Q Acoustics Concept 300 Bookshelf Speakers (pair)

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.

Driver Units and Crossover

Q Acoustics has taken its proven (and acclaimed) driver technology from the Concept 500 floorstanding speaker and enhanced its performance to perfectly match the requirements of the Concept 300’s smaller cabinet.

The mid/bass driver is a 165mm impregnated/coated paper cone with very low resonance thanks to its high-performance rubber surround. It sits in front of a large (35mm) glass fibre voice coil and equally substantial ferrite magnet. The result is midrange and bass response that’s as punchy and dynamic as it is poised and eloquent.

Above it, the 28mm high-frequency driver, made of super-fine strands of coated microfibre, is decoupled from the speaker cabinet using a rubber gasket. This protects the tweeter from sending or receiving unwanted vibrations and allows it to be mounted close to the mid-bass driver. This improves integration with the larger driver – and the very subtle horn-shaped profile to the tweeter’s front plate allows perfect impedance-matching with its environment without colouring performance.

Results

A combination of rigorous engineering, uncompromised industrial design and aspirational aesthetics makes Concept 300 the most fully realised loudspeaker Q Acoustics has yet delivered. In combination with the equally meticulous Tensegrity stand, Concept 300 represents a step-change in loudspeaker design and a redefinition of what is possible at its price.