El Sergento
Active Member
................ less
Short review of the Q 3030i's, AKA, an ode to my vintage speakers:
I recently A/B'd my 40-year-old Canadian-made Rega 2's against some brand new Q Acoustics 3030i's. The winner got to stay in the living room, and the runner-up was banished to the basement as the speakers for my secondary system.
To my absolute astonishment, the ancient Rega's won. There isn't much detail out there on the Rega's, but for reference, they're some 40ish-year-old Canadian-made large bookshelf speakers. The speakers are about twice the size of the Q3030i's, and they feature a 6-inch woofer (same as the Q's) and 1-1.5 inch tweeter. Having said that, I have no idea about their specs.
The Q's are very very good. On my system, the Q's imaged very well, they were very detailed, and the soundstage was just as wide as the Rega's. Mids and highs are superlative, and the bass goes amazingly deep for their size. But sometimes less is just less, and the smaller Q's couldn't match the larger Rega's on bass extension or lower-mid oomph. Overall, bass, mid-bass, and lower mids lacked some authority compared to the Rega's. Also, the Rega's tweeter is just superior. For all the amazing things the Q 3030i's tweeter is capable of doing, the ancient Rega's could match it while also making all my music sound a touch sweeter.
I know size matters when it comes to speakers, but the Q's have gotten such great reviews, and their bass response, in particular, has been so celebrated, that I figured that maybe modern engineering could overcome size, especially compared to older, undoubtedly more inefficient speakers that weren't anything special in their day. I was wrong.
My main system:
Short review of the Q 3030i's, AKA, an ode to my vintage speakers:
I recently A/B'd my 40-year-old Canadian-made Rega 2's against some brand new Q Acoustics 3030i's. The winner got to stay in the living room, and the runner-up was banished to the basement as the speakers for my secondary system.
To my absolute astonishment, the ancient Rega's won. There isn't much detail out there on the Rega's, but for reference, they're some 40ish-year-old Canadian-made large bookshelf speakers. The speakers are about twice the size of the Q3030i's, and they feature a 6-inch woofer (same as the Q's) and 1-1.5 inch tweeter. Having said that, I have no idea about their specs.
The Q's are very very good. On my system, the Q's imaged very well, they were very detailed, and the soundstage was just as wide as the Rega's. Mids and highs are superlative, and the bass goes amazingly deep for their size. But sometimes less is just less, and the smaller Q's couldn't match the larger Rega's on bass extension or lower-mid oomph. Overall, bass, mid-bass, and lower mids lacked some authority compared to the Rega's. Also, the Rega's tweeter is just superior. For all the amazing things the Q 3030i's tweeter is capable of doing, the ancient Rega's could match it while also making all my music sound a touch sweeter.
I know size matters when it comes to speakers, but the Q's have gotten such great reviews, and their bass response, in particular, has been so celebrated, that I figured that maybe modern engineering could overcome size, especially compared to older, undoubtedly more inefficient speakers that weren't anything special in their day. I was wrong.
My main system:
- Rega io
- A Topping D50s DAC
- A Schiit Mani 2 (amazing btw)
- A Technics SL-Q3 with a Stanton 681 EEE cartridge.
- Chromecast audio streamer via optical into DAC.
- Windows 10 pc via usb into DAC.
- Still some 40ish-year-old Canadian-made Rega 2 speakers.
