Q Acoustics Q-AV Rear Reviews:

+ These QA surround speakers replaced a couple of rear Mordaunt 902 hifi standmounted speakers behind my sweet spot listening chair. Working with a Denon 5.1 AV amp, Bose centre, Mordaunt 902 Sub and wharfedale diamond 9.1 Fronts, the QA's are mounted on the wall above the skirting board as per QA's Spec. They sit either side of and facing my chair (in a bay window) just behind ear axis and about 1 foot 6 off floor level. The speakers sit flat to the wall but curve upwards and outwards and look very cool. They are white and blend flawalessly into the decor. The sound drivers provide a 180' dispersion and are not as directional as the Mordaunts. The difference was staggering with an immediate and startling surround immersion. I had to drop the levels by 2 notches on each surround channel due to better efficiency and clarity I guess. I fine tuned the 5.1 balance over a weeks listening over various DVD's through my Samsung 1080P upscaler DVD player. I use Aliens 2 for my surround baseline and I heard lots of stuff in the mix I hadn't heard before due to improved speaker and frequency separation and the surround data blended sonically well with the rest of the speakers outputs. I've had them a few weeks now and these QA's are just the best. They're solidly made but beautifully crafted and aesthetically neutral (i.e will blend in to most decors). I like my other speakers a lot having mixed and matched to get to this mixture over a lot of years, with just the rear surrrounds never being quite "right" -until now.

- Wish I had installed them a long time ago.

+ For the price they have a very broad soundstage compared to conventional 2-way boxes. Midrange is likewise good, with surprising bass and dynamics for their size. Treble and midrage are well integrated due to lack of crossover. Design is very discrete, would hardly know that they are there......

- Bass impressive for the size but limited by the compact cabinet (although obviously thats what the sub is for.....) Grilles look good but can interfere with the sound. Connectors could be of better quality. Would love for Q-Acoustics to design an improved lounge friendly BMR speaker for no compromise 2-channel use.

+ easy to mount
look good

- would like a corner option

+ Design, build quality, sound quality

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+ Easy to hide just underneath the ceiling coving - my better half hardly noticed! this was a must in our house as Hi-Fi or surround sound systems must have low a profile or look seriously good!
In terms of sound quality they certainly provide the effects when needed and can go surprisingly loud.

- None really other than limited bass output but then that is not what surround sound speakers need to do.

+ Stylish, blend in well, easy to connect, well deigned.

- Sound quality ok, fine for those who like middle of the road stuff. Satisfactory as rear speakers.

+ Brilliant design, easy to wire up and wall mount. Great sound quality for multispeaker surround sound systems.

- Only available in white, some other standard colours might be useful.

+ Very discrete, easy to mount & excellent sound.

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