May 2001 Reviewed by John Potis	American Acoustic Development Q-Series Home-Theater Speaker System

Description Model: Q40 speakers Price: $1999 USD per pair Dimensions: 52"H x 12" W x 18" D Weight: 110 pounds each Model: Q30 speakers Price: $1399 USD per pair Dimensions: 47.5" H x 13"W x 13.5" D Weight: 70 pounds each Model: Q20C center-channel speaker Price: $599 USD Dimensions: 27" W x 10.5"H x 14.5" D Weight: 44 pounds Warranty: Five years parts and labor

Features Adjustable bass loading (Q40 and Q30) Built-in passive 10" subwoofers (Q40) Tweeter diaphragms made from pure titanium only 0.05mm thick Tweeters mounted into 5mm thick non-magnetic stainless-steel plate Carbon-fiber-loaded polypropylene mid-bass drivers with 35mm copper/Kapton voice coils and nitrile rubber surrounds Long-fiber wood-pulp cones fitted with nitrile rubber surrounds and long throw 50mm copper/aluminum voice coils (Q40 only) Mid-woofers and tweeters mounted on raised bezel to reduce diffraction effects Heavy-duty high-grade PVC covered enclosures available in silver and black Heavy-duty metal binding posts Heavy-duty floor spikes

I haven’t written a word and I’m already in a conundrum. They say that the best place to start is at the beginning, but if I were to start at the beginning with my introduction of American Acoustic Development (henceforth AAD) and the company’s developer, Phil Jones, I would use up the space allotted to me for this review and never get to the speakers. So where to begin? I guess I’ll have to skip around a little bit and try to give you a taste of the history.

I know Phil Jones best for two things: The Acoustic Energy line of British monitors and the Platinum Audio line of American-built speakers. OK, make that three things: He also designed the Soliloquy 6.5 speakers that were so impressive at CES 2001. Of the two lines he's been principally involved with, Platinum Audio is probably the most widely recognized today. You may recall the Platinum Solo monitor, which was heralded for its unbelievable bass and dynamics from a very small box utilizing only a single 4" metal woofer. The speaker just about defied the laws of physics and possessed a sound much larger than the enclosure of the speaker would suggest. Bass response was incredible, but the speakers also possessed sterling musical performance all around. Top to bottom, the Solo was a wonderful speaker.

With his departure from Platinum, Jones became somewhat of an "international man of mystery": "mysterious" because a man of his talent and track record was going to surface again; "international" because since AAD’s inception, Jones has divided his time between AAD's three corporate offices in America, China and Great Britain. This according to AAD about Jones' goals: "To link his European design sensibilities and US resources with a new high-volume manufacturing plant that brings high-performance and impeccably styled loudspeakers to surprisingly affordable price points and hence a wider audience."

Construction

The $4000 AAD Q-series speaker system under review includes Q40 front, Q30 rear and Q20C center-channel speakers, but no separate powered subwoofer. Its styling is unique in my experience, and as with any set of loudspeakers, it is a matter of personal taste. To be honest, at first I was not taken by the two-tone silver-and-black finish. But I also have to say that the speakers have grown on me since receiving the system -- something that doesn’t usually happen. AAD says that they chose the colors and styling to match today’s electronics and TVs. I have to say that a pair of Q40s would look rather smart flanking a RPTV.

A little disappointing, though, are the fit and finish of some of the speakers. For instance, on one of the speakers I was going to experiment with biwiring, but I couldn’t get the strap that bridges the two binding posts off without applying an undue amount of pressure, which I didn’t feel comfortable doing. So I gave up on my little experiment. Getting the grilles off requires judicious use of muscle if you are going to avoid cracking one of the grille frames, as I did. Countering these admittedly one-time annoyances (most people will set the speakers and forget them and not be required to fuss around like we reviewers do) is some heavy-duty construction. These are some he-man speakers, and all the hardware provided is of very substantial build quality. While I didn’t feel inclined to give the binding-post strap the kind of whack that it would take to loosen it, I suspect it could handle it. The binding posts are huge and a joy to use, although they will require very large spade lugs, if they are your choice of termination, and double bananas are not an option. AAD includes a simple torque wrench (of sorts), which will ensure a secure tightening of connections without the danger of stripping the threads, but the fact is that the very large nuts are easy to grasp and tighten with bare hands. The cone-shaped spikes provided for coupling the speakers to the floor are of very large gauge, and they screw into what seems to be very secure hardware recessed into each speaker’s bottom. The speakers under review are large and heavy, and during my months with them, I did a lot of rocking them around the house with no signs of adverse effects. Without question, what the speakers give up in fit, they go a long way toward making up for in solid construction.

With music

The sound-per-dollar ratio will help the AAD speakers transcend their unique cosmetics. I’m reminded by the AAD system of Corey Greenberg’s tirades against "audiophile-approved" speakers. His soapbox diatribes were aimed squarely at speakers possessed of audiophile niceties but lacking what it takes for knockdown, drag-out rock and roll; they were speakers without fortitude. These AAD speakers have fortitude and attitude -- and they are fun, fun, fun. They go loud, they go deep, and they do so with a surprising level of refinement.

Bass capabilities are almost guaranteed to be more than adequate, even without a powered sub. AAD went to great lengths to make this so. On the back of each floorstanding Q40 is an elaborate airtight port-cap designed to cover the speaker’s port should bass overpower the room -- as happened in my case. These caps are ordinarily found screwed (using the same hardware that it takes to attach them over the speaker’s port) to the cabinet’s rear for safekeeping. If you find bass taking over your room, simply unbolt the caps (no tools required), place them over the bass port and bolt them down again. The Q40s can be easily biamped utilizing a specialized bass amplifier of your choosing, transforming each speaker’s dual 10" passive woofers into powerful powered subwoofers.

The treble of the AAD Q-series system is remarkably well behaved for speakers in their price class. Very smooth and nicely extended, it completely avoids the hard and spitty nature of many inexpensive tweeters. On the downside, it does give up some transparency when compared to that of the most revealing speakers. For example, the guitars from Neil Young’s Unplugged [Reprise 9 45310-2] CD didn’t have the snap and articulation in the upper registers that they should, and what is generally an airy presentation sounded dryer than I know it to be. Like the treble, the midrange is also polite and remarkably refined, but it can sound just a little veiled compared with the mids of the most transparent speakers. James Taylor’s voice from his Hourglass CD [Columbia CK 67912] is lacking in the clear immediacy that I’ve heard at times. Rather than possessing the pierce-through-the-music quality that some other systems can render, the vocals from the AAD system were somewhat recessed; they fade into the music rather than standing out with prominence. Imaging and soundstaging are very good to excellent. The speakers throw a very full soundstage with an excellent sense of space. Imaging specificity is also very good for the price, but not quite up to the very high standard set by the soundstaging.

But putting this all in perspective I have to reiterate that there is no such thing as a free lunch. A speaker of this size, with this level of refinement and with its bass and dynamic capabilities, would cost much more than these if it had the kind of transparency that I’m describing. If it sounds as though I’m making excuses for the AAD system, I assure you that quite the opposite is true -- I’m probably being too hard! A speaker system like this, which succeeds on so many levels, invites comparisons to the very best in or out of its price class.

The Q30 and the Q20C give up to the Q40 exactly what you would expect smaller and less expensive speakers in the same line to give up: bass. All the speakers in the line share the same tweeters and the same midwoofers, and voicing is very well matched across the line. Spend less and get less bass -- pretty much the way it should be.

In the home theater

With the speakers used for movies, the few negatives fade quickly, and what the speakers do takes prominence over what they don’t. Fire up this system and immediately you will know that you are listening to a system that can handle whatever you throw at it. It has a very potent and big sound. The speakers don’t sound big in the sense that they get in their own way, and not big as in sloppy, but big as in powerful and compelling. As a matter of fact, it was upon the insertion of the Gladiator DVD into the player that I truly understood what the design goal of this AAD system must have been: to unleash hell at the command of General Maximus. And the speakers do. Powerful, dramatic and jarring, the AAD system has no problem communicating all the emotion of the movie. From the beginning mayhem of the battle of Germania to the quiet coup d'etat as Commodus squeezes the life from his father, the AAD system tracks the action without ever overdoing it.

After the initial thrill of the pyrotechnics wore off, I started to notice a few things. First, bass quality is very good. The AAD system will deliver the goods when "boom-boom" time comes, but it does the more subtle bass duties very well too. For instance, the double bass heard as Commodus kills his father is quite remarkable for its detail and nuance. And the heavy-duty drums heard during the battle scenes are impressively tight -- you can sense the elasticity and tautness of the drum skins. With the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over concert DVD, those who have only heard the PCM version will delight at the DTS soundtrack over the AAD system. The loud and overblown bass drum from "Hotel California" is quite musical on the DTS version, and the AAD system illuminates the rise in the tone of the drum after the strike. And wait until you hear the floor-toms’ tonality and power. Bass guitar, too, is much better on the DTS track, and it sounds solid and incisive over the AAD speakers.

The system as a whole does a superb job tracking the change in perspective as a movie jumps from up-close-and-personal scenes to the large-crowd scenes, such as from within the stadium in Gladiator. The scene in which Maximus is transported to the slave market starts with the intimacy of dialogue within the cage, but the boundaries of that vehicle quickly dissolve as it enters the city. Later, as Maximus first enters the Coliseum of Rome, the room explodes with a sense of great expanse and with the roar of the crowd.

Comparison

Choosing a speaker system against which to compare the AAD Q-series system is very easy given that I reviewed the NHT VT-2.4/VS-2.4 array earlier in the year. Sonically, both systems have very much in common. They excel at dynamics with music and movies, and they both negate the need (for most people) for a subwoofer because their bass is powerful and deep. And both give you lots of quality for the money. Where the speakers deviate is in the upper-midrange region: The NHT system is decidedly forward in the midrange, and the AAD Q40 is more reserved and laid-back.

Conclusion

Inner detail and musical transparency are not the AAD system’s greatest assets, so those looking for a multichannel system primarily for music will want to audition the AAD Q-series system carefully. But when it comes time to put the hammer down on some large-scale cinematic extravaganzas, the AAD system may well be the beast for the job. While the system does not offer the ultimate resolution of the very best systems, it is remarkably well behaved and has no real sins of commission. It sounds big, powerful, smooth and refined. And most of all, the system just sounds like fun. And let’s not forget that at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. 

Manufacturer contact information:

E-mail: info@aadsound.com
Website: www.aadsound.com

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