The humble subwoofer provides low-end brute force in home cinema setups, and is often overlooked. It’s a shame too, as the extra immersion they provide can be the difference between a boring Netflix movie night, and flinging popcorn in excitement as (on-screen) explosions hammer away at your ribcage.
Enter, then, Q Acoustics and its new SUB series — a trio of active subwoofers that promise to deliver bass with finesse as well as muscle.
The Q SUB range comprises three models — the compact 8in Q SUB80 ($899 / £599), the mid-sized 10in Q SUB100 ($1049 / £699), and the flagship 12in Q SUB120 ($1199 / £799). Each one lands with a minimalist, cube-like aesthetic in either Satin Black with matching grille or Satin White with grey grille — designed to either blend discreetly into your living room, or stand as proud contemporary design pieces.
Looks aside, Q Acoustics is hoping that they’ll stand out with their sophisticated digital signal processing (DSP), which reportedly addresses one of the most vexing challenges in home audio: seamlessly integrating a subwoofer with existing speaker systems.
To tackle this, the SUB series employ dual phase and delay controls for fine-tuning signal alignments, automatic gain adjustment based on input signal detection, and a low pass filter with frequency adjustment from 40Hz to 250Hz, ensuring compatibility with virtually any partnering speakers. Clever stuff.
Power impresses across the range too, with the flagship Q SUB120 delivering up to 300W continuous and 600W peak power, with exceptional THD performance of less than 0.1% (i.e. very low distortion). The Q SUB range also offers impressive frequency response, with the Q SUB80 reaching down to 36Hz, the SUB100 extending to 32Hz, and the flagship SUB120 plumbing the depths to 28Hz — more than sufficient to get those neighbours knocking away on your door.
The cabinets themselves feature a sealed box design rather than the more common ported approach, which Q Acoustics claims delivers more precise, focused bass. They’re crafted from 18mm high-density MDF with a 36mm double-thickness baffle, and internal dart-bracing for exceptional rigidity and reduced cabinet resonance. It certainly sounds sturdy enough to us, at any rate.
Auto-detection can power on the unit when a sound signal is detected, or there’s a 12V trigger input for compatible (read expensive) systems.
If that’s all worthy of your bass-loving abode, the Q Acoustics SUB series is up for purchase directly from Q Acoustics and independent dealers worldwide.