The relentless march of know-how often claims a couple of casualties alongside the best way. With the transfer in direction of touchscreen telephones, we misplaced the tactility of bodily keyboards, and the arrival of MP3 gamers a decade in the past put again sound high quality in a approach that they audio trade nonetheless hasn’t full recovered from.
Q Acoustics’ M2 Soundbase (priced at $350/£299/AU$549) is right here to proper one specific mistaken, and that’s what’s occurred to TV sound high quality because the transfer away from massive fats CRTs in direction of slim LCD panels.
Earlier generations of TV have been so deep that they may add beautiful hefty audio system with out anybody batting an eyelid, however fashionable flatscreens are so tight on area that the race is on to pack within the slimmest set of audio system potential.
The M2 isn’t going to blow your socks off with wonderful encompass sound, however what it can do is restore the full-bodied stereo sound that TV patrons used to take with no consideration within the CRT days.
Design
We’ve lined quite a lot of soundbars right here at TechSwitch (actually we’ve obtained a information to the best soundbars you must take a look at when you’re ), however soundbases are somewhat totally different.
Moderately than being designed to be mounted beneath – or sat in entrance of – your TV, soundbases have a a lot deeper form-factor meaning they’re higher suited to performing as a stand in your TV. The Q Acoustics M2 additionally has the additional advantage of a toggle change that alters its sound to let it work higher in case you’d quite stash it away inside a cupboard as an alternative.
However for most individuals, the 550mm x 93mm x 338mm M2 goes to sit down on prime of your present cupboard with the TV resting on prime of it (as much as 25kg of weight is supported), and fortunately it’s design is neither eye-catching nor ugly. It’s a reasonably nondescript black field, and whereas Sonos’ PlayBase is relatively extra trendy, we respect an adjunct that doesn’t distract from the primary occasion, the TV.
Alongside the entrance is a speaker grill that homes its two 2.Three-inch Steadiness Mode Radiator (BMR) drivers that present a 180-degree sound that Q Acoustics claims means you gained’t have to sit down instantly in entrance of the speaker to get one of the best sound efficiency.
If HDMI-CEC is an choice then we would counsel utilizing it to keep away from having to cope with the M2’s included distant
These two full-range drivers are joined by a downward firing subwoofer on the soundbases’ underside.
The one bodily buttons you’ll discover seen on the soundbase are a pair of quantity controls and an enter switcher that additionally doubles as an LED indicator. It’ll flip blue for Bluetooth (no surprises there), purple for HDMI-ARC, white for optical, and inexperienced for line-in.
Contemplating the shortage of bodily buttons, we have been involved we have been going to need to rely quite a bit on the pretty piddly included distant. Because of the wonders of HDMI-CEC nevertheless, we have been in a position to safely depart it within the field whereas our TV’s distant took over quantity duties.
When you’re reliant on an optical or line-in connection you then won’t be so fortunate, however the one time we had a cause to make use of the bodily buttons on the soundbase was when it went into standby mode, and we needed to cycle by means of all accessible inputs to resurrect it.
An LED indicator gentle will gentle up in numerous colours relying on the enter supply used
Efficiency
Curtail your expectations. The Q Acoustics M2 will not be the sort of soundbase that’s going to beat you spherical the top with all the newest audio applied sciences. You’re not going to search out Dolby Atmos or DTS:X packed inside its diminutive black housing, and nor are you going to search out the sorts of digital sign processing that’ll trick your mind into considering encompass sound setup is emanating from it.
As an alternative, what you’re getting are 2.1 channels of decently produced TV audio, however we assure it’ll sound higher than 90% of the televisions on sale at this time.
Bass response is the very first thing you’ll discover. The soundbar’s downward firing sub has a pleasant low rumble to it, which actually added a pleasant quantity of weight to Hanz Zimmer’s Blue Planet 2 rating once we gave it a check pay attention.
It’s not probably the most highly effective sound on this planet, nevertheless it makes up for this by being superbly managed, and that’s a trade-off we’ll take any day of the week (particularly when dwelling in any kind of shut proximity to noise-sensitive neighbors).
Enter choice is first rate, apart from the omission of an HDMI passthrough
This element continues all all through the sound spectrum. The soundstage supplied by the Q Acoustics M2 isn’t the widest round, however the sound separation it provides makes it really feel broader than it truly is.
There’s subsequent to no harshness or syballence within the vocals, and every part has a scrumptious quantity of readability to it.
Switching the soundbar into film mode (performed with a fast press of the distant’s ‘EQ’ button) is like flipping on a speaker’s ‘loudness’ change. The whole lot all of a sudden obtained much more grand and epic, however whereas it was a lot broader in scope we wouldn’t say the sound was definitively higher.
We think about most individuals could be higher served by leaving the soundbase on its music mode for many viewing.
We preferred
The soundbase’s compact design means it fitted properly underneith our TV, and it was simply managed by means of our HDMI CEC-equipped ARC port.
A plethora of different inputs imply your audio wants must be met, no matter your TV mannequin.
The soundbase supplied a stunning, managed improve to our TV’s inbuilt sound. From bass to trebles, soundtracks have element and depth aplenty.
We disliked
In case your TV helps HDMI-CEC then please make sure you use it so you possibly can keep away from utilizing the flimsy credit score card-sized distant. It’s not the most important inconvenience on this planet, nevertheless it’ll be simply misplaced in most dwelling rooms.
The Q Acoustics M2 can also be finest averted if you’d like any type of encompass sound. That is an adjunct that’s about bettering upon your sound, not overhauling it.
When the soundbar often put itself into standby it was a ache having to cycle by means of its inputs to revive sound.
Ultimate verdict
The Q Acoustics M2 isn’t the sort of product that’s going to revolutionise your lounge, however then it isn’t making an attempt to, and its affordable $350 (£299/AU$549) price ticket is proof of that.
However what it does do is provide a big increase to your TV’s sound. It gained’t do something extra, like encompass sound or Dolby Atmos. As an alternative, it’ll provide what your TV can already do, however with rather more energy and management.
And it does it exceptionally properly.
- Our information to the best soundbars has all our prime picks if the soundbase form-factor is not for you