Q Acoustics Concept 300 Speakers

Design

The days of performance being the be-all and end-all of a loudspeaker are long gone. Aesthetic considerations are perfectly valid and, to this end, in the Q Acoustics Concept 300 Q Acoustics has designed a high-end, high-performance loudspeaker that’s unshowily sophisticated and able to interact discreetly with any interior design vocabulary.

On the outside, numerous lacquer coats produce a high-quality gloss finish which is combined with real-wood veneers. This results in a cabinet that manages to be clean and understated at the same time as being of obviously high perceived value.

The uncluttered look of the cabinets is further enhanced by innovative drive unit mounting. Both the tweeter and mid/bass driver are fixed, from behind, by strong spring-tensioned retaining bolts which negate the need for any exposed bolt-heads on the speaker face.

At the rear of the speaker, Concept 300 features an over-specified terminal panel which is designed to resist vibrations from the cabinet. It’s equipped for bi-wiring (or bi-amping) via its electrically isolated terminals - these can accept bare wire, spade connectors or 4mm banana plugs.

Cabinet

Ideally, the only vibrations a loudspeaker produces are the ones required to generate its sound. Of course, it’s not possible to entirely rid a loudspeaker cabinet of unwanted vibrations that can interfere with its performance - but, as Q Acoustics has demonstrated with Concept 300, it is possible to keep cabinet vibrations to an absolute minimum in order to deliver entirely uncorrupted sound.

Q Acoustics uses MDF rather than one of the more glamorous and/or expensive alternatives to construct the Concept 300 cabinet. There are a couple of reasons for this: a) alternative materials offer no benefits in terms of damping, or even ease and simplicity of construction, over the very high performance MDF delivers, and b) more expensive materials simply drive up the eventual price of the speaker for no audio gain whatsoever.

Dual Gelcore™

Having dealt with lower-frequency vibrations using P2P bracing, Q Acoustics then negates higher-frequency cabinet vibrations using its bespoke Dual Gelcore technology.

The Concept 300 cabinet is comprised of three individual layers, each separated by a non-setting gel - the gel acts rather like a high-tech and extremely effective gasket. Any stray high-frequency vibrations are converted into heat which dissipates within the gel.