Q Acoustics Concept 20 - Wow!

[Deleted member 79034]

Got my brand new Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers delivered yesterday.
I also got a Used Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 (Not v2) the same day.

I (with my wife) visited Boomerang, Kandivali (Mumbai) looking for an Arcam Amp and took my Concept 20 and Stream magic along for a demo. Also carried some flacs on my usb pen drive.

We connected the stream magic to an Arcam A28 and that was in turn connected to my Q Acoustics Concept 20 and also a high end FS Dali Mentor 6 (The A28 has speaker 1 and speaker 2 connections controlled by buttons at the front, you can switch between or play both the speaker pairs).

The concept 20 were placed on another pair of Floorstanders so was placed a little higher.


We started off by playing FLAC of "Always - Bon Jovi" from the Usb pen drive. The drums from the start of the song played a little shallow it seemed and the guitar sounded muddled. I was already feeling disappointed, wondering whether its the CA Stream magic or the Speaker. I had listened to the Arcam Amp once before and it sounded awesome. Yet we played on or a while but could not let it play longer with so muddled sound and vocals.

I decided on changing the song. Played "Nadaan Parinde" from Rockstar. The drums sounded muddled again. I was more disappointed. the guitar strings sounded lifeless and I was thinking I made a huge mistake going for the concept 20.

Changed the song again - I played "Sajde" from Kill Dil. The initial dialogue which leads to the song sounded nice and heavy with nice texture. It seemed there is some hope and then the when Arijit started singing, I just smiled with relief. I simply could not stop me from listening to the whole song - smiling, tapping and singing along. I also wondered why did it not play so well before. the only thing missing was the well bodied bass. It was shallow. In between we switched to the Dali Mentor and that sounded so rich with bass (not heavy - subtle and sublime) and when we switched back to the concepts the clarity amazed me. It may be me, but I felt the mid-range and the upper-range sounded just awesome when compared to mentors.

Next we played "Love dont Go - Family crest". It just sounded so bad. That is when I realised the FLACs are to be blamed. It appeared that the flacs are not really ripped of a CD (just guessing here) but converted off a low quality mp3.

We played "Phir le aaya dil" from Barfi - It just sounded so awesome. The sound staging was amazing.
It seemed as if a large speaker is being played as far as the sound staging goes. Bass was the part that was lacking. here again when we switched to the mentors, the major difference was richness in bass.
When we switched back to the concepts - my wife commented "ye speaker mein aawaz wala part clear aur better hai" and I gave her a broad smile and I could not agree more. It so appeared that the vocals sounded much better, airy and clear on the concept 20.

Vinay from boomerang played a song off an audio CD from his blu-ray player connected to the Arcam amp. The singer was "Mark Knopfler", dont know the song. It sounded even better. My guesses of the quality of flacs got confirmed that the flac quality is the culprit here.

The sound stage was just mind-blowing. The vocals appeared as if coming from a stage in front of you and the music surrounding you. There was lot more richness and it never felt that a relatively such a small speaker is playing such beautiful music.

He then got some of his own flac files on a pen drive and played "O Palan hare" from Lagaan via the Stream magic. Uff! that was pure magic. The wide sound stage and sublime vocals made me lost for a while immersed into the music.

I would like to mention here again, that the speakers were right out of the box and were not run-in. I hope that the bass will improve a lot once it is through the run-in period.

The Dali Mentors are excellent speakers but for me the concept 20 played the vocals & upper range much better than the Dalis. FYI, the mentors are around 4-5 times the cost of the concept 20.
My wife's comment was the highlight of the audition. she did not realise that she was commenting against the 5 times costlier Mentors

This is my first review of sorts and just freshly ventured into the HiFi/Audiophile world.

I highly recommend anyone looking for a bookshelf speaker for stereo to audition the Concept 20 once before deciding on anything.

I would definitely want to audition the Concept 40 now.

 

[Deleted member 79034]

I now have the setup at my home and have some observations that I thought should share.
There are noticeable difference in the SQ when played in demo and currently at my place.

1. Speakers need to be little away (at least 10 inches) from the walls for them to sing nicely.
2. during the demo, the speakers were approx 7 feet away from each other that created a very beautiful sound stage. Made it sound like a big speaker. In my current setup they are hardly 3-3.5 feet away, so there is obviously some noticeable difference in the sound staging and a little muddling.
3. The missing bass is now audible at my home, which could be due to the speakers being a little closer to the wall and a corner. Its not that clean bass that I am expecting.
4. Toeing in the speakers a little creates a lot of difference.
5. Also the speakers are currently just 2.5 feet above the floor on a wall unit which again does not make my enjoy music until I sit on the floor.
6. A nice sweet spot with the speakers placed right creates an awesome experience of listening to the musicians playing instead of the speakers playing.

There could be other factor as well, like the room acoustics at the place I demoed and my anxiety

I do not have much options/scope to experiment a lot with speaker placement. But the current setup works for me.
With some running in over next few days I am hoping for the SQ to improve further.

I will share/update my experience here over next few days/weeks and let know if I see any further improvements.

 

[shibashis]

I auditioned the Concept 20s recently when I was in the hunt for my stereo setup. They are very nice speakers, I found them clear with fantastic sound stage and rich midrange. Yes, it is a little weak on bass and at times the punch is inadequate to give music a slight sterile quality, but vocals sound fantastic on them.
The 2020i on the other hand have more bass and at first appearance would sound more enjoyable but the concept 20 are beautiful for serious music lovers. In the right environment one can close their eyes and forget about the speakers, the music flows all around you.