Q Acoustics M20 Active Speakers: Hi-Fi Sound Without Separates?
Are the M20’s the first set of budget active speakers to provide genuine hi-fi sound without the need for separates?
We’ve listened to lots of budget active speakers, but not until we heard about the new M20’s from Q Acoustics did we sit up and take notice.
Q Acoustics are a British speaker manufacturer who kick out some great gear in the name of Hifi. We looked at the excellent 3030i’s recently, so when we heard they’d dipped their toes into the active speaker game we were keen to poke our heads around the door.
Sound Avalanche. And Then Some.
First things first: the M20’s sound fantastic. The perfectly matched internal amp drives the speaker units to perfection, and you end up with great quality, punchy, wide sound from these well-crafted active speakers — regardless of input.
The M20’s offer connection via Bluetooth, optical/toslink/RCA input/USB — so most bases are covered here.
There’s also a handy switch on the rear of the master unit allowing you to select left or right status, for situations where the master speaker (and therefore the power supply) is a tad too far from the wall socket.
The M20’s also ship with a decent remote with tactile buttons allowing control of power, volume, input (bluetooth, optical/toslink, analogue or USB), mute, previous/next track selection and play/pause.
In The Listening Booth.
Listening to Kings of Convenience’ ‘Misread’ we hear plenty of space and separation as well as lots of clarity and low end (you’ll find adjustable bass settings to suit speaker/wall distance on the rear of the master speaker). The acoustic guitars are identifiable as different parts, and not just one big acoustic mush, as so often would be the case with active speakers at this price point. The incidental knocks on the bodies of the guitars throughout the song are easily heard, with the M20’s paying attention many nuanced details within a recording.
Spinning ‘Sultans of Swing’ by Dire Straits and again we’re treated to bags of separation and a gorgeous wide sound stage. We listened using TIDAL on a MacBook connecting via bluetooth/aptX codec and it really did sound excellent — with no noticeable bluetooth ‘dodginess’. The M20’s handle bluetooth signals well, and whilst it’s not lossless, they do a great job of serving up nice, punchy, balanced audio.
Story originally appeared on thebudgethifiguy.com
