Audiovector QR 7 floorstanding loudspeaker. Review by Alan Sircom.
Audiovector is a clever company. It has two main loudspeaker brands. The R-Series is its classic, upgradablepremium range, that runs from a small, but superb two-way stand- mount called the R1 up to the super high-end R11 floorstanding tower of power. Alongside this is the ever-growing QR-Series, of which the QR 7 is the latest, greatest, and certainly the largest of them all. Now comprising a stand-mount, three floorstanders, a centre channel, subwoofer and wall mounts for home cinema use, the QR series is the entry level range for Audiovector. However, entry doesn’t mean ‘built half a world away’; the speakers are built alongside the R models in Denmark at the company’s Copenhagen facility. Like all the models in Audiovector’s range (and in fact almost all loudspeaker designs around the world) the cabinets are sourced externally and the entire QR range (except the sub) feature an Air Motion Transformer ‘Gold Leaf’ planar magnetic tweeter in place of the more commonplace fabric or metal dome designs.
Higher than you think
The use of an Air Motion Transformer tweeter is an upgrade for traditional Audiovector designs. It doesn’t come as standard with the Signature models but is a feature of the Avantgarde and Arreté designs. However, this is not the same tweeter as used in these ‘better’ and ‘best’ variants of the company’s top line, but it’s a very close relative. The tweeter includes a mesh called a S-Stop Filter by the company, this is there to eliminate sibilants, a little like a pop filter in a recording studio.
The midrange and bass units are of an aluminium sandwich construction, comprising two layers of aluminium with a filling of mystery damping material… but no lettuce or mayo. This is a construction technique relatively new to Audiovector that only appears across the QR-Series. Previous cones in R-Series designs are more traditional. These are also ‘Pure Piston’ cones, which means they don’t have the same break-up modes as other metal-cone drivers. There’s a similarity between this driver design and those used both by ELAC and Monitor Audio.
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