Review: Quested V2108A & X15
The quest to discover the perfect nearfield continues.
By Andy Stewart
5 July 2011
Staring into a pair of the new flagship Quested V2108 two-way active monitors is an imposing, almost mesmerising sight. Under certain lighting conditions they appear as virtual Black Holes, mixes seemingly emanating from hyperspace rather than a pair of three-dimensional objects. Apart from their (mercifully) low-key blue LED power indicator light and Quested logo on the cabinet’s front panel, these speakers would definitely get my vote for ‘blackest speaker on the market’.
Seriously though, this latest offering from Britain’s king of the soft dome tweeter, Roger Quested, is surprisingly different sounding when compared to its older brother, the similarly named and constructed VS2108A, released to great applause back in 2006. Time to investigate why…
SUPERFICIAL SIMILARITIES ASIDE
Although both models appear quite similar on the surface, apart from minor cosmetic issues – the doping on the driver cone is now blue/black, not green and the Quested logo is blue/grey, not pink – the obvious visible difference is that the dual bass ports of the V2108 are positioned at the bottom rather than the top of the front panel. When I first saw this new configuration of eight-inch driver flanked at the corners by bass ports I thought it looked slightly odd. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, suddenly it’s my venerable VS2108As that look out of whack, their high riding bass ports making the front panel look like a child’s portrait of Mickey Mouse, an image I can’t now seem to get out of my head.
The other theoretical difference with the Quested V2108 (according to the manual at least) is that the cabinet of the new model is slightly larger. However, when you take a tape measure to both they’re actually identical: 337mm x 400mm x 340mm. The difference is simply that the heat sink on the new model, which cools the significantly more powerful twin MC2 Audio Class-AB power amps, extends the cabinet’s overall depth by 25mm. There are significant differences, not least of which being these new amps, but the changes are arguably more compelling than superficial similarities would first seem to indicate.
BALANCING ACT
The new V2108 is unquestionably a more balanced sounding speaker than its ‘VS’ predecessor. The bass response is far more self-assured and extended – down 2dB at 40Hz; the previous model dropped to around –7dB at 40Hz – and the midrange seemingly less strident between around 2 and 4kHz. I’m not certain whether this is simply a difference between the two pairs of speakers I have in front of me – especially given my VS2108As are about six years old now – or typical of the differences generally, but my preference is certainly for the new model. It’s claimed by Roger himself that the V2108s represent a ‘ground-up’ redesign, but the cosmetic similarities between the models are so compelling my eyes have been working overtime to resist this assertion. The main question in my head has repeatedly been: ‘how can this be a ground-up redesign when the boxes are seemingly identical?’ But in the end sound is what speakers are all about, and if you close your eyes and A/B the two models there’s no doubting the difference.
SONIC QUEST
To give the new speakers some real-world context, in recent times my own pair of Quested VS2108As have played second fiddle to my Event Opals mainly because, by comparison, the Questeds are more strident in the midrange, far less powerful, and less expressive in the low end. The new Quested V2108 positions itself somewhere between these two options – not quite as responsive down low as the Opals, nor as powerful, but offering more midrange definition without tipping over the edge into a world of harshness and fatigue. They’re also more powerful than the older Quested model: the VS2108A was always underpowered, its driver serviced by a 110W RMS amplifier, whereas the driver and tweeter of the new model enjoy the fresh impetus of two independent 200W amplifiers that were custom built specifically for Quested by its affiliated company, MC2 Audio, making the speakers more effortless sounding and louder overall by 4dB.
NEED TO KNOW
The other issue I’ve always found a little troubling with my VS2108As is that they seem to have a ‘hole’ in them right smack in the middle of the frequency response – lacking strength between around 900Hz and 2kHz, and over-compensating for it just above this region, This makes them slightly scooped and hard sounding the moment any mix had even the slightest excess of upper midrange content. This is not the case with the V2108s. Overall, the new model sounds stronger, flatter, and more balanced across its more expansive audio spectrum.
One notable physical difference that goes some way to accounting for this tonal shift in the re-engineered design is the all-important active crossover point between the driver and tweeter, which has been elevated slightly from 1.25kHz to 1.4kHz, and doubled in gradient, from 12dB per-octave to 24. This seems to have helped cure the cabinet of its midrange ‘hole’, though I’ve not seen a frequency response plot of the new model to confirm this conjecture. (It’s conspicuously absent from the decidedly homespun looking, ink-impoverished manual.)
One thing’s for sure, the soundstage produced by a pair of the new V2108s is impressive; the slightly stiffer eight-inch driver and soft-dome tweeter reproducing room ambience and spatial cues with great detail yet without hype. More so than the previous model (which I’ve been using for six years), these speakers are one of those genuine listening tools that neither flatter nor undermine an in-progress mix. As a mix comes together the speakers begin to light up; good work consistently being rewarded by an improvement in the image and tonal balance until finally the results can be quite stunning, assuming you’ve succeeded in your work. If you haven’t – if you’ve pushed the midrange too far they sound harsh; if there’s not enough bass they sound thin; if it’s too slammed they sound choked, and so on. Unlike older speaker standards like the ubiquitous Yamaha NS-10M, for example, a finished mix that features a good balance of frequencies and three-dimensionality will never fail to impress on the V2108s. NS-10s rarely do.
Like so many speakers on the market these days, the V2108s have the high and low contour switches, and input sensitivity controls onboard should you need to adjust the speakers to better fit your acoustic environment. Unlike the last time I reviewed Quested monitors – the V3110s – this time around I didn’t have to adjust the controls at all to get the sound I was after. The recessed HF contour dip-switches offer stepped adjustment of ±1dB shelving at 2.5kHz, while the LF ‘compensation’ control, which requires a flat-head screwdriver to adjust, provides four options: –9, –3, Flat or +1dB at 40Hz, the first of these settings being designed for matching the V2108s with a sub.
The X15 sub is a passive speaker that works seamlessly in conjunction with the sophisticated SBC800 powered sub-bass controller.
THEN ALONG CAME A SUB
There have been two other significant components in my possession during the couple of months I’ve worked with the V2108s, one of which I found hard to get through the door when it first arrived! These are the passive Quested X15 sub-bass speaker cabinet and SBC800 powered sub-bass controller. In combination with the V2108s, the 15-inch passive speaker and associated management system will almost certainly have hoons pulling up at your doorstep looking for that hidden street machine or doof party.
Set up as a nearfield 2.1 system on my Neve console, with the X15 placed behind it and the 2U sub-bass controller placed literally in it, I suddenly found myself immersed in my mixes rather than seated in front of them. Having comprehensive control over the X15 via the SBC800 amplifier (and a flat-head screwdriver) made all the difference. In the same way as a recording/mixing console is more effective as a tool when the knobs and faders are on the top of the console rather than underneath it, having the sub-bass speaker management system beside you rather than buried underneath or behind an oafish 15-inch speaker cabinet makes refining the balance of the system a breeze.
Instead of having to run back and forth between the sub and the mix position to make crude adjustments based on (at best) an educated guess, or worse, a hunch, having the controller beside me while I worked was the difference between trusting the sub implicitly and playing a dubious guessing game. Being able to adjust the gain, phase (right through 180º), and crossover (between 30 and 90Hz), as well as switch the sub on and off altogether or solo it, resolved any misgivings I might have had with the system. With the controller placed in easy reach, I was easily able to adjust the system repeatedly over several sessions until I was fully satisfied with the balance.
The overall combination of this 2.1 system is to die for. Mixes sound truly enormous, in-progress work becomes a pleasure and no frequency is left untuned (at one stage, while working up a kick drum sound, I almost became convinced my head was literally inside the drum, so compelling was the sense of immersion and scale). The system can run very loud too and holds together nicely, although I’d wager it wouldn’t sound as impressive in a smaller control room. This system needs a fairly large room in which to breathe.
THE WORD ON THE X15 SUB
There is one criticism I must level before I close proceedings here. As is the case to a much lesser extent with the V2108s, the X15 sub feels a little ‘homemade’ in terms of the cabinet’s construction and finish. Where so many other companies – Genelec, Event and ATC etc – have gone to great lengths to develop sophisticated enclosures featuring advanced ports and non-parallel internal structures made of metal alloys etc, rather than wood, Quested remains staunchly embedded in the ‘square wooden box’ camp. This is not a criticism of the wooden box design principle as a whole I must stress, but rather an observation about the finish of the Quested cabinets generally. Personally I like the look of the V2108s – they’re sturdy, unassuming and powerful looking – and looks do matter when you have to stare at them 12 hours a day – but the X15 sub in particular looks a bit like it’s been crafted out of an old Rank Arena TV enclosure, with the front ‘grille’ made by simply carving slits into the structural timber with a jigsaw. It looks a bit ‘rough’, shall we say, and not in keeping with how impressive it sounds, which is a shame. The earlier model VS1112 active sub, which I currently use in combination with my VS2108As, looks far more refined by comparison.
These cosmetic issues aside, the sound of the V2108s is very impressive, and in combination with the X15 sub and SBC800 management system/amplifier, even more so. The system retails for about 12 grand though, which is a huge pile of cash, although you’d obviously get it for significantly less than that if you haggled with a retailer, but I’d wager you’d be hard pressed to find a better system that so comprehensively covers the audible frequency spectrum. But of course most people aren’t looking to replay 25 – 40Hz anyway – it’s more of a luxury than a necessity.
Given that, on their own, without the sub, the V2108s sound fantastic and I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to recommend them to anyone who’s toying with the idea of trialling a pair. Quested monitors are a brand of speaker I’ve used successfully for years so I’m perhaps a little biased. In the end the best studio monitors are the ones that satisfy you for long enough that eventually you come to know them intimately. That’s been my experience with a small handful of speakers over the years, Quested VS2108As being among them.
If you’ve often been curious about the sound of Questeds but not worked with them before, now is arguably the best time in a decade to investigate whether their sound might be right for you. In the end only your ears can be the judge, of course, so haul them (along with the rest of your body) to wherever you can check them out.
RESPONSES