Q Acoustics QB12 Subwoofer Review
There’s a new Bass Bin on the block!
Q Acoustics has gone and released a brand-new subwoofer, the Q B12 which is the first in a new range of subwoofers. The Q B12 is designed to work alongside the 3000i and Concept 5.1 speaker range. It is available for purchase individually or paired with Q Acoustics speakers in three home cinema packages.
Introduction
I recently reviewed Q Acoustics’ newly released 3030i Speakers and supplemented part of that review with the Q B12 subwoofer filling in the lower regions of music. But this beautiful beast deserves its own spotlight. The Q B12 is a bit of a departure from the sort of subs that Q Acoustics has traditionally offered. The 3060S for example is a slimline subwoofer designed to hide on the side of a media unit or couch, or just to the side of your main speakers in a cinema set up. The Q B12 on the other hand is here to make a statement. It’s a big boy. This is not a bad thing mind you, big subwoofers usually lead to big bass. Its sealed design helps with positioning and integrating it into a hi-fi set up, but it’s still big, measuring 15.75″H x 17.56″D x 15.75″W without the included floor spikes. In our small city home, it has taken place of where our 120lb dog Homie usually sleeps, on the floor, just to the right of our built-in media unit. I stupidly made no provision for a subwoofer when designing our media unit as I thought it wasn’t going to be the center of our family’s home. But it is the center of our home entertainment, so we now have an unattractive subwoofer cable snaking from the back of the Cambridge CXA60 integrated amp to out in front of the cabinets and back around the wall to the connections on the back of the Q B12. Yuck.
But it sounds great. I really should look into a wireless subwoofer solution for the future. This is just the first hi-fi set up though. The second and more high-end set up is on our sideboard, where the speakers sit to either side on stands, and the Q B12 is to the right. The associated equipment was the new Cambridge Audio CXA61 integrated amp paired with a CXC CD transport. The third setup is downstairs in the basement where the Q B12 takes on the .1 duties in my B&W 683 (s1) 5.1 theater setup in place of the B&W 610 sub. The receiver used is the Marantz SR6009.