QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS REVIEW
Posted on Fri 20 May 2011 in entries
If you haven’t heard of Quested monitors before, then where have you been living? Quested Monitoring Systems design and manufacture what have become established as the world’s most neutral loudspeakers for recording studios and engineers worldwide, and their products have found homes in the world renowned Abbey Road studio, with the exceptional Florence & The Machine, and on the production of such films as Gladiator and The Dark Knight.
“Used by the world’s leading engineers and producers and installed in some of the most prolific recording complexes around the globe, Quested monitors always deliver an exceptional sound stage with a truly clean, accurate, unflattering response.”
In other words, Quested are a BIG deal in the professional audio world, and in this short blog entry I will give you a little introduction to their immense S-range.
QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS - QUESTED S6R
The Quested S6R is the smallest monitor in the S-range, but that doesn’t mean it should be looked down upon by any means! The compact case of this self-powered 2-way active monitor makes it ideal for studios with a limited space, but that still demand audio quality of the highest level. The combination of the S6R’s infinite baffle design and excessive amplifier headroom combine to give a sonic performance that really sets it apart from other monitors in it’s size range.
The Quested S6R is an ideal near-field monitor for recording/mixing, programming, post production, broadcast and surround sound. These monitors provide a surprisingly high output, enabling them to be used where high monitoring levels are required (i.e. location work) and to further extend the low end performance, the Quested S6Rs are ideal for combination with an SB series subwoofer, to stretch the lower limit from 75Hz, down to a floor shaking 20Hz.
QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS - QUESTED S7R
The Quested S7R is a step-up from the S6R, offering two class A-B amplifiers capable of delivering up to 190 Watts RMS, matched to an enclosure tuned with a double flared port, designed to minimise any possible low frequency ‘chuffing’. The outcome is a fantastically powerful, neutral, articulate and accurate compact monitor, which lends itself perfectly to any musical style.
The Quested S7R has a lower frequency response of 65Hz, which is ideal for most projects, but can also be combined with the SB10R sub-woofer to reach those 20Hz deep sub-bass sounds. And, like all of the S-Series monitors, the S7R is designed to be fully magnetically shielded, so it can be used in close proximity to CRT monitors. All S-Series monitors are also phase coherent, enabling them to be used in combination in multi-channel systems.
Quested S7R monitors are ideal for applications in multi-channel systems, postproduction, project studios, location recording, and mastering.
QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS - QUESTED S8R
The Quested S8R improves on the S7R, and is capable of delivering a total of 370 Watts RMS power! This astounding rating makes the Quested S8R the most powerful 2-way monitor on the market, whilst twin doubled flared ports in a compact reflex enclosure ensure that it doesn’t need to take up a whole corner of a room to deliver what it promises.
The Quested S8R really is the ultimate monitor, with abundant headroom in the amplifiers and resilient drive units, making it perfectly suited to any genre of music that you produce, from choral, to heavy metal, to electronic. The Quested S8R even has a lower frequency response of 50kHz, meaning it can be used comprehensively without a connected sub-woofer (although you can add one if you so desire).
Typical applications of the Quested S8R include full-range monitors in medium sized control rooms, near/mid-field monitoring in larger rooms, programming rooms, and components in multi-channel systems.
QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS - QUESTED SB10R SUBWOOFER
The Quested SB10R is designed to perfectly compliment any of the S-Series monitors, and extend you system's frequency response down to 20Hz (the lower limit of human hearing) whilst also increasing its maximum SPL. The SB10R also features a filter bypass on the left channel , which can be used to optimise it's performance when used as a dedicated LFE monitor in a multi-channel system.
QUESTED S-RANGE MONITORS - SUMMARY
Quested monitors certainly sound AMAZING, but they come at a price - although they are worth it if you have the money! If you are considering incorporating Quested monitors into your home studio, then I would advise you to make sure you have performed some kind of acoustic treatment on the room they will be used in. Introducing these speakers into an untreated room would be pretty pointless, as the neutrality of their output would become coloured by the ambience of the room, and hence you may as well have spent much less on much less capable speakers!
However, if you are really serious about your production and have a professional environment to work in, then you will struggle to find anything better than Quested monitors. After all, if they are good enough for Abbey Road........
Purchase the Quested S6R studio monitor
Purchase the Quested S7R studio monitor
Purchase the Quested S8R studio monitor