Exclusive reviews of the latest kit

FIRST TESTS

Three of the best

OnkyoTX-NR709 £800 Page 12 Punch, power and subtle detail in equal measure

Popcorn Hour PopBox 3D £140 Page 18 A true Swiss Army Knife of media-streaming

Sony STR-DH820 £300 Page 24 A brilliant budget amp for a starter cinema setup

Three of the rest

InFocus ScreenPlay 8604 £2500 Page 25 Classy pictures – at a price

Marshall Major £100 Page 17 Hard-rockin’ looks, but no easy-listening sound

TEAC SR-80iDAB £150 Page 14 We love the design but the sound is a trifle harsh

EXCLUSIVE

QAcoustics serves up a giant-killing performance

QAcoustics Q7000 | Speaker package | £800

It’s been rather a hectic five years for Q Acoustics. At the start of 2006 the company had yet to launch its first product; by the end of 2010 it had won multiple What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision Awards and established itself as a leading light in the budget speaker arena. So it’s hardly surprising that Q Acoustics is now going toe-to-toe with some of the industry’s biggest brands in one of the most competitive markets of all: style speakers.

Beautifully made and finished There’s certainly no doubting the Q7000’s showroom appeal. The five identical, glossy (black or white) satellite speakers are cast from aluminium and are slim, sturdy and beautifully finished. Each has

We threw it in at the deep end with the DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack to the Skynet Edition Blu-ray of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This is a disc that’s brought some seemingly promising speaker packages to their knees, but the Q7000 stands up to the provocation without flinching. Its soundstage is expansive, coherent and rigorously focused, effects are sited with absolute assurance and detail levels are sky-high. Tonally the Q7000 is neutral, but while it remains

Q Acoustics has hit the performance bull’s-eye as comprehensively as it has with the design integrated cable management, mildly fiddly speaker-cable binding posts and stands that can be swivelled to turn into wall brackets. Filling each enclosure to capacity is a pair of 75mm coated-paper mid/bass drivers, one either side of a 25mm ring radiator tweeter. The subwoofer is investigated in a little more detail over the page, so for now we’ll restrict ourselves to saying it’s a neat and compact design housing a 25cm paper cone and 250 watts of analogue amplification.

The market’s not short of affordable, self-consciously ‘stylish’ speaker packages, though – what separates the men from the boys is performance. And here Q Acoustics has hit the bull’s-eye almost as comprehensively as it has with the Q7000’s looks.

relatively uncoloured it has no difficulty describing texture, and is as capable of delivering nuance as it is thundering along with the biggest bangs. High frequencies are crisp and attacking without spilling into hardness (unless you wind the volume around to antisocial levels), and the midrange is explicit and packed with character. Despite being identical to its four partners, the centre channel has no problem projecting dialogue ahead of the general tumult.

6 www.whathifi.com MORE EXCLUSIVES

Music streamer

NAD C446 £695 p16

iPod dock Monitor Audio i-deck 100

£300 p13

Stereo speakers

Wharfedale

Jade-5 £1650 p21

We’ve tested and rated all of the newest and best kit, including world exclusives, in our £1million reviewing suite. Read on for more…

The Q7000 is available in gloss black or white finishes – and we think it looks great in either