Verdict

Anyone who enjoys walking the track ( slenderly ) less jaunt is strongly advised to discipline out the Audiovector QR-1 – it ’s a excogitation with across - the - board appeal

Pros

Cons

Key Features

Introduction

Handmade in Denmark since 1979 . There are bad thing for your new speakers to be , right ? And it ’s not as if Audiovector ’s acknowledged expertise begins and ends with cabinet - making .

In the forty - plus year of its being it ’s become out any number of highly view invention , some of which have represented very sound note value for money indeed .

But there are few areas of the peaceful loudspeaker market more ferociously contested than standmounters at around a rarified or so . Make them by hand in Denmark by all mean – but it ’s going to take a bit more than that for the Audiovector QR-1 to make a significant mark …

The Audiovector QR-1 standmounting loudspeakers are on sales event , and in the United Kingdom , they ’ll limit you back around £ 1150 for a twain . In the United States they ’re a rather more sinewy $ 2299 or so , while customer in Australia will have to part with AU$2299 to secure a pair . For once , then , it seems it ’s American client who are in receipt of the pointy final stage of the stick .

No matter where you ’re shop , though , this is not insignificant money for a pair of fairly compact speaker . In the UK , for example , a very similar spending will grease one’s palms you a pair of KEF ’s luxuriously - reach LS50 Meta or ( if you like your modest speakers big)Mission ’s retro - tastic 700 . So Audiovector does n’t exactly have the field of operations clear …

Design

It ’s dependable to say that the vast majority of speaker unit are n’t so much design as constructed – and the QR-1 are no different . But just because at 325 x 190 x 232 mm ( HxWxD ) they ’re an mundane size , and just because they face precisely as you might await when position on an appropriate pair of speaker tolerate , that does n’t intend Audiovector has n’t made an movement . The QR-1 might not have been designed , especially , but they ’re constructed and finished to an highly gamey criterion .

The cabinet is made from extensively braced HDF , cleanly assembled and lustrously finish . The rounded edges at the top and bottom of the box somehow contrive to appear rather more upmarket than those square - edged choice , and the lacquer applied to our forte-piano fateful reappraisal sample distribution is deep , pondering and like an expert use . It seems moderately secure to presume the dark walnut and blanched silk alternatives are just as indulge in look and finger .

Each glass - blasted atomic number 13 driver environment looks and feel equally upmarket , even if the branding on each is rather self-asserting . Even the exposed allen head bolt holding the surrounds in place look as sophisticated as they do functional . Audiovector provide acoustical material grill that bond magnetically to the talker ’s fascia , but to my eyes at least the look is far superior with them forget in the packaging .

Features

The behind of the QR-1 cabinet sport an outsized Al home plate , onto which are attached a single pair of speaker obligate mail service . They ’re just as nicely machine and polish off as every other component here , and will accept both bare wire and a standard 4mmm banana cud .

Naturally enough , though , it ’s the front of the cabinet that ’s where the action is . Up top , sit down inside an atomic number 13 plate and behind a rosaceous gold - plate dispersion connection , there ’s an AMT high-pitched - relative frequency driver . This Air Motion Transformer is n’t quite the palm tweeter it might first appear – instead , it ’s an passing thin pleated stop that forces air out from between its pleats like a penis of the squeezebox class .

It ’s a more luxuriant high - frequency agreement than you ’ll find on many competing designs and has both higher-ranking responsiveness and downcast bulk on its side . The meshwork acts as an reciprocal ohm - stop , go along sibilance to a lower limit – quite why it require to be rise gold in colour is anyone ’s guess .

Below here there ’s a 152 mm mid / deep driver that ’s intimately base on those match to Audiovector ’s costly R - serial loudspeakers . It ’s a uninterrupted - visibility cone shape constructed from two layers of aluminium sandwiching a froth / gum filling . depleted distorted shape , significant sashay and multi - octave reach are intend to be its most remarkable characteristic .

At very near the bottom of the facia there ’s a narrow Q - port bass reflex slot . Audiovector favour this placement to the rear - liberation reflex ports more common in loudspeaker designs of this size and cost , because it makes the QR-1 a little more absolvitory when it come to positioning and effective hold in the airflow . That ’s the theory , anyway .

The crossover between the two drivers pass off at 3kHz , which is everyday in a two - way loudspeaker design like this . Audiovector is pleased with the crossover itself , though – it ’s an extremely simple , one - component - per - driver excogitation that ’s only potential , the company says , because the number one wood in doubtfulness are so well - behaved .

sensitiveness of 86dB / W / m means the QR-1 are not an peculiarly tricky cargo , although 4ohms nominal ohmic resistance tells a slimly different story . fundamentally , these speakers will appreciate a sightly amount of smooth , clean-living power – but then they ’re scarcely alone in that .

Sound Quality

Some people like a bountiful , burly , barrelful - chested sound when they ’re listening to novel loudspeakers , just as some people choose a big , bbl - chested stock of dog . Others prefer a leaner , less muscle - bandage sound – and that ’s where the Audiovector QR-1 descend in . If they have a canine eq , it ’s the greyhound .

That ’s not to say the speech sound the QR-1 deliver is particularly lacking in substance or body – it ’s plainly that it does n’t sound much like Audiovector has concentrated its exertion here . What the headlines are , what defines the QR-1 in sonic terminal figure , is their velocity and manoeuvrability . Just as a English bulldog will interbreed the line behind the greyhound , so the QR-1 will show a blank pair of heel to all brawnier competition .

A listen to Curtis Mayfield ’s Move On Up illustrate the point without having to stretch this analogy to breaking point , thankfully . In the hands of the QR-1 , the recording is notably rapid . Brisk conga , a virtuoso get up public presentation and the clean , front - and - centre song all play into the Audiovector ’s hands – there ’s no shortage of control or authority here , but evenly the loudspeaker absolutely whoop it up in the momentum and drive they can render . At every compass point in the frequency kitchen range , they attack with straight - edged accuracy and control decay ( no matter if it ’s abrupt or drawn out ) with standardized bureau .

The AMT building block does fine employment creating blank and air in treble sounds , and prove sore to even the most subtle harmonic variations that are made apparent when a drummer make loose function of cymbal . There ’s substance to go along with the spaciousness at the top end , though – the QR-1 are never in any danger of sounding flimsy .

The crossover to the mid / deep machine driver does n’t vocalize like it ’s handled with complete confidence – there ’s a slight concaveness or comparative lack of presence as that transition take position . But the midrange is nevertheless manage with the same sort of confidence as the top of the frequency range . The Audiovector allow singers a lot of outer space in which to do their thing , and keep detail levels high enough for the most communicative of them to in full articulate their intention . The overall soundstage the QR-1 create is well defined but not the most expansive – but at no stop does Curtis Mayfield sound in any kind of danger despite the gamy - quality hubbub going on all around him .

Even though the QR-1 do n’t cut into quite as deep as the best of their price- and contour - comparable competitor , there ’s still slew to enjoy in their low - frequency reaction . Certainly it wants for nothing where particular is concerned , and the amount of textural information available is impressive .

A listen to something as basso - centric as Polygon Window ’s Audax Powder exposes a fragile deficiency of unlimited approach , a tiny tendency to stuff rather than to punch – but I ’m nit - pick here . By the standards of compendious standmounters , the Audiovector have plenteous freshwater bass presence and just as many pertinent observations to make about low frequency info itself . Control is good , and as a consequence the QR-1 have little trouble state speech rhythm or coping with even quite eccentric tempos .

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Should you buy it?

The Audiovector QR-1 go a bonny routine bigger than they are ( as well as being a joy to listen to )

try on to be satisfied with the control and detail the grim frequency bask instead

Final Thoughts

It ’s wide acknowledged that the KEF LS50 Meta are the benchmark where loudspeakers of this sort of size of it , at this sort of price , are concerned – but the Audiovector QR-1 get within touching aloofness , which is not to be sniffed at .

They ’re not quite as visually arresting and they do n’t have quite the depressed - destruction bearing , it ’s truthful – but the QR-1 are easy to drive and are differently talented rather than evidently substandard . A small more certainty at the crossover point and where bass slug is concerned would make them an automatic audition .

Trusted Score

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We test every hullo - fi loudspeaker we review thoroughly over an extended period of time . We habituate industry - stock trial to compare features properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to reexamine a product .

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FAQs

The QR-1 speaker only defend a single terminated loudspeaker connection . There ’s no superfluous bandage posts for bismuth - wiring the speaker .

Full Specs

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As part of this mission , whenever we critique a production we send the company a serial of question to aid us gauge and make transparent the impact the machine has on the surround .

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