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Written by Aenn Seidhe Priest
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Friday, 28 November 2008 20:10 |
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...are the latest addition to the Head-Direct store.
Here's a sample setup:
Sony D-NE500 portable CD player, Qinpu Q-1 amplifier, Q-6 speakers.
Q-6 are relatively inefficient mini-speakers, efficiency rating is 80 dB. Though this is a bit misleading - psychoacoustically they can be loud.
The metal cone mounted over the speaker driver in the photo is a soundfield diffuser/reflector. Unlike a conventional speaker setup, the Q-6 driver fires into the metal cone, spreading sound around the speakers.
Conventional speakers create a "straight" projection of soundfield in front of them, like a regular flashlight. The Q-6 speakers generate a circular soundfield. It is not entirely spheric, but close. Metallic cone transmission of sound also gives the speakers an excellent high-frequency response; echoes, reverberations, reproduction of space is easily the best of any small speakers.
Tonal balance is shifted towards midrange, high midrange and high frequencies (spatial range). The speakers are ported, and have a decent bass response (down to 100 Hz, according to the specs). There's a caveat though.
In this photo the reflex port fires into an empty space. And the bass waves will be coming out in direction opposite to the main speakers' output, cancelling out the main driver output.
In conventional ported speakers, drivers create the main sound field firing straight ahead. Backwave from drivers (usually reflected once again from the back of a speaker cabinet) is then routed through reflex tubes to fire in the same direction as the main driver output.
The Q-6 have reflex ports firing downwards; Q-6 are designed to be standing on a hard surface, with the hard surface (bookshelf or desk, etc.) acting as a phase inverter for the bass waves. Acoustically this is wise; bass frequencies aren't as directional to human hearing as midrange, etc.; and, they'd be spreading around the sides of speakers, blending with the main diffused, circular soundfield.
Sonically the Q-6 aren't at all like bassy/midrange-tuned "rock" speakers, which isn't surprising at all as they aren't that large. The speakers weigh 600 g. each, and fit easily in a bag or backpack together with the Q-1 amplifier. Unsurprisingly, "in-your-face" bass'n'drum music, rock, etc. won't be that "in-your-face". The forte of the Q-6 is ambience. The Q-6 are capable of creating a wide, sparkling soundstage with lifelike reverberations. Conventional speakers tend to sound somewhat flat next to them. And even though apparently they aren't capable of playing very loud, talkers have to raise voice when speaking next to the Q-6 at playing volume.
The Q-6 will give priority to high frequencies over bass and low midrange; a hi-hat or bell sparkle will be very clear over a bassline. Vangelis' "Direct" managed to transmit its magic even compressed to 320 kbps MP3, and playing out of a Cowon T2 player (not exactly the cleanest-sounding player out there). This is the major advantage of the Q-6: the speakers bring out the space, high frequencies, female vocals, and all of the sparkle and ambience there is in music, even when playing lossy files. Metallic reflector cones might add some of their own overtones to the music, compensating for what's already been killed in lossy formats like MP3. The result is still a bit shallow sound (what's lost is lost), but the speakers do magic for any real music: Chinese string music, live recordings, Enya's albums, and so on. The Q-6 bring out spatial details and delicate pads and chromatic percussion that are usually blurred with other instruments or veiled in the background on regular "consumer" speakers. Also little details like movement of a pianist on his chair, coughing and movement noises in an auditorium...
The slight downside of the Q-6 is in sonic reflexions. Those "roof supports" of the speakers minimise reflexions, as they're rounded, but the slight reflexions are still there, and the overall sound character is a bit boxy, as with most ported speakers. There's a limit to the soundfield too, it is more circular than spheric. They're far from being "3D soundfield" speakers, as a German store calls them.
In a regular setup though furniture, electronics, etc. will all add their own sound blocks and reflexions. As someone said, an ideal listening setup has no furniture.
In a working setup, these speakers are best placed with the open part at the same level as ears. Some kind of speaker stands or even bookshelf at ear level will be the right place for Q-6.
One place where speakers like that might have a natural "place to live" is the office. They're not boomy at all, so they won't be very noticeable to anyone outside a closed office. The Q-6 can play at moderate volume and have a good clarity thanks to the midrange/high midrange/high frequencies tonal shift. And they don't look like conventional white IPod-styled speakers at all (apparently that's considered important nowadays...).
The Qinpu Q-6 are sold by Head-Direct, price for a set of two speakers is $139. Q-6 are passive speakers, and hence require an amplifier. Input impedance is 4 ohm, so any regular small component amplifier can drive them, but a cheap mini-system's amp may not do justice to the Q-6.
The Q-1 is the cheapest Qinpu amplifier on sale at the Head-Direct store, but instead the Q-2 is recommended. The Q-1 is a small, portable hi-fi amplifier ($79), and it even has an FM tuner, but it has a somewhat shallow dynamic range (~60+ dB, 100 Hz-20 KHz), and it really is too basic (the FM tuner doesn't save tuning or station presets). The Q-2 is the next model, hybrid valve/transistor, has much better specs (better than 80 dB dynamic range, 50 Hz-40 KHz) and doesn't cost that much more ($109).
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yvcomment, category: "Blog"
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Rock can sound somewhat harsh, also any lossy format files like MP3, AAC, etc. - anything with mangled and cut harmonics and high frequencies. The Q-6 will prod high frequencies and high midrange over everything else; the result is an airy sound, but there's got to be some undeformed airiness to play in the original record. Otherwise they'll show the screechiness and lack of harmonics in poorly-encoded MP3 files (or harshness in poorly-mastered CD audio).
Rock guitars and bass have most of their body in the bass and low midrange; Q-6 will de-emphasise that, so the outcome can be a pushing forward of the distorted body and cutoff of the "warm" part. On the other hand, vocals will come ahead of the instruments too. Instrument separation is very good on the Q-6, but possibly at the expense of sounding "thin" to some.