Q is good for you
Contents
We’re gonna listen. First a mix of a live recorded musical, 34 channels for orchestra, soloists and ‘room mics’. Always exciting how a first mix sounds in which the different channels are brought together in the best possible ratio. It’s good to listen to this mix on a different system than the studio monitors, and for this occasion we use the Concept 300’s for this.
We hear the same detailing as by the studio monitors, and also that ‘hi-fi’ is very different from ‘studio’ when it comes to sound. They are subtle differences that we characterize here as homogeneous, warm spatial and full (hi-fi), while the studio sound is more analytical, neutral, uncolored. The Q Acoustics monitors show that very nicely. While listening, we can continue to work on the mix. We hear a lot of detail, soundstage. At the same time, we can also imagine what this mix would sound like in a living room.
Later in the evening we will listen to a mix of a band making electronic music where the components are mainly non-electronic instruments. These in turn have all kinds of effects, different overdubs. The male voice is also subtly provided with effects. We’re listening to a track with almost 60 channels. One of the band members flawlessly pulls out a track that has been mixed a bit too much into the background. Again, it’s great that the Concept 300, on the one hand, shows the resolution needed for mixing and, on the other hand, creates a living room experience.
Immersive
That living room experience literally engulfs us when we shut down the DAWs and start listening to music that’s already finished. For example to Bløf, A Beautiful Day. Now we’ve heard this track in the Wisseloord Studios where it’s mastered. Of course everything is impression, but wow, how great this sounds on the Concept 300! We’re literally overwhelmed, immersed in the music. That this can be done with stereo. We know this track very well and yet we hear something new again. The low registers come to us as air movement, not as a punching ball giving a beech in the belly. And that’s the way we think it should be.
We’re going to feel the stands of the Concept 300 for a while. While there’s a loud song playing at a considerable volume, we don’t feel anything if we grab one of the rods. Nothing. No vibration is transmitted. This in turn shows that speaker decoupling is essential for good reproduction.
