins Concept 300 speaker to Tensegrity stand with the new isolation base suspension system, which is about as sympathetic and efficient as it gets.
The entire mass of Concept 300 is suspended on the four springs of the newly developed integrated base plate. This isolation base system works in multiple ways: it prevents energy from the speaker leaking into the Tensegrity stand and affecting the sound, it prevents vibrations for the floor making their way from the stands into the speaker, and in every circumstance it provides a rigid coupling between speaker and stand.
Thanks to the combination of Tensegrity stand and isolation base suspension, the performance of Concept 300 is entirely unhindered by internal or external influences.

 

[JustAnAudioLover]

This is becoming worse than blind man whispering on deaf ones ear about what he saw.

I don't get what you're saying?

Different stands will have different effect. Single pillar one's won't help at all, 3~4 pillar will but those won't be small. Acoustic pack's or silicone will have even bigger improvement effects. QA used property mont on those and spring loaded base on them so it's questionable to use regular stands with them.

So for you the stands do improve the sound quality of the speakers?

 

[ZolaIII]

I don't get what you're saying?


So for you the stands do improve the sound quality of the speakers?

The job of the stands is to ground the vibration of the speakers and get the cabinet refractions down. So yes their do. But pluging the port's of the speakers and crossing them high enough with the sub's bringing such vibration down in the first place that stands won't improve much if anything (as there won't be anything to improve). I put silicone egg seaters in between my Q3030 and the sub's to limit transmission from sub's to them. Sub's are on IsoAcoustics stands and with their packs.