British audio specialist Q Acoustics has just announced a new flagship in its 5000 stereo and home theater speaker series.
Called the 5050, it’s the largest speaker in the entire range, with dual 6-inch mid/bass drivers – the largest in the range. Q Acoustics promises that the floorstanding 5050 will “fill even the largest listening rooms with dynamic and natural sound.”
Q Acoustics’ proprietary C3 (pronounced ‘C-Cubed’) Continuous Curved Cone profile features in the mid/bass drivers, a design borrowed from the company’s flagship Concept series (see our Q Acoustics Concept 300 review for more about that), but in a new housing. Although we should note that it’s not the most affordable model with that C3 driver technology; that would be the new (five-star) Q Acoustics M40 HD, a new entry in our best stereo speaker buying guide, alongside the slightly older Q Acoustics M20 HD.
But back to the 5050, and that mid/bass driver uses “substantial magnets” in combination with large voice coils in an attempt to increase motor strength. The claim? Q Acoustics says the 5050 can achieve a “50% increase in power handling and control over a comparable driver with a 25.4mm voice coil”. And that’s quite a statement.
Opinion: it’s big, it’s beautiful and it needs space to function
The 5050 sits alongside its series siblings, all of which are passive speakers. Q Acoustics recommends an amplifier power of 25-150W for the 5050. The range includes the 5010 bookshelf speakers (although I prefer the term ‘standmount speaker’ as there is no speaker). performs best when placed in a bookshelf), 5020 standmounts, 5040 floorstanders and 5090 center channel.
Like the rest of the 5000 series, the Q Acoustics 5050 is available in four finishes that should suit most living spaces, including Satin Black, Satin White, Santos Rosewood and Holme Oak.
The 5050 also comes with sturdy aluminum stabilizers for your floor and the low-profile speaker terminals should keep all cables relatively tidy – and it means the speaker can probably be moved into place slightly closer to a back wall if necessary.
“But what about the tweeter?” we hear you cry! Naturally. This driver unit is hermetically sealed, the company says, and mechanically isolated (floating) from the bulkhead. The inner chamber of the speaker is also vented (to help with distortion from those bass registers) with a lower crossover point.
To help the 5050 navigate the significant internal pressures that floorstanders with multiple large drivers simply must handle, each tower features four Helmholtz Pressure Equalizers (HPETM) tubes. Finally, Point-2-Point internal bracing should help further eliminate any low-level resonance.
The Q Acoustics 5050 is available now, priced at $1,999 / £1,299 / €1,699 (which works out to around AU$2,510).