Audiovector QR 1 and QR 3 loudspeakers – exclusive Munich High-End Preview!

Where most models at this price point are variations on the ‘cone and dome’ concept, typically featuring a dome tweeter made of fabric or metal, this ported two-way design features an AMT ribbon tweeter, with effectively a double rear chamber to reduce compression. This highly-respected, complex, and hitherto very expensive high-frequency drive unit has long featured in the upper regions of Audiovector’s upgradable SR range and the flagship R11 Arreté tower speaker.

It may be a €1,000 loudspeaker from a company better known for making loudspeakers that cost many times that sum, but nothing about the design looks compromised or cut down to a price. The AMT tweeter for example, sits in a tungsten/titanium housing that is brushed in two ways to give the sense of depth and a feel of quality. Meanwhile the slim letterbox port at the bottom of the speaker contrasts well with the rounded enclosure and gloss finish. Audiovector even went as far as designing the loudspeaker to fit in an Ikea bookcase, rather than notionally calling the loudspeaker a ‘bookshelf’ design and have it only fit into a bookcase made for a giant!

It’s not all about looks though. The port, for example, is designed in that letter-box shape to limit port resonance, and has a degree of internal damping to limit chuffing sounds without undermining bass response.

The bass driver is a bit of a departure for Audiovector. It is a sandwich design with two layers of aluminium with a fibre filling and a foamed glue. Audiovector calls this a ‘pure piston’ driver, because it retains the aluminium driver’s ability to act like a piston, but the foam/fibre filling prevents higher frequency break-up. This means the bass unit can be used up to 3kHz, as opposed to about 800Hz in conventional 150mm aluminium bass drivers. This means no special equalisation in the crossover, just one component per drive unit in fact, and ultimately means an easier load for the amplifier.

What is missing from the QR range is the unique upgrade path offered by Audiovector in its SR line. The QR loudspeaker is what it is, there is no provision for sending it back to Audiovector to improve it. This concept works extremely well for the SR line, where owners of, say, an S6 Super tower speaker of 2001 can get it returned to the factory and get back a 2016 SR6 Avantgarde Arreté, even getting the colour or finish of the loudspeaker changed to taste in the process. However, such a concept is impractical at the QR level, because the costs to the end user of creating a worthwhile upgrade on a €1,000 loudspeaker would be prohibitive.

These QR loudspeakers are designed to reach the next generation of audiophiles; people who might not have grown up collecting the best quality recordings on vinyl or CD, but who want the best possible sound from their music and are beginning to discover the difference between basic Spotify and Tidal. This is not a high-end loudspeaker that is scaled down and compromised in the process. This is a loudspeaker that sounds good irrespective of source, but sounds great and very ‘big’ out of the box. There is also a consistency between both models, as you are simply adding more bass (perhaps for a larger room) in the QR 3. As a consequence, both QR models have an effortless ease of musical replay and an unfussy, musically forgiving nature, but without sacrificing that basic taut rhythm and musical insight of the company’s better models. They also have surprisingly good bass for smaller loudspeakers, and this, coupled with a detailed tweeter, will make for a sound that is as easy to live with as it is ‘on trend’.

These loudspeakers also mark a transition within the company, as the loudspeakers are the first design produced completely by Mads Klifoth, who took over the reins of the company from his father and company founder, Ole. Ole still brings decades of his own design expertise to the company (true retirement for someone like Ole is unlikely, because companies like Audiovector are effectively powered by passion, and that passion doesn’t just switch off), but the QR models are effectively the design brief and proof of concept for Mads’ view of where Audiovector is heading.

We think it’s heading in the right direction! The QR range is launched later today.