Q Acoustics Q Active 200 Active Speakers (Pair)

Audio can be described as ‘high resolution’ if it consists of a digital audio format of greater than the CD-standard 16bit/44.1kHz. Q Active can support wireless streaming with a maximum source resolution of 32bit/192kHz, whether from its control hub via a smartphone or tablet. This means any source plugged into the hub will be converted to an information-rich 24bit/96kHz digital format before it’s streamed to the Q Active speakers, and the top tier of any high-resolution music streaming service will be streamed at this resolution too. The result of all this painstaking and uncompromised engineering is extraordinary musical accuracy and amazing audio quality. Q Active delivers a sonic performance way beyond its price.

Sound In a traditional, passive audio system there is one amplifier. It drives two speakers, which will have a total of at least four drivers. In the Q Acoustics Q Active system, each driver - there are three in each Q Active 200 speaker and four in each Q Active 400 speaker - is controlled by its own individual, specifically selected amplifier. Using a total of six (or eight) discrete amplifiers, with a total of 280 (or 440) watts of power to drive the Q Active system means each individual driver receives its own carefully regulated amplification. As a result, Q Acoustics is able to control each driver with far more accuracy and finesse than would otherwise be possible and this, in turn, means Q Active can deliver the widest, most rigorously focused, and most convincing soundstage possible. Which, in short, means Q Active sounds bigger and more precise than you might think possible.

Q Active doesn’t look unique simply for the sake of it. Q Acoustics decided from the outset that it wanted Q Active to deliver a widescreen sound with no compromise in terms of stereo focus or soundstage, it specified Balanced Mode Radiators (BMRs) where less visionary companies might have stuck with the more conventional ‘dome tweeter/midrange driver’ alternative. Balanced Mode Radiators allow Q Active to deliver outstanding sound quality across your entire listening area, rather than restricting it to the ‘sweet spot’ of more traditional driver arrangements.

In addition to this widescreen presentation, BMRs deliver seamless midrange performance. Operating all the way down to 150Hz, where they hand over to Q Actives’ subwoofer driver, there is no midrange crossover distortion and, consequently, completely clean and uncolored midrange performance. It allows for a degree of fine-tuning in your listening room as it’s possible to position the BMRs to the inside or the outside of the cabinets. The cabinets may also be more effectively braced for optimum rigidity.

The back of an ordinary loudspeaker isn’t usually worthy of discussion. But, as is surely obvious by now, Q Active is far from an ordinary loudspeaker - and that goes for the rear of its cabinet too. Q Active 200 features rear-firing 114mm/4.5in subwoofer drivers delivering fast, deep and beautifully organised bass. Q Active 400 features a pair of subwoofer drivers in order to double down on the low-frequency action. The reason these drivers are concealed, and the reason they’re arranged in the way they are, is all to do with Q Acoustics’ determination to make Q Active easy to position and simple to live with, as well as helping the system sound brilliantly punchy and controlled. Because the subwoofers fire onto a fixed boundary (the inside of the rear panel), the bass response of Q Active is always ideal, always perfect - no matter where in your room you decide to position the speaker. There’s a carefully designed wave guide boundary for the subwoofer to fire onto, too, which means the dispersal characteristics of the bass frequencies are always exactly as Q Acoustics prefers. These two design elements mean that, even in positions where conventional loudspeakers would sound hopelessly compromised, Q Active is always performing exactly as its designers intended.

Rather than attempt to fit one of its existing loudspeaker designs with electronics, Q Acoustics has designed Q Active from the ground up with the express intent of delivering an utterly uncompromised high-resolution audio system that looks as good as it sounds. Creating an active high-resolution audio system from scratch has allowed Q Acoustics to incorporate every possible audio source into the compact, bespoke control hub and give Q Active all the flexibility, in terms of wireless audio sources, it needs. It means a complete lack of compromise where acoustic engineering, as well as industrial design, is concerned. And, ultimately, it means Q Acoustics has been able to package an entire high-resolution audio system into two good-looking and beautifully built speakers that sound just as striking as they appear.

Meticulous attention to detail has produced a compact, high-performance system that makes a distinctive visual statement - but every element of Q Active has been engineered to deliver the best performance possible. As well as the panoramic, widescreen sound delivered by the BMR arrangement and the deep, controlled bass served up by the carefully specified and positioned subwoofers, Q Acoustics has paid painstaking attention to the way the Q Active cabinet contributes to the system’s outstanding sonic performance.

Unlike most loudspeakers, Q Active 200 is tuned to perform to its maximum potential no matter where in your listening room it’s positioned. And unlike most loudspeakers, Q Active 200 is remarkably forgiving of less-than-ideal placement. Its driver configuration means it’s one of the most flexible, as well as one of the best-sounding, speakers you can buy at any price.

There’s a switch on the back of each Q Active speaker to designate it as either the left or the right channel. This means that the offset BMRs can be positioned at the inside or the outside of the cabinets, allowing perfect audio reproduction no matter if you’re sitting close to the speakers or far away from them.